As society seeks answers to its long-term transportation problems, one organization is hard at work with engineering students from around the world to integrate robotics with future systems, and Thales Navigation is playing a part.
Engineering students on the Robot Study Team (RST) at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., have chosen a Thales Navigation BR2G-S global positioning system (GPS) receiver as a key component of their entry in the International Ground Vehicle Competition. The competition, an annual event sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), will be held in Orlando July 6-8.
The Thales Navigation receiver will be mounted on the Trinity team’s ALVIN III vehicle robot and will direct the autonomous vehicle to a series of checkpoints in the competition’s Navigation Challenge.
“The Thales Navigation receiver was the best package we found for getting the job done,” said Michelle Bouvard, a team member who was responsible for researching and selecting a GPS receiver. “We needed a differential system with sub-meter accuracy that would be relatively easy to work with and relatively lightweight. The Thales Navigation system was a perfect fit.”
The competition, in which underdog Trinity took on and bested several heavily favoured teams to finish eighth in a field of more than 25 last year, is a two-part contest. In the Autonomous Challenge competition a fully autonomous unmanned ground robotic vehicle must negotiate around an outdoor obstacle course under a prescribed time while staying within a 5-mph speed limit, and avoiding the obstacles on the track. The Navigation Challenge, in which the Thales Navigation GPS receiver will play a central role, requires vehicles to visit four waypoints in a field and return while avoiding obstacles.
ALVIN III is a 99-pound vehicle that can accurately drive within lanes, avoiding potholes, traps, barricades and other vehicles. The vehicle’s sophisticated onboard vision system allows it to see obstacles in advance and plan a path around them. Alvin uses a differential drive system, consisting of 16-inch bicycle wheels powered by an electric motor.
The Thales Navigation BR2G-S GPS receiver is an affordable system that gives users differential GPS position accuracy and reliable user-friendly operation to a variety of navigation applications. It combines the latest dual-channel beacon receiver technology with the industry-leading Thales Navigation 12-channel precision GPS, integrated in a single, easy-to-use product that provides sub-meter position accuracy.
