It's been a week since returning from Beavercreek, Ohio, and I feel long overdue for a recap of the results from the 7th Annual ION Robotic Lawn Mower Competition that was held between June 3rd-5th. Many hours (1000+ total) have been invested into this project by each team member over the past year and a week long break was well received and appreciated.

Sponsored by the Institute of Navigation (ION) Satellite Division, the objective of the competition was to design and construct a lawn mower that would autonomously traverse a field while avoiding obstacles using the science of navigation. Before anyone could show off their mower on the lawn, teams gathered at the ION office for a meet and greet as well as to present their project reports in powerpoint format. Fifteen teams were introduced from all across the country that included University of North Florida, University of New Haven, California State University - Long Beach, Wright State University, Cedarville University, and even Team Capra from Canada among others. From an electrical and software perspective, various solution methods for tackling the challenge were shared that touched base on differential GPS, LIDAR object detection and avoidance, camera visioning, wheel encoding, and various programming languages. Mechanically, lawn mowers ranged in various form factors, cutting deck configurations, and even power supply which included gasoline, electric, and fuel cell.

The following day, teams gathered out at the competition venue to set up team stations and work out any bugs in order to qualify for the performance portion of the competition. Arriving way before any other teams as well as some competition officials, Auburn University got the chance to qualify well ahead of time which allowed for a sufficient amount of time to practice throughout the remainder of the day while other teams were arriving and qualifying themselves. Teams could raise concerns and ask questions with game officials as well as see other teams' robots and converse with one another.

Teams competed in either the static or dynamic portion of competition; static consisting of mowing the field with one static obstacle, and dynamic consisting of mowing the field with one static obstacle (a flowerbed) and a moving obstacle (RC dog). Auburn competed in the dynamic competition. On competition day Moe (Auburn's mower) had a mishap on his first run. To begin with, the cutting deck motors each blew fuses due to the cutting deck being at a low cutting height in thick, dense grass. Along with this, Moe crashed into the flower bed before being remotely shut off and the team declaring an end of his run. Despite the disappointing run the team remained calm, conversing in lawn chairs and playing frisbee. On the team's second run, after adjusting some software parameters Moe pulled through a remarkable performance, cutting a good chunk of the field. 

Auburn University ultimately concluded the competition with a 3rd place finish in the dynamic competition group, with Cedarville University taking 2nd place and Case Western Reserve University securing 1st place. The team was pulling for at least 2nd place but once penalty points were deducted from both of our runs and Cedarville University keeping the competition tight with their outstanding second run, 3rd place didn't seem so disappointing. Nevertheless, speaking for everyone on the team that either did or didn't go to the competition we all enjoyed the year long project and are happy to finally say that it is over. A lot of knowledge was gained regarding what did and didn't work, and ideas are already in the discussion for what could be implemented to improve next year's entry.

For those interested, the entire set of photos documenting the project can be found here.