SINGAPORE, Oct. 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Northrop
Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is expanding its support for
science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education across
the globe by sponsoring the Maritime RobotX Challenge in
Singapore, Oct. 20-26. Bringing together 15 teams of
university students from five countries (United States, Singapore, Korea, Japan and Australia), RobotX challenges each team to
develop and test a highly-capable unmanned surface vessel
(USV).
A video accompanying this release is available at:
http://youtu.be/iLs3pI_oJh4
In addition to the company's sponsorship of the RobotX
competition, two Northrop Grumman employees are serving as mentors
and judges. Guidance and control engineer Kyle Palmer and systems engineer Tyler Tamashiro are working with the university
students during the boats' practice rounds and later judging the
boats performance as they attempt a series of land-based and
in-water tasks.
"The event has just begun and we are seeing a lot of excitement
and enthusiasm among the students," said Tamashiro. "As mentors,
Kyle and I look forward to engaging discussions with the teams and
providing them with valuable advice."
Each student team received a version of the 16-foot Wave
Adaptive Modular Vessel, in addition to a grant to build a
propulsion system and outfit the vessel with computers, software
and sensors. As part of the competition, each team's vessel has to
complete a set of tasks including the avoidance and detection of
obstacles, identifying and reporting on a specified target and
searching underwater for an acoustic source.
"I find this competition fascinating, given that the students
are working on the next generation of autonomous control and
navigation," said Palmer. "The innovations and ideas that come out
of this event advance technologies that will be used by numerous
industries in the future."
The competition, taking place at Marina Bay, is co-sponsored by
the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International
Foundation, the Office of Naval Research and Singapore's Ministry of Defence.
For more information, please visit
www.northropgrumman.com/RobotXChallenge.
Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing
innovative systems, products and solutions in unmanned systems,
cyber, C4ISR, and logistics and modernization to government and
commercial customers worldwide. Please visit
www.northropgrumman.com for more information.
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SOURCE Northrop Grumman Corporation