Engineering students create intelligent taxis
Thursday 23rd March

Photo(l-r): Dr. Noel O'Connor, Dr Seán Marlow, Jay Galligan (EE3), Ronan O'Hart (EE3), Saqib Mumtaz (ME3)

The School of Electronic Engineering at Dublin City University, held its annual mobile robotics competition on Wed 22 nd March 2006. The event, sponsored by Farnell Ireland, pits teams of students against each other in a bid to design and build a “RoboCab” – an intelligent driverless robotic taxi. RoboCabs drive, collect and deposit passengers, sound horns and flash lights, all without the assistance of a driver. Each RoboCab controls itself – there are no joysticks or remote controls sending instructions to the cars. Seven prototypes competed this year for the title of RoboCab.

The competition is the culmination of a 3 rd year module, coordinated by Dr. Noel O'Connor and Dr. Seán Marlow, both lecturers in the School of Electronic Engineering. It is taken by students on the Electronic Engineering and Mechatronic Engineering undergraduate degree programmes.

Students worked in small teams and were given six weeks to design and build their RoboCabs. According to Dr O'Connor, the project integrates a number of different aspects of engineering. “Students have to design the mechanical structure of their robot using Lego building blocks and various gearing mechanisms, decide what electronic sensors to use and how to connect these to the controlling micro-processor. Furthermore, they then have to write the software that provides instructions to the micro-processor and enables the RoboCab to drive, pick up passengers and take them to their desired destination, all without human intervention.”

Dr Marlow says: “The project is designed to provide students with an opportunity to participate in a real engineering project similar to one they will eventually encounter in the work place. To this end, students are responsible for managing their own work and allocating tasks amongst themselves. Its hard work with lots of pressure, particularly in the run up to the competition, but its also fun.”

This year's winning students were Jay Galligan, Ronan O Hart and Saqib Mumtaz with their robot “Achilles1”.