A researcher at the Institute for Advanced Learning & Research in Danville will lead Virginia Tech’s robotics team in an international competition where innovative teams will vie for a top prize of $750,000.
Associate professor Tomonari “Tomo” Furukawa will guide Virginia Tech faculty, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students — “Team VaCAS” — to compete as one of 12 teams in the Multi-Autonomous Ground-robotic International Challenge (MAGIC) 2010.
The first-of-its-kind competition strives to spur the development of next-generation fully autonomous ground vehicle systems for military and civilian emergency applications, according to the challenge’s Web site. The U.S. and Australian defense departments are jointly sponsoring the challenge.
“All of us are interested in doing something that robots could never do before,” Tomo said. “We have to introduce a lot of intelligence into robots.”
Team VaCAS and others received $50,000 in seed money to develop their prototypes. Ultimately, after site visits in June 2010, five teams will be selected to demonstrate their robotic systems in the “grand challenge event” in Australia in November 2010.
Teams must develop at least three unmanned ground vehicles that can communicate with each other to explore and map a mock urban environment both indoors and outdoors. The vehicles must be able to detect both mobile and static objects. The robots must complete increasingly complex tasks within time constraints.
Mechanical engineering graduate students Xianqiao Tong and Alex Young at IALR in Danville are among the Team VaCAS members.
Tong, a 23-year-old originally from Harbin in northern China, arrived in Danville about four months ago. He will work on the system’s cooperative control strategy — how the vehicles should communicate with each other.
He appreciates the opportunity to learn both theory and its application.
Young, a 23-year-old native of Clover, S.C., agreed. He arrived in Danville as Virginia Tech grad student in January.
The chance to implement systems rather than just working on simulations excites Young.
“It’s a unique opportunity,” Young said. “Really, the best way to advance the field is through big international competitions like this one.”
Tomo, director of the Computational Multiphysics Systems Laboratory at the Institute, expects to complete prototypes by the end of this month and then will perform “fine tuning.” The team plans to conduct demonstrations starting in March 2010, continually testing and improving the robotics systems.
Tomo, who lives in Danville, joined Virginia Tech faculty in August 2008. Prior to that, he served as a professor for the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He is one of the few researchers in the world who specializes in the integration of robotics and computational mechanics.
“Team VaCAS” is named for the Virginia Tech College of Engineering Virginia Center for Autonomous Systems.
Both the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) and the Australian Department of Defence’s (ADOD’s) Defence Science and Technology Organisation are sponsoring and co-hosting the international competition.
Team VaCAS includes: Team leader Tomonari Furukawa, postdoctoral researchers Shen Hin Lim and Lin Chi Mak and graduate students Xianqiao Tong and Alex Young at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville. From Virginia Tech’s campus in Blacksburg, the team comprises faculty members Dennis Hong, Andrew Kurdila and Alexandar Leonessa and postdoctoral researcher KyungBok Lee. Students: Paul D'Angio, Amber DeHart, Brian Fletcher, Matt Green, Michael Hopkins, Benjamin Johnston, Andrew Peterson, Matthew Pyrak, Kun Jin Ryu and Justin Stiltner.
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