Welcome to our Robotics Web Site. Robotics is a diverse field of study that incorporates many aspects of science and technology. The field of robotics includes chassis design, controls, software engineering, machine vision, path planning and world modeling, circuit design, power systems, and much more. The University of Central Florida's Robotics Laboratory is a group of undergraduate and graduate students with a passion for robotics. It is the group's desire to build advanced autonomous robots for competition and research. Information about many of these projects can found throughout our site, with each requiring dedicated students. Our laboratory is supervised by faculty advisor Daniel Barber. The Robotics Club at UCF is headed by Gary Stein and is based from the lab. The autonomous robotics teams are currently working on ground, underwater, surface, and aerial vehicles. They are always looking for dedicated people to join in the advancement of this demanding field. The Robotics Club at UCF is a great place for both undergraduate and graduate UCF students to learn, gain experience, find job opportunities, and have fun. No previous experience is required, but be prepared to work hard!

    The best way to get involved with the Robotics Club and our Lab is to use our Contact Form or attend the Robotics Club Meeting.

General Meetings:
Meeting times and place are on the club site.

If you cannot attend the normal meetings, please make use of the Contact Form. Every week at the club meetings we review current progress on team projects and explain a topic of interest as a group. Topics include all aspects of robotics including motor control, electronics, power systems, programming, computer vision, machine learning, chassis construction, etc.

News Update:

January 21, 2010 (Spring Meetings):
    Just kicked off the semsester with pizza and soda, but if you missed that, don't worry! You haven't missed out on all the robots to be built throughout the semester! We'll continue having meetings every Thursday at 6:00pm, but if you can't make that, the individual teams meet at different times in the week, and you can find all that info on the club page. See you all in the lab!

January 12, 2010 (Spring Meetings):
    We're starting out this spring at a new time and with a new groove. Spring meetings will take place at 6:00pm on Thursdays. Come to our kick-off meeting on the 21st for pizza, soda and fun as we get ready for the new semester and all of our projects.

November 24, 2009 (Local Competition):
    We've finished off the club competition with great success! Congratulations to Blue Team for their victory. More information can be found at the club project page including pictures, videos and more!

September 21, 2009 (Local Competition):
    We've kicked off Fall semester with a strong showing of new and old faces alike. This week we formed groups for our in-club competition to teach members about robotics and project design/implementation. Our Boat and Sub teams have also started up again, speculating on fresh new designs and directions for their respective projects this year. Remember, it's never too late to join! Meetings are Tuesdays at 6:00pm in Partnership II.

August 31, 2009 (Fall Meetings):
    After a successful year for the robotics club (including a 1st, 3rd, and 4th in the 3 major collegiate competitions we entered), we will be starting again for this fall. This year we will continue to work on the surface (boat) and submarine teams, along with starting a brand new team for the IEEE competition. During the Fall semester we will have a local competition to learn about robotics by actually making them and some programming classes to help make them smart. We will start up on September 1st, and meeting we be every week on Tuesday at 6:00 PM.

August 3, 2009 (AUV Competition):
    Just finished AUV competition in San Diego. Our Cameras let in water the first day and failed. But after a quick trip to Fry's and $300 later, we had new underwater cameras. But those also let in water, and had to be fixed with silicone. After some mixed results in practice, we had a pretty good qulifier, and made it to the finals. We ended up placing 10th place in the static judging and 4th place in the competition overall. We would like to thank everyone who helped on the project. See the individual page here.

June, 21 2009 (ASV Competition):
    We repeated as champions of the ASV Competition this year in Virginia. We were successfully able to do the 400 foot start gate, the buoys and almost did the dock and targets, and were able to return back to the dock. More information will be listed at here.

March 7, 2009 (IEEE Competition):
    After two months of hard work, one week of sleepless nights, and several paper clips later; we are proud to announce that the robotics club at UCF was able to capture 3rd place at IEEE SouthEastCon 2009. This year the schools were required to build a small robot capable of locating, collecting, and sorting different beverage products (e.g. cans, glass and plastic bottles). All sorting and storage of the collected items had to be done on the vehicle, and they had to make sure they did not drive over a hidden electric fence. Pictures and Videos are here or for an overview here.

