Last month, engineers turned Duffield into an uncharacteristically loud and bustling exhibition, featuring the engineering project teams. From robotics, gaming and artificial intelligence to toddler-chasing, autonomous helicopters, BOOM provided the teams with an opportunity to show-off their work.

Three teams strive to construct uniquely, autonomous vehicles, Cornell MineSweeper (CMS), Cornell University Autonomous Flight (CU Air) and Cornell University Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV).

Autonomous robots complete programmed tasks without continuous human guidance, and consequently, in part, the robots may perform self-sufficiently.

 MineSweeper

 CMS aims to create a cost-effective, autonomously-navigating robot to detect and to remove mines.    

The team’s 34 members include mechanical, computer and electrical engineers, as well as, members from other majors, like AEP. CMS includes a support team of business and government majors from individual groups, tackling the weekly goals of CMS.     

 This Ain't No Computer Game: Members of Cornell MineSweeper gather around they're robots, Aki Ra and Nero. The two autonomous robots demonstrate the major priorities of mine sweeping: detection and navigation. - By: A. Drew MuscenteCurrently, CMS operates two projects: the autonomous navigations system and mine detection.  This year, the mine detection program features the team’s remote robot, Aki Ra, named after a famous Cambodian de-miner. 

Aki Ra is not autonomous. “It is mainly to test our detection techniques and to navigate through the minefields with a robot,” said one of CMS’s team leaders, Cameron Salzberger, mechanical engineering,’11. 

Aki Ra’s detects mines using two redundant sensors – this redundancy prevents many false positives that one sensor, alone, may cause. The first sensor is a highly-sensitive metal detector, which may detect plastic mines, but its high sensitivity detects far too many metal objects.

The second sensor uses “Nuclear Quadrapole Resonance (NQR),” a form of chemical analysis related to Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR).  NQR allows the vehicle to test for nitrogen within an explosive device. 

The two sensors may also detect plastic and slow-activating mines. Working on the MineSweeper: Cameron Salzberger '11, one of several team leaders for MineSweeper, adjusts the delicate machinery. - By: A. Drew Muscente

“By combining the two you’ve greatly lowered false positives and you still haven’t gotten the deminer out on the field yet. It’s all done remotely. It’s safer,” said Salzberger.

The team will test the mine detecting unit at Fort Belvoir this May, running against pressure sensitive land mines. 

Their autonomous robotic vehicle, Nero, does not detect mines.

“It [Nero] is for testing sensors,” explained Salzberger, “and the navigation code for GPS and obstacle avoidance.”

Nero uses Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology, which uses light to detect obstacles.  Nero has GPS and INS that controls inertia.

By taking a divided the goals between Aki Ra and Nero, Minesweeper separates their individual goals and avoids many problems. 

 CMS’s work may eventually humanitarian goals. The team communicates with officials, and they may go test and help Bosnia and Herzegovina, which share a common landmine crisis that blocks their economies.

CU Air 

When Rick Ducott, engineering comp science, ’10, joined CU air during his freshman year, he joined a competitive and successful team, limited by losses to graduation.  Beginning then, the team strove to rebuild and grow.

         Their project team aims to construct an aircraft, capable of autonomous flight without any human interaction.  The aircraft should perform reconnaissance missions.

Up in the Air: Members of Cornell University Autonomous Flight convene around their robot. The teams strives to build a plane, capable of sustained auto-pilot. - By: A. Drew MuscenteLast year, for the first time, the team fully achieved autonomous flight. This year, the team will attend the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) competition on a decommissioned naval base.

“While it is flying, it is supposed to be recording video feed so that we can gather information about targets it flies over. Cornell has actually taken it a step further, and it has tried to basically autonomize the entire process so we basically put it on the ground, it flies around the targets, and just reports back,” said Ducott. 

The team’s 22 members include mechanical, computer, and electrical engineers. Mechanical engineers design the pane body. Using a traditional model airplane kit, the kit requires modifications to support the extra 20 to 25 pounds.

AComputer Engineers: Members of Cornell University Autonomous Flight gather around their computer to study the designs of their aircraft. - By: A. Drew Muscente team of computer and electrical engineers design the hardware and software required for the plane’s autopilot. An autopilot system is onboard the plane, and it transmits updates to the on-ground computer.

The team actively recruited this year, and desires new enthusiastic members. Ducott was surprised with the large population of Cornell students that had radio-controlled hobbies and interest in the mechanics of aircrafts.

“CU Air really allows people to take part in both,” said Ducott.  

CUAUV

Last year, with a large margin of victory, Cornell’s Autonomous Underwater Vehicle team’s Nova won a collegiate competition in San Diego.

“We had the most test time of the other teams,” said Erin Fischell, mechanical engineering, ’10.

TThe Hunt for Big Red October: Members of Cornell University Autonomous Underwater Vehicle prepare their robot, Nova, for a test run in the Teagle Hall pool. The robot must successfully navigate an obstacle path in the university pool. - By: A. Drew Muscentehis year, the team will debut a new model, Tachyon, which possesses greater capabilities than their previous model, Nova.

The robot must complete an obstacle course, independently.  The obstacle course includes industrial tasks, like following pipelines, docking, following acoustic signals and torpedo launching.

CUAUV benefits with ten years experience.  They may fine-tune their electronic, mechanical and computer processes.  The current team aims toward upgrading their infrastructure to a more professional level.

The team’s 45 members come from 15 majors and three schools, including 10 different varieties of engineering major.  The 45 members comprise eleven sub-teams.

Electrical engineers design the electrical structure of the vehicle, including power systems and sensing. The mechanical engineers develop the vehicle’s pressure capacity and waterproofing. The software team works on both low level software that takes care of the central functions as well as the mission vision software.

“In order to respond to the environment in autonomous fashion, basically artificial intelligence, the vehicle has to be able to process the information of what’s around it. We have an on board computer with a single board and mother board that is able to take all that information and turn it into something useful. So, it’s basically the computer that’s making all the decisions. It has to control itself in three dimensions,” said Fischell.

Over the past year, the team geared its work toward research in Cayuga Lake.        “We partnered with local environmental groups. The Cayuga Lake Floating class is an environmental not-for-profit group that holds classes on the lake. We have deployed Nova off their boat three times… we basically did vegetation survey… we saw what was down there at different times of the year, and we’ll be doing that in the summer as well.”High Diving: A view of the robot, Nero, in Teagle pool, from above on the diving board. - By: A. Drew Muscente

This year, the team aims to increase their outreach programs. From elementary schools to Girl Scout visits, the engineers enjoy sharing their love for science through workshops.

“Seeing how excited kids get reminds us why we wanted to be engineers in the first place,” said Fischell.

Fischell said that CUAUV believes in recruiting members early, especially freshmen year.  Consequently, the recruits receive the most time to train. The team’s goal aims to educate every member, so that, each of the 45 members knows their responsibility at every moment.