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SOUTHFIELD—The Lawrence Technological University rACTor Self-Drive team from the LTU Department of Mathematics and Computer Science (MCS), won the Lescoe Cup Self Drive Grand Award in the 32nd annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC), hosted May 30-June 2 on the campus of Oakland University.
The Self-Drive team pushed boundaries with its new robot, “Schoolbus,” which also received third place in the Design Competition and second place in the Self-Drive Challenge, and a $2,000 prize.
This year, 30 college teams participated in the event, co-hosted by Oakland University, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Great Lakes, and the U.S. Army’s Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) in Warren. Besides LTU and OU, other Michigan institutions participating were University of Detroit Mercy, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and Wayne State University.
IGVC was established in 1993 by the U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command Ground Vehicle Systems Center, formerly known as TARDEC, host school Oakland University, and the AUVSI Great Lakes Chapter. The IGVC provides multidisciplinary design experience in engineering education, blending theory and hands-on practice. It involves the latest industrial technologies and is ideal for a senior year capstone course or extracurricular project, offering students real-world constraints and the chance to win recognition and financial rewards. The competition involves participants learning business, engineering management, and public relations skills. They engage with automotive and defense sponsors for hardware and advice, gaining insights into industrial design and employment opportunities.
IGVC challenges college student teams to design autonomous vehicles in two unmanned mobility competitions. The competition included an autonomous navigation (AutoNav) challenge like an obstacle course for robots using camera vision systems, lane following obstacle avoidance and GPS waypoint navigation and a self-drive challenge with robots learning up to 17 driving functions autonomously, including pedestrian avoidance, roadway and parking driving maneuvers, road network navigation, road sign understanding and other traffic functions.
The top award is called the Lescoe Cup in memory of TARDEC lead robotics engineer Paul Lescoe, a co-founder of the IGVC collegiate event. Technologies used in the competition can be directly applied to the development of self-driving vehicles, including advanced driver assistance and active safety systems.
LTU’s rACTor team members are
“Our autonomous vehicle project has generated extensive research contributions, including two book chapters, three journal papers, and 13 conference papers since 2017,” Chung said. “Additionally, we successfully completed a three-year NSF Self-Drive REU grant program and we await a renewal decision currently.”
LTU’s Blue Robotics Auto Nav team showed up in style and was awarded $500 for second place in the Design Competition for their robot, “Turbo Blue.”
The Turbo Blue faculty mentor is Gaurav Singh, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical, Robotics, and Industrial Engineering. Team members are
Sponsors of LTU’s IGVC team included the LTU Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, LTU College of Arts and Sciences, Dataspeed Inc., and individual donor alumni Adilur Choudhury, Justin Dombecki, Emily Trudell, Nathaniel Johnson, and LTU faculty member Chung.
Lawrence Technological University is one of only 13 private, technological, comprehensive doctoral universities in the United States. Located in Southfield, Mich., LTU was founded in 1932, and offers more than 100 programs through its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Business and Information Technology, Engineering, and Health Sciences. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 11 percent of universities for alumni salaries. Forbes and The Wall Street Journal rank LTU among the nation’s top 10 percent. U.S. News and World Report lists it in the top tier of best in the Midwest colleges. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 107-acre campus include more than 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.
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