09/04/2021
Njord is set to be a unique International student competition, where students design systems to control autonomous ships and compete against other student teams in August 2021.
The competition will be held by and for students, and the goal is to raise awareness around automation, innovation and smart solutions, as well as creating a platform for personal development and networking.
https://njord.gitbook.io/njord/
Teams are tasked with designing a guidance system capable of situational awareness and collision avoidance. Using a standardised vessel and sensor suite, participants will compete by completeing various challenges in an efficient and safe manner.
The 2021 Challenge is split into four categories. The first three test the vessel's autonomous capabilities in a number of different situations and conditions. The final category is the Technical Report, described in further detail here.
The first category of challenges test the vessel's autonomous docking capabilities. Receiving only a GPS coordinate of the destination dock, the guidance system must maneuver the vessel towards the dock and ensure minimal deacceleration upon impact. The difficulty will be iteratively increased with obstacles such as other vessels docked nearby, and environmental factors such as wind.
The second category of challenges test the vessel's situational awareness in trafficked waters. The guidance system should aim to control the vessel in accordance to the COLREGs.
The third category of challenges test the vessel's ability to detect various sea markers and navigate accordingly. In these challenges, teams will receive a number of waypoints their vessel must pass sufficiently close to, often navigating through tight waterways.
Assessment
The performance of each team's guidance system will be assessed by a panel of judges on the competition day itself in August 2021. The judges will have a range of relevant backgrounds, including representatives from naval and technical universities, relevant businesses and other organisations. They will assess teams based on both qualitative and quantitative data, awarding points for efficiency in pathfinding, maneuvering in accordance to COLREGs and discovering potential obstacles at an early stage (among other aspects), and penalizing for undesirable behaviors, such as collisions. Additionally, each team's technical report will be read by the jury and count towards their overall score.
A jury rubric will be made available at a later date, which will describe exactly which parameters the jury will be looking at during the competition.
Final hand-in of the guidance system
To be able to remotely run each team's guidance system, we require all teams to build their systems in a Docker container which can be sent to us before the deadline in August. The container should be configured such that it interfaces correctly with the Njord platform without further configuration.
Welcome to the official Njord - The Autonomous Challenge Gitbook. This page contains all necessary documentation for participating teams to get started.