Janurary 14, 2009 (Spring Meetings):
    The Spring meetings are stating next week. We will be meeting every Tuesday at 6:00pm at the Partnership II Robotics Lab. The main emphasis this semester will be working on the larger projects for the summer and the IEEE vehicle which is in March.

December 6, 2008 (Local Robotics Competition):
    Our club members fought off studying for exams to create entries into the 1st Annual Local Robotics Competition at UCF. The purpose of this compeition was to have a team of 6 students create a robot that picked up as many ping-pong balls as possible without running into obstacles. This all had to be done autonmously with the computing resources and sensor mounted on the vehicle and it had to be done for under $300 each (funds provided by the club). We hope to continue this for next year in the fall, to see pictures click here.

September 8, 2008 (Fall Meetings):
    The Fall meetings have started. We will be meeting every Thursday at 6:00pm at the Partnership II Robotics Lab.

August 27, 2008 (Fall Meetings):
    Our first Fall 2008 meeting will be held in the Engineering II Atrium next Thursday (September 4th) at 6:00pm. With the normal meeting projected to be on all the following Thursdays in Partnership II at 6:00pm. Team meeting times will soon be announced.

August 10, 2008 (UCF Wins Autonomous Surface Vehicle Competition!)
    I know we haven't posted anything new in a while on the main page, however we are pleased to announce that UCF won the Autonomous Surface Vehicle Compeition (ASVC) sponsored by the AUVSI winning $8000 in prize money! The team from the Robotics Club was required to build a vehicle capable of perfoming channel navigation tasks, docking, and firing upon simulated shoreline targets without any human intervention. This is a fantastic accomplishment, and one we hope to repeat again next year!.

August 30, 2007 (Fall Meetings):
    Reorganized teams for the Surface, Ground, and Underwater teams to compete next summer. Planning for rebuilding the boat from scratch, finish up the ground vehicle in software, and modify the sub for next year's operation.

August 7, 2007 (Robots Everywhere!)
    We haven't posted anything new here in a while, but there is a lot to say. Our group has just finished a tour of 4 international robotic competitions this summer which include: The Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC), International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC), Autonomous Underwater Vehcile Competition (AUVC), and Autonomous Surface Vehicle Competition (ASVC). In all events we won prize money, with 3rd in Design at IGVC, Winner of JAUS Challenge at IARC, 5th Place Overall at AUVC, and Best Performer at the ASVC. We have now concluded an intense summer schedule and will begin having meetings for new students in the next few weeks, so keep checking out this website and check your email if we have you on file. Get involved to gain experience and make job contacts for after graduation in these growing fields. In the meantime, here are pictures from the ASVC.

May 30, 2007 (Summer Meetings):
    Currently there are not summer meetings scheduled for new students. All teams are getting ready for competition. New meeting times will be announced in the near future.

Janurary 24, 2007 (Spring Meetings):
    Same projects from last semester are being continued (annual based schedule) with new members joining. All projects need members, no previous experience is required

October 3, 2006 (C++ Programmers Needed)
    This is a post to all C/C++ programmers out there looking for a fun and advanced project to hone your skills on. The Ground Team is looking for students who want to learn and improve there programming skills on computer vision, artificial-intelligence, sensor fusion, network communication, etc. related projects for an autonomous ground robot. If you feel you have not learned how to program well from your classes, this is the opportunity to get the skills needed for after graduation. If you are interested in more information about how to get involved or what the projects are please contact Daniel Barber - dbarber@ist.ucf.edu.

September 28, 2006 (Fall Meetings):
     Major projects were announced: 4 Ongoing Lab projects and 3 Club Projects
     Lab Projects: Ground Vehicle, Air Vehicle, Surface Vehicle, and Underwater Vehicle (see page links on the left)
     Club Projects: Paintball Project, Lego Mindstorm Project, and Robotic Arm
     All projects need members, no previous experience is required

September 20, 2006 (Robotics Club First General Meeting and Some Available Projects for Ground Teams)
    This is another reminder that tomorrow is the first open meeting of the Robotics Club for new students and will be held in Communications 110 at 3pm. On another note, the ground vehicle team is looking for students to work on some specific software projects/tools for the ground robots and lab in general. Information for these projects can be found here on our software wiki.

