Dear All,

It is an honor to accept such a responsibility as to lead our team project. I am humbled that you have placed your faith in me to lead us to a successful year. I will do my best to fulfill my duties and obligations as president of UM::Autonomy. My highest priority for this year are to establish a strong foundation for the development of our team to ensure a long and successful future for many years to come. I believe that recruitment, training, recognition and execution are the most important fundamentals for a young team such as ourselves and plan on focusing on the core of these basic principles. With our talented engineering management team applying the research, design, build, test, document (RDBTD) method and our devoted business department heading the funding, accounting, advertisement, and purchasing I have great confidence that this year will be an especially successful and rewarding one. So thank you for giving me the prestigious opportunity of leading such a team of bright individuals.

Sincerely,

Daniel J. Dabrowski
President, UM::Autonomy
Senior, Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
University of Michigan

Friends,

After a year of hard work and dedication, the University of Michigan's new Autonomous Surface Vehicle Team has finished its first year. Last Saturday, August 9th, 2008, marked the end of the first annual AUVSI Autonomous Surface Vehicle Competition, in which we placed 6th. Competitors came from all over North America, from Quebec to Florida and everywhere between.

For three days, our team grew closer and became more cohesive than we have ever been. We learned many lessons about vehicle design, software design, and testing schedules. Together we laughed, sighed, and worked hard throughout many long nights. We descended upon Starbucks, motel rooms, and marina parking lots with Michigan pride as we converted everyday locations into battery repair stations, vision testing grounds, and motor characterization facilities. In the end, we breathed a sign of relief, ready to resume our lives as students and interns for a time, knowing well that we will get back in the saddle in only a few short weeks, ready for more.

There are a number of things we will do differently next year -- we will host more social events because our time together showed us how much we enjoy each other's company; we will strive for simple, robust design; we will add more internal team structure and swap in a new team president; and we will recruit even harder with stories to tell and good work to be done. Despite all of these changes, we will not change many things -- we are a Michigan team and are damn proud to say so; we are the only naval-heavy multi-disciplinary team in the competition and we will continue to nurture our unique collection of skills; and, we are a group who will not be afraid to laugh together when stress levels are high, for we are friends.

For a first year team, we have had an excellent run. We owe a great deal of gratitude to the sponsors, advisors, and friends who made this year great. We owe a great deal to you for making this possible, for making us possible -- many thanks for reading and tracking our progress in this journey.

We will return in a year's time, poised for victory.

Expect a win.

Sincerely,
Andrew Richardson
2008 ASVTeam Captain

With August 7th rapidly approaching, the University of Michigan Autonomous Surface Vehicle Team is wrapping up work here in the lab and preparing for the long road to San Diego. We are happily testing left and right and are fortunate to have the nearby Lurie Reflecting Pool as a test facility (as shown). The team would like to thank all of our generous sponsors who've helped us get this far, our faculty advisors, Professor Ryan Eustice and Dr. David Singer, and our teammates for so many long hours.

Go Team!

The ASVTeam testbed has recently taken to the water with the ultimate goal of data collection and algorithm implementation testing! The team put the testbed in the water for the first time on December 1st, without motor power. The craft acquired test images of buoys on the water, as well as a subset of GPS data.

According to an article in the Maritime Reporter, the Navy has recognized the value of USVs for operations at a distance and has set a goal with four new classes of USV, the X-Class, Harbor Class, Snorkeler Class, and Fleet class.

More information can be found in this pdf.

After a lot of hard work, we are an official University of Michigan Sponsored Student Organization. Funding is starting to trickle in, our team collaboration tools are set up, and we have begun working with both a testbed and hardware for the 2008 vehicle.

It is an exciting time for the ASVTeam!