Today has been quite an adventure! We have been down cattleman road (the road Nathan Benderson Park is off of) more times than you could count on one hand. We have integrated a new router and will be ready for testing and safety inspection tomorrow! The weathers 20 degrees warmer than Michigan with heaps of rain instead of snow to add on.

The Sarda-ine successfully completed waypoint navigation using path planning to navigate to two points. We experienced winds of 17 mph and a decently strong current. We were also able to tune the Heading and Speed controller and had little error in heading and velocity when we navigated the course. We passed our safety examination and hope to qualify for at least two tasks tomorrow!

Today we made Team AMORE history!! We qualified for the final two tasks needed to qualify for finals, so we are headed to the finals!!! Other than that, the weather was hot and sunburny and we wish we had more time in the Florida to enjoy the weather. But here is a west Florida sunset to finish out the night.

Today we tested our vision systems that are imperative for the final runs that we have tomorrow and on Sunday! We also came up with a last minute idea for a water gun to complete task four. Credit is due to the quick thinking of senior Andrew Heiny! He saw the designs of other teams and was able to rig up a system that is unique and should be usable in future roboboat competitions! Additionally, today was the hottest and smoothest day on the water so LSSU is not particularly looking forward to coming back to rainy Sault Ste Marie. Tomorrow’s finals runs will be at 11:30 and 15:30 so stay tuned!!

Today was definitely a whirl wind. We continued to receive more daily time on the practices course than our trip last year. Additionally, we had two finals runs today. We are off to a slow start, but tonight we will work on the boat so we show up with our A Game tomorrow morning. Today at Nathan benderson park there was a 5k and many runners were from the mitten state!! It was great for us to showcase what we are doing with Team AMORE. The weather was quite nice today and we are dreading the flight back each day. Also, for any of those who want to watch us at our finals run we are on the course at 11:00am. https://m.youtube.com/@AUVSIFoundation/streams.

Today was the day Team AMORE made history! We placed 5th at the RoboBoat 2024 challenge! The field was competitive, and many teams made it to the finals, but we walked away with our first top 5 finish in a physical competition. This is leaps and bounds from last year (14th). We thank everyone who helped to put this year's event together and we are planning to come in stronger next year!

Noah Murray: Software Engineer I
Sam Harman: GNC Engineer I
Hailey Greenleaf: GNC Engineer II
Draven Klein: Mechanical Engineer II

See our travel team member's complete bios on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram.

Check this article out!

https://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2014/09/01/fau-students-building-robot-boat-to-conquer-the-world/

We are ready to head to RobotX '24 at the end of this week!

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*Team Orientation

*WAM-V Reassembly

*Trouble Shooting

*Drone Safety Test taken and passed!

Today we put in the work on readying systems for safety test and the ball launcher.

Today was another hot day in the Florida sun working on the WAM-V. Today we had our team presentation, system assessment, and passed our safety inspection!

Tomorrow we will be getting out on the water to start attempting tasks!

Today Team Amore members attended a series of Tech Talks, including one by Alumni Hannah Brood. We also had a large series of learning experiences.

Today we spent a lot of time troubleshooting and working on various systems. We also got our drone up in the air and running autonomous code!

Today we got to truly apply the engineering design process while troubleshooting with the WAM-V on and off the water.

We put in the work and got recognized. Team Amore is proud to announce we are walking away with $3,500 in awards! We received 1st place in the Mathworks Simulation Challenge, 4th Place in Design Documentation, and an Award for Resiliency.

We thank our sponsors, the volunteers, Robonation Staff, and all the teams that helped us along the way. 

We appreciate the support from our families, LSSU, and the School of Engineering and Technology.

Stay tuned for more pictures!

Check them out:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/50196393@N08/albums/72177720321744206/page2

Hannah Brood is an LSSU and Team Amore Alumni. While at Lake State Hannah earned degrees in Mechanical and Robotics Engineering. She was a member of Amore 1 and was the team lead for RobotX 2022 in Sydney, Australia. Hannah now works at NIWIC Pacific which is a part of the Office on Naval Research. At RobotX 2024, she was a course supervisor and gave a tech talk!

Check out all the incredible sponsors who make our journey possible: https://sites.google.com/lssu.edu/lssurobotx/sponsors.

"RobotX is always a great and challenging experience. The team got to learn more about the system and each other. It was a great team-building experience."

-Dillion, Senior

-Sam, Junior

-Nathan, Sophomore

-Hailey, Freshman

-Chase, Senior

Campus Life is hosting Winterpaloza in the Student Activities Center from 11-2. There will be free food, giveaways, and Lake State clubs: including Team AMORE!

Come stop by our table to learn more about marine robotics, RobotX, Roboboat, VRX, and our research. We hope to see you there!

We are so excited as this marks a major milestone before the 2025 RoboBoat Competition!

If you answered yes to one of these questions or have more, come to our meeting tomorrow (January 29th) at 6pm in CAS 203*! It is a perfect time to meet the club, and did we mention there will be pizza?

We hope to see you there!

*We may move to CAS 205 if we need more room.*

Come to a meeting or reach out to us!

