ION Mini-Urban Challenge Results Displayed on Show Floor

September 24, 2009 By: Tracy Cozzens

The city is laid out and set up.

Miniature autonomous vehicles navigating the mean streets of a LEGO town take center stage at the show floor at ION GNSS 2009.

Results of the Institute of Navigation's first Mini-Urban Challenge, a contest among high school students for miniature autonomous vehicles, were shared at Tuesday's Plenary session, presented by Challenge Co-chairs First Lieutenants Casey Miller and Caroline New of tahe Air Force Research Laboratory. ION sponsored the challenge, along with the Air Force Research Laboratory, and it was administered by the Dayton Section of the ION.

The competition results were announced in May. First Place was awarded to the Pace A team of Pace High School, earning the team a $2,500 prize and Garmin Nuvi’s for all team members. Second place was also from Pace High School. The Pace B team earnaed a $1,000 prize. Third place went to the Marlins team from JR Arnold High School for a $500 prize. Best in Show was given to Talawanda High School.

In the competition, high school students worked in teams of 3 to 10 to design and operate a robotic unmanned car built from a LEGO MINDSTORMS kit that can accurately navigate through a LEGO city.