GREENVILLE, S.C. (June 9, 2016) – The Bob Jones University robotics team recently won several awards at the 24th Annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) held June 3-6 at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. The team placed third in the Advanced Autonomous Navigation Course, fourth in the Inter-Operability Challenge, and fifth in the Basic Autonomous Navigation Course.
The students designed, built and programmed a 6 foot tall, 200 pound robot named “Kezia,” able to navigate an outdoor obstacle course autonomously, without the use of remote controls. For the competition, Kezia traveled to various GPS waypoints while staying in a designated lane and avoiding obstacles such as construction barrels and barricades.
BJU’s team qualified to compete against teams from eight other universities, including The Citadel, Lawrence Technological University, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Bluefield State College, Indian Institute of Technology, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Ecole de Technologies Superieure, and Michigan Technological University.
“I would like to thank all the BJU engineering students that had a part bringing Kezia from an idea into reality,” says Will Woodham, BJU engineering professor. “I’m very pleased with the way this year’s IGVC team worked together under pressure to achieve what they did against some challenging obstacles and tough competition from other universities.“
The team consisted of BJU engineering seniors Sam Koenke of Greer, South Carolina; Evelyn Licona of La Ceiba, Hondorus; and Nathaniel Woehr of Marietta, South Carolina.
