Our Design

NaviGator

V2024

Team Photo
Racquetball Launcher
NaviGator is equipped with a Racquetball Launcher as part of the 2024 Dock and Deliver task.
Electronics Box
NaviGator's electronics box contains all of its critical processing components, which allow it to think and act for itself, completing tasks totally autonomously.
Velodyne LIDAR
Our new Velodyne LIDAR sensor allows NaviGator to perceive the distance of obstacles. Like RADAR but with light.
GPS Antenna
With the power of GPS, NaviGator is able to locate its precise position anywhere on the globe, an essential component of its success.
Propulsion Systems
NaviGator contains 2 stern thrusters and 2 bow thrusters, ready to speed us through all 8 tasks!
Stereo Camera
Just as you have 2 eyes, NaviGator has 2 linked cameras, giving it unparalleled depth perception.

Racquetball Launcher

NaviGator is equipped with a Racquetball Launcher as part of the 2024 Dock and Deliver task.

Electronics Box

NaviGator's electronics box contains all of its critical processing components, which allow it to think and act for itself, completing tasks totally autonomously.

Velodyne LIDAR

Our new Velodyne LIDAR sensor allows NaviGator to perceive the distance of obstacles. Like RADAR but with light.

GPS Antenna

With the power of GPS, NaviGator is able to locate its precise position anywhere on the globe, an essential component of its success.

Propulsion Systems

NaviGator contains 2 stern thrusters and 2 bow thrusters, ready to speed us through all 8 tasks!

Stereo Camera

Just as you have 2 eyes, NaviGator has 2 linked cameras, giving it unparalleled depth perception.

Full Specifications

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Learn about NaviGator's Subsystems!

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Mechanical Design

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Software Design

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Electrical Design

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The NaviGator Process

April 2022

VRX 2022

In 2022 Team NaviGator competed in the Virtual RobotX competition, which is like the RobotX competition but all online, winning 2nd place! With the lessons learned from VRX 2022, we began to build the foundational code for future RobotX competitions.

NaviGator AMS Logo

September 9th 2024

Testing Log 1: Initial Assembly and Lake Testing

With the RobotX 2024 competition no more than 2 months away we decided we needed to start testing now. On September 9th 2024 we embarked on the first testing session of the new school year! In the morning, we finished assembling the boat, including mechanically mounting several sensors and the computer box, securing electrical connections inside the computer box, and distributing outbound wires from the computer box to their respective sensors/actuators. Around 1, we wheeled NaviGator outside and hitched it to the ECE truck. We successfully drove it to Lake Wauburg and backed it down the driveway to the boat ramp. We deployed it, and after working through some computer issues, got the boat to move using odometry and the path planner. We will be testing next Sunday. This week, we aim to finish code for several missions, add further reliability to our software systems, work on new electrical boards for the light tower and RF kill, and build props used for testing missions in the water.

September 15th 2024

Testing Log 2: Buoy Detection and Cooling Issues

We hit the road pretty early yesteday for testing, and brought the CIMAR trailer with us with the help of some MAE faculty, Daniel Preston! This allowed us to bring our buoy props in attempt to do the demonstration task that qualifies us for the competition. After some tinkering (we forgot to turn on one of the batteries), we were able to test the mission, and found out that while object detection is working pretty well, the trajectory planner needs some work, as does the CV model. We were able to consistently detect buoys, but they were not always indexed correctly. The boat also station kept very well! The final issue was that the computer was overheating in the container, so we are switching to a water-cooled solution. We will have some smaller scale testing this week on Wednesday, where we plan on taking just the boat and figuring out some of the path planning. Next big testing is on Sunday, 9/22, and the goal is to fix the software issues, have more mechanical props, watercool the computer, and investigate some electrical components on the boat itself.

September 22nd 2024

Testing Log 3: Trajectory Planning and Camera Data Collection

Testing yesterday was longggg but we made some good progress and have found the next things we want to work on. The boat can now be controlled using a controller from shore, which was pretty fun to drive. We got camera data of the green spherical buoy as well as the black vertical buoy for two of the competition tasks. We also checked PID, and it had some pretty good performance, with a maximum of about 0.9 meters of pose error at any given time. Station keeping was incredibly accurate! We were also able to test the Zigbys for the remote kill, which electrical will continue to lab out this week. Software is going to be working on managing enemies and the trajectory planner in the coming week. The water-cooling components came in today, Monday, and so the goal is to have the computer cooled better by next sunday, as well as gathering data of the light tower while we are there. Trajectory planning is also a long term goal that we would like to iron out over the next few testing sessions. The ball launcher and drone are also coming along and we hope to test them this week!

September 29th 2024

Testing Log 4: Enemy Filtering and Wildlife Mission Testing

Unfortunately due to the hurricane and its impact on Florida, Lake Wauburg (our usual testing site) was without power today and therefore closed. After working together to find some other lakes to test in, we settled on a lake in Marion County named Orange Lake. After configuring the LIDAR bounds to work at the new lake, we got started with testing. The enemy filter (aka, filtering out non-useful LIDAR points in front of the boat) worked better, but we were still encountering a lot of issues with the LIDAR and the underwater weeds, which rose near the surface of the lake. We think that the changes to the LIDAR filter will work at Wauburg, where the weeds aren't as high and the light is the main deterrent in getting an accurate object map of the environment. Nonetheless, we recorded some data to analyze later, to try to further improve the filtering of the LIDAR. We also briefly tested the wildlife mission, and found some ways to improve it. Thanks to everyone who came!

NaviGator AMS Logo

Until November 2024

More Testing

As of October 1st, 2024 this is all of the testing we've done, but we have many more sessions planned, and will update the website when we do them!