September 14, 2006 (Robotics Club First General Meeting)
    The first general meeting of the Robotics Club will be held next week on Thursday, September 21, at 3pm in Communications 110. All new students are welcome to stop by and see what we have to offer. We will be discussing what the club is about, and what activities will be available this year. Meetings will be held weekly unless noted otherwise.

August 26, 2006 (Fall Meetings):
    Just a quick update to let everyone know that we will be having club meetings on campus again in the next few weeks. We have not picked a date yet, so please keep an eye out for an update here or flyer's in the hall of engineering!

July 31, 2006 (Air Vehicle Competition)
    Just a quick update to announce that the air team was very successful at this years Autonomous Air Vehicle Competition. They were able to show autonomous flight and win an award of $1000.00. More details will come in the near future.

June 19, 2006 (14th Annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition)
    The ground team has just returned from their latest attempts at victory at the IGVC and came away with their best performance yet. Pictures can be seen here. This year Calculon was returned and performed four times better than last year in every way possible. We took 6th place in Navigation Challenge out of 41 registered teams, and the vehicle drove four times further on the Autonomous Challenge course (300 ft) than last year before timing out. Even after reaching the time limit, Calculon was able to continue driving the course nearly reaching the end for a total of 650 feet. We have yet to find out our final standings in the Autonomous and Design Challenges, but will post the results as soon as they are available. This years ground team was composed of:

Team Calculon 2005/2006
Name	Project Section	Class Standing
Daniel Barber	Team Captain, Electrical Systems, Software Systems Design, Machine Vision, Obstacle Avoidance Sensors, Systems Integration, Path Planning, Communication, Mapping, Controls, Documentation, Logo Design, Funding, and Navigation	Graduate, CpE
Brian C. Becker	Team Captain, Machine Vision, Software Systems Design, Systems Integration, Mapping, Documentation, Cross-Platform Development, Path Planning, Controls, and Graphical User Interfaces, (GUI)s	Undergraduate, CpE
Enrique Ortiz	Software systems developement, software integration, and graphical user interfaces	Undergraduate, CpE
Rick Porter	Chassis Maintenance	Undergraduate, ME

May 15, 2006 (Robotics Club Meetings & Competitions)
    Just a quick update to let everyone know all teams are working hard to complete their vehicles for competition. We have three competitions going on this summer for air, ground, and underwater vehicles. More news will follow as progress is made.

    The Robotics Club will be holding meetings over the summer, but a new date has not been announced. They are working to complete the autonomous paint ball gun, and plan for Robofest in Fall 2006. For more club information go to Robotics Club.

February 28, 2006 (Spring Semester)
    Due to the activity at our normal meeting place, trying to balance everyone's schedules, and the progress being made on projects we have moved the meetings to every Thursday at 4:30pm at the Robotics Laboratory in Partnership II building. If you need direction, please visit the contact page. Hope to see everyone there.

January 25, 2006 (Robotics Club Meetings & Sally Ride Science Festival)
    Since we have not updated the front page in a while, we thought it would be a good idea to let everyone know we are still active! The Robotics Club at UCF has started having meetings again on the normal weekly basis. Current meeting times and place are on the club web site. Work on introducing new students to Robotics and building autonomous robots is continuing. The ground teams are making good progress on improving Calculon and are doing their best to get Gamblore built. The air team and underwater teams are making great progress as well.
    On another note, Daniel Barber, Brian C. Becker, and Dr. Fernando Gonzalez brought Calculon out to the Sally Ride Science Festival on December 3, 2006 at the Kennedy Space Center. This festival is a great opportunity to try and get young women interested in science and engineering. For pictures of our trip, please visit the gallery.

