Team Invincible invited to demo robots at Science Rendezvous 2010

We have been invited to demo our robots at ‘Science Rendezvous 2010′, which is an Ontario wide science festival to be held on Saturday, May 8, 2010. (Website: www.sciencerendezvous.ca/windsor ). One of the festival events is a street fair (on Sunset between Wyandotte and University) from 10 am – 4pm where Departments/Research groups/Student groups are putting on interactive exhibits and demos for a public audience. On display would be the intelligent autonomous robots of various size and shapes.
Hope to see everyone there for a fun-filled day!

Watch the video here:

Robot Racing 2010-Compete or come take part in the action! Free admission.

WHAT

Student teams from around the world will compete head-to-head in an outdoor racing competition, where small-scale robots race against other robots to the finish line, without any human guidance or control. Their skills will be put to test in a static judging event, a drag race and a circuit race event, where these autonomous vehicles will try to navigate around obstacles and obey the traffic rules.

These robots are finding their way in applications such as space exploration, mining, search and rescue, remote sensing and automotive inspection. Some are even becoming common around the home for routine tasks, such as vacuuming and mowing lawns. In the future, these robots may even park and drive cars!

WHEN & WHERE

July 24, 2010 from 9am to 7pm
St. Denis Stadium,
University of Windsor
2555 College Ave.
Windsor, ON N9B3P4

AWARDS

Up to CAD $5000.00 in awards.

RSVP to ahuja5@uwindsor.ca

Compete or come take part in the action! Free admission.

For more information, please visit www.ROBOTRACING.ca

———————————————–
Siddhant Ahuja (Sid),
Primary Event Organizer, Robot Racing 2010
University of Windsor
E-mail: ahuja5@uwindsor.ca
Work Phone: 519-253-3000 ext. 4860
Website: www.robotracing.ca

Team Invincible invited to showcase the robot at the Ontario Universities Fair

Team Invincible-Canadian Champions!

Its my pleasure to report that Team Invincible took top honours at the Autonomous Racing Challenge 2009, and successfully defended their title as the reigning champions. The competition took place this Saturday, July 11 where teams from University of Waterloo, (3 entries), University of Western Ontario (1 entry), University of British Columbia (5 entries), McMaster University (1 entry), and University of Windsor (1 entry) took part.

The robotic competition is one of the toughest in Canada. The robot machines must perform specific tasks in a complex environment without human guidance or control. This year the competition was specially challenging due to the presence of stop signs, traffic lights, moving obstacles, and a figure eight race track.

Using cameras as sensors, and complicated 3-D tracking programs, our vehicle navigated a drag-racing course, scoring 10/10 (highest) travelling 27km/hr, passed a round of static judging on looks and design, scoring 8.83/10 (highest), then completed a street-racing circuit in a record time scoring, 10/10 (highest). For more information about the rules of the competition, please visit http://robotracing.org/

Speeding through the circuit race

The team this year consisted of Sid Ahuja (Team Leader), Thanh Nguyen (both of the
Computer Vision and Sensing Systems Laboratory, Department of Electrical
and Computer Engineering) and Michael Stolarchuk (High School Student working with students at the Computer Vision Lab).

The team members would like to thank Dr. Maher Sid-Ahmed, Dr. Jonathan Wu (Academic Advisor), Don Tersigni (Electronics Technologist), Christina Allsop (Faculty Development Officer), Ed Stolarchuk (Friend, Supporter), Frank Cicchello (Electronics Technologist), Shelby Marchand, and Andria Ballo, for their support and guidance throughout the project.

We are proud to recognize and thank the donors who have generously contributed to the 2009 Autonomous Racing Challenge. Our team exists thanks to the dedication, commitment and financial support of our donors:

- University of Windsor, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Platinum Donor)
- University of Windsor, Alumni Association (Platinum Donor)
- University of Windsor, Computer Vision and Sensing Systems Laboratory (Platinum Donor)
- BASF (Elite Donor)
- Cheese Wheelz, Best Pizza in town (In-Kind Support)

Team Invincible invited to demo the robot at Intelligent Systems Collaborative-AI/GI/CRV/IS 2008 Conference

An invitation was extended to the robot racing team to demonstrate their winning design at the Intelligent Systems Collaborative: The AI/GI/CRV/IS 2008 Conference that will be held on University of Windsor campus, May 27-30, 2008!! Thank you Dr. Hoda ElMaraghy for forwarding the Daily News article to the Conference Coordinators.

The collaboration will extend the unique academic and industry perspective on innovation in Canada by bringing together five leading research and commercialization conferences (Artificial Intelligence 2008, Graphics Interface 2008, Computer and Robot Vision 2008, Intelligent Systems 2008, and SMARTLinkages2008). The Conference will bring together hundreds of industry leaders, government leaders, research leaders and Canada’s most accomplished students to showcase Canada’s ingenuity, innovation and leadership in intelligent systems and advanced information and communications technology.

Windsor Team Invincible wins the Autonomous Racing Challenge 2008

Competing for the first time, Team Invincible from Electrical and Computer Engineering department, University of Windsor took the first place in the Autonomous Racing Challenge 2008 held in University of Waterloo this year. The competition that took place on Saturday (April 26), involves racing fully autonomous vehicles head-to-head on an outdoor track consisting of a drag race competition, a circuit competition and static judging.

The team comprised of the students from the Computer Vision and Sensing Systems (CVSS) Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Siddhant Ahuja (Sid), and Thanh Nguyen) and a Belle River District high school student doing his volunteering at the CVSS lab (Michael Stolarchuk). As part of the course project (88-554: Automotive sensor’s course with Dr. Jonathan Wu), the team lead by Siddhant Ahuja (Sid) worked night and day on this project. Undergraduate supporting members to the team (working on their capstone project for engineering) included: Saket Sood, Mohammad Bidabadi, and Rameez Syed. “Being part of this team was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and opportunity for me. The kind of learning I did, I could never have had sitting in a classroom. We had many struggles with different sensors, and we thought about giving up many times. Then we came up with the idea of the single sensor (or camera), and it all worked out” said Michael Stolarchuk.

The project attracted funding from BASF ($1k) and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering ($500), and was supported by the Don Tersigni (Electronic Technologist with the department). With a simple yet sophisticated design involving a single vision system and state-of-the-art algorithms, the robot was able to autonomously navigate itself through the race track. “I was quite proud of all the hard work the team put into the robot and I was glad to see it pay off,” commented Don Tersigni (Electronic Technologist and Departmental support).

Second year engineering students from the University of Windsor also put a team into the competition called “ISysDT”. Members of the team who travelled to Waterloo were Dan MacDonald, Tony Choi, Rifat “Disha” Chowdhury and Gagandeep Dulay. Dan MacDonald said “the hardest part of the competition was the learning curve and the best part was team work, representing the school and learning new things”.