SOUTHFIELD, Mich.—The Lawrence Technological University Self-Drive 2026 team “rACTor” from the university’s Department of Mathematics and Computer Science won first place in the 33rd annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition’s Self-Drive Challenge, hosted May 29-June 1 on the campus of Oakland University.
This year, 24 college teams registered in two performance challenges—Self-Drive for automated driving assisted vehicles and trucks, and Auto-Nav for unmanned ground robots that must successfully navigate complex outdoor obstacle courses. The event was 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.
In the Self-Drive challenge, both LTU and Hosei University from Japan achieved a perfect score, which is 2,100 points, but the LTU team clinched the first place championship banner by the time of the competition. LTU’s robot vehicle was much faster, completing the course in two minutes, 48 seconds, vs. the Hosei team’s four minutes, 57 seconds.
A video of the LTU team’s championship run is available for viewing at https://youtu.be/LKrZZdpAOdE
In Self-Drive challenge, teams build and program autonomous vehicles to navigate a real-world outdoor urban road environment without any human intervention or remote control. Sixteen autonomous functions included real and fake stop sign detection, obstructed dynamic pedestrian detection, obstacle detection and lane changing, pothole detection and lane changing, various types of parking, and other basic traffic functions.
In the Self-Drive Category, teams that participated were:
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.
The LTU team’s technical lead Jacob Hallett—who also participated in LTU’s Robofest autonomous robotics competition during his high school years in Tecumseh, Mich.—had this to say about the competition: “Excellence is never the work of one person—it is the collective effort of a team committed to a common goal. Our team’s performance is proof of what can be achieved when everyone pulls in the same direction. Every challenge we faced became an opportunity to grow, and every success was built upon the knowledge and experience gained through IGVC.”
Jacob is a resident of St. Clair Shores. He also works full-time at helpdesk at LTU.
Devson Butani, LTU Computer Science Robotics Research Lab Manager, who was the LTU IGVC team lead in 2024, has been participating in IGVC competition since 2017. He has Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Master of Science in Computer Science degrees from LTU. Butani said: “While AI is transforming computer vision and robotics, the toughest barriers still sit at the intersection of hardware, software, and real-time data. At LTU, we live our ‘Theory and Practice’ motto by embedding those exact challenges directly into student coursework. Through hands-on projects and competitions like IGVC, our students prove that when you integrate real-world applications into the curriculum, you build AI that actually works outside the lab.”
LTU’s rACTor team members are:
Faculty advisors are CJ Chung, professor and director of the Computer Science AI Robotics Lab, and Vijay John, professor of computer science.
Said Chung of this year’s competition: “We have been focusing on the reliability of mobile robotics functions so far. However, it is time to extend our research focus to speed as well. LTU is now involved in the Indy Autonomous Challenge, which requires the control of super-fast Indy race cars driving at speeds approaching 200 mph.”
Lawrence Technological University is one of only 13 independent, 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, as well as Specs@LTU, which offers communication training programs of the former Specs Howard School, and LTU’s growing Center for Professional Development. Year after year, LTU is listed as a “Best Midwest” university by The Princeton Review and in the “Regional Universities Midwest” ranking list by the U.S. News and World Report. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on LTU’s 107-acre campus include more than 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.