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A Vehicle That Can Go Almost Anywhere (NJAV)

NJAV stands for New Jersey Autonomous Vehicle. Autonomous vehicles are those which serve a unique purpose or function in an environment where constant human instruction or interaction would be unsafe or impossible, such as in dangerous military situations or in harsh environments like the surface of the moon.  The 2009 NJAV team, consisting of recent Electrical and Computer Engineering graduates Richard Moser and Graham Apgar, set a goal of reevaluating and improving the existing autonomous vehicle of previous years and enter it into the 16th Annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC).

The IGVC is comprised of two events. In the first event the autonomous vehicle must navigate from one waypoint using GPS information while avoiding obstacles set in its path. The second event in the competition has the vehicle navigating within the confines of white boundary lines while again avoiding obstacles in its path. Improvements made to the vehicle include the addition of an optical rotary encoder, the programming of newly rewritten navigation and path-finding computer code, and a newly designed interface system for the purpose of acquiring path-finding data and executing that data so the robots can more quickly identify potential obstacles and navigate around them. “Our main goal is to basically make the vehicle steer more accurately. I think the more we can do with that, the better chance we have in the competition,” says Graham.

The NJAV project was started in 2004 at The College of New Jersey for the purpose of competition in the annual IGVC, held most years in Michigan. Each year since its inception, teams have chosen to upgrade and improve on the previous year’s already constructed vehicle rather than start from scratch. This allows for the team to focus more on enhancing the electronic sensors and programming of the vehicle rather than reconstructing a mechanical platform each year. Previous NJAV teams have always done well in the competition, and this year’s team is looking forward to continued success when they compete.

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Contact

Armstrong Hall, Room 165
The College of New Jersey
P.O. Box 7718
2000 Pennington Rd.
Ewing, NJ 08628

609.771.2538
engineer@tcnj.edu

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