BeaverAUV competes at the 2017 International RoboSub competition

For the second year in a row, Beaver’s Robotics team – BeaverAUV – spent the week in San Diego, Calif. for the Annual International RoboSub Competition. The autonomous robotic submarine competition is filled with college and university teams from around the globe as well as a handful of high school teams – five high school teams to be exact.

“It’s really neat to see people’s reactions when they realized we were a high school,” said Jayne Everson, one of Beaver’s Robotics Team advisors. “The judges seemed pretty impressed that such a young team took on such complex tasks.”

The BeaverAUV Team

How the competition works: Each student-designed-and built robot must complete a difficult series of visual- and acoustic-based tasks. Teams sign up for times slots throughout the early part of the week to try and qualify for the finals.

After a disappointing run in the pool on Wednesday, BeaverAUV was graciously gifted a shared time slot from a nearby grad student team, enabling them qualify for semifinals on Friday and Saturday.  (Watch the qualifying run here.)

“One of the coolest parts of this particular competition is that it is also a collaboration,” Everson said. “Everyone is sharing ideas and equipment and data. The graduate team in the booth next to ours has taken to chanting ‘Beaver! Beaver! Beaver!’ every time we are going for a run or sign up for a time slot.”

Prospero Mark II: BeaverAUV’s RoboSub

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