The decision to create Calculon was done after the 12th Annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition, IGVC. After working on a previous ground vehicle, Black Knight, Daniel Barber and Tim Roberts (Left) thought it would be better to start creating a new vehicle from scratch, rather than continue modifying an existing platform.

    The previous vehicle, Black Knight, used Ackerman Steering, the same as a car, which was very difficult to control in the close quarters at the IGVC. In addition to this, a lot of the software had been written several years before, and was not entirely documented making it difficult to maintain and improve. Therefore, a new vehicle based off a differential drive system with fresh new software was created. The end result of months of hard work was Calculon.

    As of this writing, Calculon is one of the most succesful ground vehicles produced at the University of Central Florida. At the 2005 Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition Calculon won 4th place overall out of 37 teams. The overall standings for the vehicle for 2005 are:

Overall: 4th Place
Design: 3rd Place
Navigation: 8th Place
Autonomous: 12th Place