Student Competitions: Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition

CSUN continued to excel at the Intelligent Ground Vehicle competition, sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and the U.S. Army’s Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC). The competition requires teams to design and build an autonomous ground vehicle, then put it through its paces in a series of challenges. CSUN’s vehicle, Scorpion, tied for second place overall and came in first in the autonomous navigation (auto-nav) portion of the contest, which was held June 7-10 at Oakland University in Rochester, MI.

“The auto-nav challenge is the most difficult one, and it’s the most spectacular, so that win was more exciting to us,” says C.T. Lin, professor of mechanical engineering, who advised the cross-disciplinary 24-member team. “People always watch the vehicles navigating, and it captured a lot of attention.”

For the next IGV competition, this year’s CSUN team is designing a brand-new platform, which will be very lightweight and feature a low profile. Its members hope that the new vehicle will repeat the successes of previous years and bring home yet another trophy to Northridge.