We design, build, and test autonomous systems for a marine research vessel.

Our Team

We are final-year project, directed reading, and extracurricular students from a range of disciplines and year levels.

Meet some of our team below.

  • Joshua Baker

    Team Leader

    B. Mechatronics Engineering

    Final-Year Project

  • Jay Gates

    Chief Engineer

    B. Mechatronics Engineering

    Final-Year Project

  • Daniel Keen

    Visual Communications Engineer

    B. Mechatronics / Electrical Engineering

    Extracurricular

  • Hieu Luong

    Navigation Engineer

    B. Mechatronics Engineering

    Final-Year Project

  • Alec Mowbray

    Safety System Engineer

    B. Mechatronics / Mechanical Engineering

    Extracurricular

  • Simon Arnold

    Systems Identification Engineer

    B. Mechatronics Engineering

    Final-Year Project

  • James Stoddart

    Guidance and Control Systems Engineer

    B. Mechatronics Engineering

    Final-Year Project

  • Jackson Dean

    Safety Systems Engineer

    B. Electrical Engineering

    Extracurricular

Our Competition

We contest the international Maritime RobotX competition, against 20+ university teams.

The competition centres on the design and manufacture of autonomous systems for a department-of-defence provided WAM-V marine vessel, and involves a range of static (safety) tests and dynamic (on-water) events.

The 2022 competition was our most successful to-date, with the team scoring 5th overall in the world.

You can view our 2022 station-keeping event, held during high-winds, below.

Autonomous Systems

We currently maintain a range of sophisticated autonomous systems for our WAM-V.

Final-Year/Directed Reading/Extracurricular projects are available across all systems.

  • GNC Case

    At the heart of our WAM-V electronics is a guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) hub, which houses our computational infrastructure and breaks out our power and data wiring.

    Within this enclosure, 3 separate computers, communicating through a Robot Operating System, handle sensor ingest, localisation, navigation and path planning, enabling our vessel to localise, autonomously navigate and make decisions.

  • Simultaneous Localization and Mapping

    We utilise a sophisticated SLAM algorithm on the WAM-V platform to enable autonomous navigation.

    By integrating sensor data from cameras and LiDAR, our SLAM system constructs a map of the environment while simultaneously estimating our position within that map. Both the map and estimated position are continuously updates as we traverse the waters.

  • Onshore Control System (OCS)

    Our Onshore Control System is a powerful human-interface device that remotely governs and monitors the WAM-V from the shore.

    Serving as a centralised control hub, the OCS enables operators to command and supervise the boat's operations, including navigation, mission planning, data analysis, and real-time monitoring, ensuring efficient and secure remote control of the WAM-V from port.