2008 will mark the 16th annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle (IGVC) competition. It will be held at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan on May 30 - June 2, 2008.
The Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition is an annual autonomous robot vehicle challenge where colleges and universities from around the world compete against each other, with the ultimate task of building and programming a robot vehicle to autonomously drive through an obstacle course. Obstacles consist of orange traffic barrels, cones, buckets, sawhorses, and ramps. The competition consists of two driving challenges: (1) The autonomous vehicle challenge, and (2) the navigation challenge. In the autonomous vehicle challenge, the vehicle uses external sensors (such as laser and vision) to detect lane boundaries and obstacles, and must maneuver the course without making contact with obstacles or crossing lane lines. For the navigation challenge, the vehicle must drive to a series of mapped coordinates while dodging obstacles in its path. In both challenges, the vehicle that completes the course with the lowest time is deemed the winner. The teams that do the best overall take home $10,000 in prize money!
For more information about the IGVC competition, take a look at the Official IGVC Website.
