ESTACA 3rd in the Aqua.Bot marine drones challenge
Aqua.Bot is a 100% virtual challenge for autonomous marine drones, organized by SIRENHA, a Naval Group subsidiary specializing in dynamic positioning systems, autonomous unmanned ships and maritime surveillance. The competition gives students from specialized schools the opportunity to put their knowledge of robotics and programming into practice, working as a team on a maritime theme. Over 40 teams from 34 schools took part in this collaborative technological challenge, using the ROS2 and GAZEBO plug-ins. ESTACA students’ innovative Estaquabot project came in 3rd place.
Estaquabot: autonomous marine drone designed by three ESTACA students
The Aqua.bot challenge, organized by SIRENHA, ran from late September to mid-December 2024. The aim of the “Windwatch” mission was to battle it out over the maintenance of a wind farm. During the mission, the drone had to monitor the status of each wind turbine, report its status to a monitoring platform and carry out maintenance on the turbines in a complex environment.
To meet the challenge, three students from ESTACA Laval developed their Estaquabot project: an autonomous marine drone (USV – Unmanned Surface Vehicle) designed to carry out maintenance tasks in a simulated wind farm. Their drone’s mission was to inspect and maintain the wind turbines in an offshore wind farm, while avoiding collisions and operating in a virtual maritime environment. The drone’s specific tasks included:
- Wind turbine status inspection: move towards the turbines, avoiding obstacles, and scan the QR code on them.
- Identification: locate the faulty wind turbine and send a fault signal.
- Stabilization: hover in front of the faulty wind turbine and face the QR code.
- “Round Trip”: make two flights around the wind turbine to check its condition.
To successfully carry out the mission, students applied their skills in Python programming using the ROS2 framework and Gazebo simulation, in developing algorithms for drone perception, navigation and control, as well as in organization and public speaking…
A place on the podium for our students!
On December 18, the three ESTACA students presented their innovative Estaquabot project at the grand finale at SIREHNA in Nantes. They were among the 10 finalists, out of more than 40 participating teams. In front of a panel of experts made up of representatives from Schoolab, CINav, NAVAL GROUP and SIRENHA, they delivered a 7-minute pitch, meeting evaluation criteria based on:
- The quality of the report, with its technical explanation of the algorithms used and the organization within the group.
- The USV’s performance in simulated scenarios, including completion of mission steps, execution time and solution efficiency.
- The quality of the pitch in terms of conveying the message, clarity and relevance of the results.
The jury placed the ESTACA team in 3rd place, with a final score of 52.3 out of a total of 75 points!
Well done to the students for their commitment and professionalism throughout the challenge!
