The Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) is an annual international robotics competition for teams of undergraduate and graduate students. Teams may compete in either the AutoNav or Self Drive challenges. The competition is well suited to senior design capstone courses as well as extracurricular design projects. The competition has taken place each year since 1993 with the exception of 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The competition is normally held on the campus of

Oakland University Oakland University (OU or Oakland) is a public university, public research university in Auburn Hills, Michigan, Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1957 through a donation of Matilda Dodge Wilson and husband ...

Rochester, Michigan Rochester is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 12,711 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is a northern suburb in Metro Detroit located 20 miles north of the city of ...

, although it has occasionally moved to other venues within the state of Michigan. The competition is often sponsored by

, the U.S. Army DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center, and the

Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International The Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) is the world's largest nonprofit membership organization dedicated to the advancement of uncrewed systems and robotics. AUVSI's 7,000-plus members represent government agencies, ...

(AUVSI) in addition to other sponsors.

Competition Overview

The details of the competition change each year and has featured several different challenges. The 2024 challenges are AutoNav, Self Drive, and Design. Previous challenges include the Cyber Security Challenge, IOP Challenge, Spec 2 Challenge, and the JAUS challenge. The AutoNav challenge requires teams to design and build autonomous ground robots that are between 3 feet and 7 feet long. The challenge tasks the robots with navigating a complex course featuring lanes, obstacles, and a ramp. The course was placed on grass from 1993 to 2019 but was changed to asphalt in 2021. Teams are ranked by the time it took to complete the course or by distance traveled for teams that did not complete the course. The Self Drive challenge features two-seat electric passenger vehicles that must autonomously complete a variety of challenges. The Self Drive challenge began in 2017 as the Spec 2 Challenge. Unlike the AutoNav challenge, most teams acquire a complete vehicle and then modify it to complete the challenge.

References

Robotics competitions Recurring events established in 1993 {{robotics-stub