Winning the prize money and bragging rights won't be easy. The robot vessels have to navigate across a large pool following a set course. They must also perform various tasks, including passing through a gate, dropping a marker and releasing a buoy. In addition, the competition's point system takes into account the craftsmanship applied to the vehicle, along with the technical merit and writing style of the research paper submitted beforehand.
Back to defend its 2006 title is the SubjuGator from the University of Florida. The Floridians built an entirely new sub on the same design for this go-round, using Microsoft's Robotic Studio for control, simulation and communication with a network of sensors, and upgrading to a single-board Intel Core 2 Duo-based computer running Windows XP.(To see some of last year's entrants, click here: "Photos: Robot submarines make waves.")
Photo by Machine Intelligence Lab, University of Florida
