Eagles Sail to Fourth Place in 2023 RoboBoat International Competition

A team of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students finished in fourth place at this year’s International RoboBoat Competition, where a record number of 23 teams from nine countries competed. 

RoboBoat is a competition hosted by RoboNation, which requires teams to design autonomous robotic boats to navigate through a challenge course.

“The team experienced a lot of growth throughout the last year and were able to learn a lot from the other teams competing this year,” said Dominic Marsh, leader of the four-person team, which is part of the Robotics Association at Embry-Riddle. “Even with the number of competitors almost doubling, we were still able to place highly. This gives our team a lot of pride in the work we put in."

The 16^th annual RoboBoat Competition was held March 22-28 at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida. It included teams representing Canada, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Israel, Poland, Puerto Rico, Turkey and the U.S. 

“The team had a goal to score points on five of the competition tasks and were able to achieve this goal,” said Dr. Eric Coyle, an Embry-Riddle professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. “The team was able to navigate, despite the windy conditions, perceive the environment and fire its water cannon, which was new for this year’s competition.”

Coyle is one of the team’s advisors who attended the competition, along with assistant professor Dr. Monica Garcia and Dr. Charles Reinholtz, professor emeritus.

The team included four Embry-Riddle students, including Marsh, Ana Alvarez, Francisco Bustamante and Alejandro Kassarjian. 

“The team is motivated to improve its autonomous functions for next year and also redesign the hull to combat some of the wind-related challenges faced this year,” said Coyle.