Students at Reykjavík University made it to the finals in the international RoboSub competition in San Diego, the U.S., last weekend with their submarine Ægir. In the competition, the unmanned submarines have to complete various tasks.
“The team is pretty disappointed that the sub couldn’t finish its last task and surface in the octagon. It took the correct heading, passed right under the correct octagon and hit the wall,” the Ægir team revealed on Facebook.
“Some glitch that we have experienced every once in a while before seems to have popped up at the crucial moment and resulted in our final run not being as good as it could have been,” the statement continued, concluding, “That said, we are happy that we met our objective of making it to the final round.”
Ægir is equipped with two cameras, three microphones, a speed sensor and a compass, among other tools, and the tasks it had to be able to complete included entering through a gate, releasing objects and chasing after sound signals, as stated in a press release from the university.
Thirty-nine teams from universities around the world participated in RoboSub this year. The 2014 winner was Cornell University, with University of Florida, also from the U.S., placing second and ETS (L’École de technologie supérieure) from Canada placing third.
This is the fourth time that Reykjavík University participates in the RoboSub competition. The university’s best achievement was in 2011 when the submarine Freyja made it to the final and reached fourth place.
