We are a group of innovators who envision building autonomous systems of the future. We design and build autonomous maritime vehicles capable of navigating underwater and on the water surface, performing complex tasks autonomously. We design intelligent systems robust to changing environmental conditions, achieving full autonomy with an advanced sensor suite and an array of powerful actuators.
Our team comprises Mechanical, Computer, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Business students from the College of Design and Engineering (CDE), School of Computing (SoC) and the NUS Business School due to the multi-disciplinary nature of the project.
Background
Team Bumblebee was formed in the summer of 2012. In 2013, our Team Captain Ong Tian Chang, who was leading our team at the time, was approached by Prof. Mandar from the Acoustic Research Lab in NUS to form a team and participate in the inaugural Singapore Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge (SAUVC) in March 2013. With the goal of achieving world-class standards from the very beginning, our team began seeking sponsorships.
To attract more companies, we made the decision to rapidly learn from our first Singapore competition vehicle and upgrade it within a span of 4 months. This allowed us to participate in the AUVSI RoboSub, an annual event held in July in San Diego, USA. In our first year of formation, our team received the award for the best new entry and finished as a finalist in 7th place.
Since then, our team has steadily grown and expanded from our initial four-member team to a formidable group of 50 individuals.
RoboSub
This prestigious competition is organized by the US Office of Naval Research (ONR), in collaboration with the Association for Unmanned Systems International (AUVSI). The challenge consists of various underwater tasks that require proficiency in both acoustics and manipulation. Over the years, there has been an increased global participation. In 2013, when BBAUV first competed, there were an unprecedented 31 teams in total, with 15 of them being new, and 9 of them representing international teams from China, Russia, India, Sweden, Israel, Turkey, and Spain. Our team has consistently performed well in the competition and obtained our first championship in 2022.
RobotX Maritime Challenge
RobotX is RoboNation’s most complex robotic competition to date. Through this competition, RoboNation aspires to engage regional partners around the Pacific Rim while creating a new, high-level competition focused on autonomous surface vehicle platforms and sensors. Bumblebee participates in the biennial RobotX challenge as a key demonstrator of capabilities in both underwater and surface domains.
The team achieved 4th place in its first participation in 2016 and finished 1st in 2018.
Singapore AUV Challenge
The Singapore AUV Challenge is a locally organized competition by the IEEE OES Charter Singapore. It is an international competition with tasks similar to RoboSub and is designed to promote AUV development. In recent years, with the creation of the Hornet training program, the SAUVC competition has served as a training ground for freshmen to test their skills and as a selection process for the best and most dedicated undergraduate engineers to join the team.