September 24, 2005 (Last Open-House & Club Meetings)
  The final open house for this semester is today at 11am. This is a great chance for new students and those interested to see the great work going on in our lab. If you can't make the open house, and want to get involved, visit the Open-House and Lab Tours Page. In other news the Robotics Club at UCF has started holding weekly meetings. If you like robotics, but not interested in a year-long project, the Robotics Club at UCF is a perfect place to have fun. Finally, the current projects some of the teams are working on in the lab can be found in the Available Projects Page.

September 16, 2005 (First Club Meeting)
  The first club meeting is coming up everyone who wishes to attend, please do. We will be discussing what will happening in the club and propose what projects will be undertaken. Please Come with ideas and creativity, you can propose a project of your own and if it is liked, it may be done. The meeting time and location has been decided, and is now posted above. We hope you will be able to join us this Friday. Thanks again to everyone who came and spoke with us at the Student Union last week.

August 30, 2005 (Open House Update/Schedule Change)
  This post is just a reminder and a notification about Open Houses. The open house for this weekend, September 3, 2005, has been canceled so that everyone can have time off for Labor Day. Open Houses will start back up again the following weekend. Also, we will begin have campus club meetings starting in September, expect to see flyers and a notice on this site when we have more details.

August 16, 2005 (Open Houses)
  This post is just a reminder and a notification about Open Houses. The open house for this weekend, August 20, 2005, has been canceled so that everyone can have time off before classes begin again. Open Houses will start back up again the following weekend. Also, we will begin have campus club meetings starting in September, expect to see flyers and a notice on this site when we have more details.

July 23, 2005 (Aerial Team Results & Next Open House)
  Great news for UCF, the Robotics Aerial teams has returned from comptetition with 1st place in most innovative design and 1st place in static design. This hard working group of students really pulled off an amazing feat and we can't wait to find out the final standings in the rest of the competition. The team consists of:

Scott Stickler
  Team Lead, Structures and Frame Design
  Undergraduate, Mechanical Engineering

Nicolas Barberi
  Control and Electrical Systems
  Graduate, Electrical Engineering
Michael Barry
  Aeronautics, Mechanical Systems, Power Plant
  Undergraduate, Mechanical Engineering

Nicholas Bray
  Vision, Path Planning
  Undergraduate, Computer Science

Justin Key
  Navigation, Wireless Communication
  Graduate, Computer Engineering

Gary Stein
  Vision, Path Planning
  Ph.D. Student, Computer Engineering

Dr. Leonessa
  Faculty Advisor
  Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering


  On another note the next Open House of the Robotics Laboratory at UCF will be on Saturday July 30th at 11am at the Partnership II building in Research Park. Directions can be found on our Contact Page.

July 20, 2005 (Open House & Site Fix)
  We had a little glitch on the web site's contact page, but it should be resolved now. So for those interested in attending our open house this weekend, you should have no problems getting directions now. The open house is this Saturday, July 23rd at 11am at the Partnership II building in Research Park. Club members will greet those interested at the front door of the building at 11am when we will be entering the secured building for a tour. If you cannot make this open house, there will be one every Saturday after July 23rd at the same time, same place, unless otherwise posted here. We will be showing new students what projects are available to work on which include autonomous ground, air, and underwater robotic vehicles. You will get a chance to see a demonstration of an autonomous ground vehicle driving to gps waypoints also. Please don't be late, if you cannot make the 11am time, please contact timr@mail.ucf.edu, dbarber@ist.ucf.edu, or fgonzale@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu or fill out contact form if you are interested in working on these types of projects. We are currently looking for students of all majors, but particularly computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering.

July 10, 2005 (New Projects and Open House)
  The Robotics Club and Laboratory at UCF will begin having weekly open houses starting July 23, 2005. This is a great opportunity for new students to come and see what we've been working on, and find out how to get involved. We will also begin having club meetings again as soon as the Fall semester starts. The open house will begin at 11am and end at 12pm starting July 23rd, and will be every Saturday unless otherwise posted. Please do not be late because we will not be able to give any tours that run past 12pm. Those interested will be greeted at the front door of Partnership II to be let into the lab. For directions to our lab located in Research Park please visit our Contact page.

