Rules and Regulations

  1. The team must submit their intent to participate by August 30th, 2023.
  2. The university and team must have representation at the virtual University Kick off meeting on Sept. 22, 2023.
  3. Team must submit Participant Roster by October 13th, 2023.
  4. The team must submit all scheduled progress updates as defined in key dates.
  5. The team must submit Final Report by April 8, 2024 at midnight.
  6. The teams will comply with all rules provided in the competition.
  7. The team may integrate all or portions of the given sensor suite to the LPV along with any additions they deem necessary to complete the task.
  8. Point bonuses will be awarded for full autonomous LPVs during the competition.  Partial points will be provided if remote or human intervention is required during the competition.
  9. The team must be able to remotely pilot boat in emergency situations to return boat to shore.
  10. The team must stay within the allocated stipends, any additional expenses (including but not limited the LPV, sensors, and competition modifications) cannot exceed an additional $2k toward the LPV or additional equipment/hardware/sensors).
    • Universities may use gift in kind donations and/or existing university resources as long as the fair market value on these combined items does not exceed $5k. This in addition to the $5k stipend allowable and the $2k in fund raised dollars. An additional modifications and resources expenses to the boat and sensors cannot exceed a total of $12k.
  11. Additional rules for the final event including location, arrival times, safety, rubrics, etc. will be provided prior to the AIMM ICC. 

Right to Revise Rules

NSWC Crane reserves the right to revise the rules at any time by providing the participants notification of revisions in the form of bulletins, revised editions of the rules, or announcements at the competition.

Acceptance of Rules

All persons or groups selected to participate in the competition are expected to know and accept the Rules. Participation in the competition shall constitute acceptance of them.

Team Member Eligibility

Anyone who has attended the participating university as an undergraduate full-time student in one of the past two semesters, or two of the past four quarters, or part time for the past year, is eligible to serve as a team member.  Graduate students can serve as advisors and mentors but should not be active members of the team, unless complying with the prior student criteria.

Supplies

For this competition, teams will be supplied with a Low Profile Vessel and sensor kit. The teams can make small changes to the boat design, but all material should be easily sourced at local hardware stores, or a cost-effective online supply source.

The teams will also be provided with a sensor suite. It is up to the individual teams to add on any extra sensors they deem necessary, and program their own algorithms to make the sensor suite work to the individual LPV’s. The teams are not allowed to remove any sensors from the base package.

A One-Armed-Bandit robotic arm will be provided by NSWC Crane to the participating teams.  This device can be used “as-is”, be modified to a new configuration, or not be included as a portion of the team’s solution.

*Additional costs incurred must comply with Rule 10 outlined above.

Scoring

The competition will be judged in four Topic Areas (Technical Report, Presentation, & Final Competition). Awards for the Top Team will be awarded for each Topic Area. The combined efforts of all four Topic Areas will yield the standings for the overall winner. 

Documents

Challenge Competition Scoresheet
Competition Course Details
Technical Design Report
Design Presentation
Bouy Images
Vehicle Safety Inspection