UFSC robot that can see underwater is the only South American in international competition in the USA
Ivy is an autonomous underwater vehicle created by Terra, a competition team at UFSC Joinville. Photo: UFSC Joinville
The Terra competition team, an outreach project of the Department of Mobility Engineering at the Joinville Campus, represented the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) and Brazil in RoboSub, an international robotics competition held in August in Irvine, California, United States.
The group developed an AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle), nicknamed Ivy, equipped with artificial intelligence to detect objects in the aquatic environment. The team was the only one from South America to participate in the in-person competition in the United States.
With image recognition and decision-making capabilities, the technology also contributes to research on reef species preservation and environmental conservation, the Terra team reported.
The Ivy vehicle has the potential to operate in a variety of fields, including inspecting vessel hulls in port areas without the need for drydocking, collecting data and samples for scientific research on the environment and its species, monitoring seabeds and marine animals, operating in hard-to-reach locations, and even conducting search missions, according to the Terra team.
In addition to detecting objects, Ivy has control systems that, in future versions still under development, may allow the machine to physically interact with its environment. This could, for example, enable Ivy to pick up items with a claw.
Autonomous operation
Naval architecture and marine engineering students Elisa Silva and Rafael Rui and automotive engineering student Pedro Strieder at RoboSub. Photo: UFSC Joinville
The vehicle, while still in its early stages, was designed to operate autonomously, serving as a foundation for future improvements. It was built by students under the coordination of Professor Andrea Piga Carboni, with the support of Professors Anelize Zomkowski Salvi and Tamiris Grossl Bade. The Fundação Stemmer para Pesquisa, Desenvolvimento e Inovação (FEESC) provided financial support for the project, which also benefited from collaboration with Connor Soluções.
During the RoboSub competition, from 11 to 17 August, Ivy passed the inspection stage. However, it encountered a problem with a battery purchased in the United States during the competition. The Brazilian project only scored points for design documentation. Even so, the Terra team reported exchanging knowledge with more experienced teams, who offered support ranging from adapting tools to the North American standard to providing technical contributions during the competition’s challenges.
Good results in other competitions
The Terra team has already achieved strong results in other competitions. At COBRUF 2019 – a competition that brings together teams developing technology for use in different environments – the UFSC Joinville team took first place in both the COBRUF Subspace category and overall, in addition to receiving awards for excellence in gender equality, educational outreach, agile development, among others. At RoboSub 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Terra team participated only online, thus missing the semi-finals and finals. In that edition, they placed 23rd out of 39 participants.
Translated by SINTER/UFSC.
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