Lawrence Technological University’s (LTU) robot, vuLTUre2, finished fifth in the Auto-Nav Challenge, the main event at the 20th annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) held at Oakland University June 8-11. Forty-seven teams from around the country and as far away as India and Japan entered the prestigious competition, although only 20 qualified for the Auto-Nav Challenge. The fifth-place finish earned LTU a $2,000 prize, and the team also picked up a $1,000 prize for finishing fourth in the Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS) competition. IGVC promotes the development of automated and intelligent vehicles that can have both civilian and military applications. Sponsors include the Joint Project Office for Robotic Systems of the U.S. Army, the Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise of the Department of Defense, TARDEC, the Michigan chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (both the foundation and the Great Lakes chapter), and Women in Defense. Corporate sponsors include Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Continental and Takata. A video of vuLTUre2’s best run can be found on YouTube.