June 16, 2005 (Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition)
  The ground teams are returning from a successful trip to the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition. Both team Calculon and RDB3K made it into the top six spots for the design competition, with Calculon taking 3rd place! This is great news, since the competition this year was extremely fierce with 37 teams from around the world registered. Calculon was able to score 8th place in the Navigation Challenge. The final score for the Autonomous Challenge has not been released yet, but we are hoping for a top 10 spot. Some pictures have been posted in the gallery, a direct link is here. Congradulations to the hard work by all the team members:

Team Calculon: Daniel Barber Tim Roberts Brian C. Becker Anton Kiriwas Chase Hansel Rick Porter Matt Ganci

Team RDB3K: Gary Stein Geoff Decker Chase Hansel Gavin Barnes

June 2, 2005 (Final Testing and Preparations)
The ground teams just about ready for the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition, IGVC. We have only a few weeks left to finish everything. Some great steps have been made in the last month, and we feel we will be a top contender at the competition. The competition will begin one week from today, so wish us luck! Check out the gallery to see the latest pictures and movies of Caluclon and RDB3K before they leave for competition.

May 23, 2005 (Getting Ready for Competition)
The ground teams are getting ready for the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition, IGVC. We have only a few weeks left to finish everything. We are all looking forward to performing well this year. To show some of the progress being made, check out the gallery to see pictures and videos of Caluclon and RDB3K who will be attending this years events. To show some of the great progress we've made in the first year on Calculon, check our our vision system in action.

April 8, 2005 (No More Tuesday Club Meetings)
This is a note to inform everyone that there will not be a club meeting on Tuesdays for the rest of the semester. It was decided to use that time to prepare our current projects for summer competitions. Club meetings will resume again at the end of the summer / beginning of fall semester.

March 11, 2005 (FIRST & Next Club Meeting)
Team members from the Robotics Lab at UCF visited the FIRST competition to show future university robotics students what they have been working on. The ground and underwater teams both came out to show off there past and future projects. Please check out some of the pictures here.
The next Robotics Club meeting will be on March 29th at 6pm in ENG1 room 288. It will not be held next week due to spring break. Hope to see all interested students there!

February 11, 2005 (Open House at Partnership II)
On Thursday February 11, 2005 Partnership II, where our lab is located, had an open house event. At this event our different teams showed off the work being done in our lab. This was a great event and we were able to show everyone in the Orlando community what we've been up to. See some pictures of the event here.
New CAD images have also been posted for project Gamblore. The pictures can be found here.

February 7, 2005 (Robotics Club at UCF and Lab Progress)
The next Robotics Club meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 15 in Engineering I room 288 at 6:00PM. All are welcome as we discuss the beginning of club projects to build a robot.
Lab Update: Both ground vehicles are running under computer control now. Calculon is entering it's software testing phase as the final wiring is completed on the vehicle. RDB3K moved by computer control via a PC Joystick for the first time last night. Check out the movies of it here.

January 26, 2005 (Robotics Club at UCF and Lab Meetings)
The first Robotics Club at UCF meeting of the new semester will be Tuesday, February 1, 2005 in Engineering I room 288 at 6:00PM. We look forward to seeing you then!

The first Robotics Lab at UCF meeting of the semester will be held at IST on Friday, January 28th at 6PM all lab members should attend.

January 17, 2005 (Updated Web site & More)
A new semester has started, and a new site is born. The entire web site has been redone and streamlined. Please check out the updated gallery. New images and movies have been added to almost all sections. The lab members page has been updated as well. New projects should be posted in the coming weeks as well, so keep an eye out. As of this semester, the Robotics Lab will no longer have weekly Friday night meetings. The meetings will be once a month, and all teams will be encouraged to meet on their own accord. Team members will be notified of the next group meeting. Robotics Club meetings will still be twice a month starting on a yet to be determined date.

December 14, 2004 (Site Updates)
A few new changes have occured to the web site. A new page for the Pegasus aerial vehicle has been created, and new galleries for RDB and Pegasus have been posted.

