
Team History

Fall 2021
AutoBoat was Founded
The team previously competed in NASA’s Micro-G competition which had a mechanical focus. In 2021 the team pivoted to a more software-heavy competition, RoboBoat.
Fall 2022
The First Boat Prototype
We built the first prototype of our boat, transitioning from a catamaran to a more stable trimaran design. While the mechanical team led this shift, the software team focused on developing path planning algorithms and a computer vision model. We also began integrating ROS into our system.

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Spring 2023
George
Our first competition boat, George, was built. Our CV model was completed, and the code for the navigational tasks was finished. We competed in-person at RoboBoat for the first time, and qualified for finals. We learned so much from the competition and came back with many ideas to improve the team moving forward.
Fall 2023 - Spring 2024
Clifford
RoboBoat 2024 would take place nearly two months earlier than expected. Despite this, we still decided to build an entirely new boat, Clifford, which was fully designed and manufactured in just one semester. Clifford is stronger, faster, and more stable than George, providing the team with a more reliable hardware platform to build upon in the future. The software team revamped the codebase, integrated a compass and GPS, and improved the vision models. Additionally, the Ground Station project and virtual simulations were developed. At competition, we qualified for finals again, and we won a design documentation award for our website.
