Autonomous Vehicles
Autonomous Vehicles Research and Development
As the main focus of SIPI's research groups, this is the keystone of SIPI's research that garners the most interest among visitors and news media.
Mars Rovers
SIPI currently has two different varieties of Mars rovers. The smaller of the two is named Mini Mars Rover and the larger rover is named the T101.
Both rovers run on a Raspberry Pi computer and Arduino microcontroller. The Mini Mars Rovers have a gripper and operate in the Mini Mars Yard.
Autonomous UAV
Currently being developed is a quadcopter with a 3D printed frame. This vehicle will carry a camera to take images of terrain to create 3D maps of the area. It is also intended for remote sensing for rural areas such as tribal reservations.
NASA Swarmathon
NASA holds a yearly competition for minority serving schools to promote and inspire students to learn about robotics and programming. There is a physical competition using actual robots and a virtual competition in a simulated environment. Each team programs a group of three robots called Swarmies. The Swarmies navigate around a square arena collecting "resources" in the form of AprilTags. In the 2016 competition, the Swarmies had to take a picture and return to home base in order to score a point. The 2017 competition had the robots collecting cubes with AprilTags printed on the side and returning those to home base to score a point.
SIPI won first prize in the 2017 Swarmathon competition.