October 26, 2004 (Robotics Club at UCF)
The Robotics Club at UCF will be having its next meeting on Tuesday, October 26, 2004 at 6pm in Engineering I, room 288. Expect to discuss of robots past and present.

September 17, 2004 (Robotics Club Next Meeting)
Robotics Club at UCF will be having its next meeting on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 at 6pm in Engineering I, room 288.

September 11, 2004 (Robotics at UCF visits OSC Photos)
On September 11, 2004 the Robtics Teams at UCF traveled to the Orlando Science Center for the We Robot Data. We Robot was an event to showcase movie and real life robots for the general public. This keeps in tradition with the Robotics Labs goal of stirring interest in robotics for the community. Many of our current and past projects were brought include Robotic Connect-Four, Black Knight, RDB3K, and KETO the underwater vehicle. Many current sensors and displays with laser range finders and machine vision were also displayed. Check out the image gallery!

August 19, 2004 (Robotics at UCF Going to Orlando Science Center)
The Saturday September 11th from 11am to 6pm the Robotics Team will be participating in the Reel /Real Robotics Day event at the Orlando Science Center. At the exhibit we will be bringing several displays. The Underwater Team will be bringing their vehicle, and the Ground Vehicle team will be bringing RDB3K. In addition to these vehicles, the Robotic Connect-Four project will be available for playing against, as well as some machine vision demonsrations. Please join us

August 19, 2004 (Underwater Team Returns from Underwater Vehicle Competition , IAUVC)
The The Robotics Underwater team has recently returned from the International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition. This being the first year at this competition, the team did a fantastic job

June 21 2004 (Robotics Ground Teams have returned from IGVC)
The Robotics Team has returned from the 2004 12th annual IGVC competition. We are currently waiting for final results, which will be posted as soon as they are known. Check under each project's page (RDB3K and Black Knight) for the design papers the teams submitted, and take a look at the gallery of photos that were taken at the event (more photos and video coming soon!)

May 21 2004 (Preparing for IGVC)
The Robotics Team is preparing for the 2004 12th annual IGVC competition, which is three weeks away. RDB3K is in progress; Black Knight's new vision system is currently in the testing phase and the new steering controls are all but completed. We are currently putting together the final design reports. Check back soon for more updates on our progress as we get closer to this exciting event!

March 16, 2004 (DARPA Grand Challenge)
On March 13, 2004 history was made when the first off-road autonomous vehicle race was held. The DARPA Grand Challenge was a 200 mile race from California to Nevada over the most difficult desert terrain possible. Tim Roberts, Richard Andres, Gary Stein, and Daniel Barber went to California to find out what this was all about. They worked as volunteers and staff for the QID, Quality Inspection and Demonstration, at the California Speedway and helped at the start and finish lines. This event has been the biggest robotics event held to date. Although none of the competitors were able to complete the challenge, it was a great experience to learn about how other people are tackling the challenges in Autonomous Robotics. Please click check out our gallery to see what we at Robotics saw.

February 19, 2004 (Team Orlando Robotics Club Visits)
On February 6, 2004 Robotics was visited by the Team Orlando Robotics Club, TORC, a high school robotics club. During their visit the autonomous underwater vehicle group did a presentation on the vehicle they are constructing. The underwater vehicle is designed for the International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition. After their presentation the members of TORC were able to take a tour of the lab and ask questions to the members of the Robotics Laboratory.

January 24, 2004 (Sally Ride Science Festival)
Robotics at UCF visited the Sally Ride Science Festival January 24, 2004. The goal of our trip was to help stimulate interest in robotics. To do this the Black Knight was brought out by Dr. Gonzalez, Tim Roberts, Richard Andres, Gary Stein, and Daniel Barber. They demonstrated the Black Knights vision system and path planning capabilities. To do this several GPS points were given and the Black Knight located these while avoiding obstacles. The Robotics Team at UCF also answered questions by the curious visitors to the festival. Click on the image to see photos from the trip. For more information on the Sally Ride Science Festival go to: www.sallyrideclub.com.