The team has brought not one, but TWO autonomous vessels from Sault Ste. Marie to Sarasota. We have our autonomous kayak for the RoboBoat Competition and the BlueBoat that senior project team BAM is working on to do bathymetric mapping. This morning, senior project team member Chris is hitting the waves with the BlueBoat to get data for their project.

Today we passed safety! We also got our systems organized, made sure our cart sinks, and got the boat out in the pool!

We're so ready for our presentation tomorrow!

https://www.thejot.net/archive-issues/?id=91#_

Team Amore started the day very early in Sault Ste Marie, picked up the team along the way, and journeyed to Chicago. After an extremely long flight to Amsterdam, the team went through Schengen Immigration. We were then greeted by a flight delay in Oslo...which caused the airline to rebook them to a new flight for their connection to Trondheim. We eventually made it to Trondheim, and too the express bus further into the city. We then walked almost 2 kilometers with 9 suitcases filled with our personal belongings and equipment. We are all settled in, trying our best to beat jetlag, trying new foods, and exploring the area!

It is not to late to support our journey in Trondheim, Norway! You can still donate to our GoFundMe that is linked below:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-team-amore-go-to-trondheim-norway

Team AMORE is excited to announce our newly formed partnership with Team Node!

After arrival in Trondheim, AMORE was unable to find a youth kayak that is normally used for their hull. Team Node had a hull, but was lacking certain software aspects. It worked out what each team lacked, the other could provide! This partnership was formed in less then 24 hours and spans 6,610 kilometers. We quickly got to work on devising a plan to integrate our systems and are now hard at work!

We are very thankful for our new friends, Team Node, from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC)!

https://gofund.me/13c5b1b4

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-team-amore-go-to-trondheim-norway?fbclid=PAQ0xDSwMGZVNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABp248EsHiMj9cTFjFSuCmHPb0s9nXH2RpbYxSgcFRJkcOQIV8F1utozbGXGAN_aem_3orgJB-0BBIt2x1yB-KeyA

Last night we finished the hardware integration between AMORE and NODE! We were finally able to see the ASV on the water and try our the Remote Control capabilities.

The team took a brain break and road a train to see a little more of the surrounding area!

Another big thank you to our GoFundMe donors! Their generosity allowed us to buy bus passes that included the train passes!

Ok enough with these ship-wrecked puns. The hardware integration between AMORE and NODE is complete! Node's hull, propulsion system, and safety system  have been combined with with AMORE's low level controller, perception mast, and processor to create one vessel!

We have had success with remote control operation and are finalizing our autonomy. We have made it onto the competition course and are putting our best foot, I mean propellor forward!

The team got the chance to continue networking with other teams, hear from the sponsors of the competition, learn about a student design team, and have meaningful conversations with companies!

Team AMORE attended the 2025 Njord Challenge in Trondheim, Norway. The Njord Challenge is one of the largest student autonomous ship challenges. The team represented LSSU and the United States. The team traditionally uses a children's kayak as their hull, but were unable to bring one or secure one in Trondheim.

A new partnership was formed! Team AMORE joined forces with Team Node from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia in Spain. They provided the hull and safety systems and AMORE provided the software and vision systems.

After all the challenges, we persevered! Out of the eleven teams, AMORE was one of two who received a perfect score on their technical presentation. We also received the team spirit award!

More Pictures and Video to Come!

To support our efforts, consider donating via

*The LSSU Foundation and designating a gift to Team AMORE/RobotX club

https://sites.google.com/lssu.edu/lssurobotx/donate

*GoFundMe

https://www.gofundme.com/.../help-team-amore-go-to...

*Contacting the team directly on social media or via email at robotx@lssu.edu or amore@lssu.edu

Simply follow the below link, and include "RobotX Team AMORE - LSSU Robotics" in the designation. 

https://advancement.lssu.edu/givingtuesday-2025/

We appreciate your support!

-A random Mechinical Team Member

Travel Day

Packed up the Vans ✅

Mackinac Bridge ✅

Michigan ✅

Ohio✅

Kentucky ✅

Buc-ee's ✅

941 miles ✅

Travel Day

Tennessee ✅

Georgia ✅

Florida ✅

631 miles ✅

Unpacked ✅

Dinner ✅

Testing.......

Check-in ✅

Team Orientation ✅

Social Networking ✅

Kayak Training ✅

Team Photos ✅ 

Group Photo ✅ 

Design & Strategy Presentation ✅ 

Technical System Assessment ✅ 

Passed Safety ✅ 

First Water Slot ✅

Lots of Troubleshooting ✅ 

Water Time ✅ 

Connecting with Other Teams ✅

Water Time ✅ 

Cooking ✅ 

Connecting with Other Teams ✅

Sharing our work with spectators ✅

For the second year in a row, Team AMORE has won the Team Engagement for our social media, community building, and energy! We are grateful for all the lessons we have learned, connections made, and fun had. We have many ideas leaving this competition and cannot wait to execute them and share with you all.

For now, AMORE is riding the RoboBoat high all the way to Michigan.

Thank You teams and RoboNation. It has been fun representing LSSU School of Engineering and Technology and Lake Superior State University on an international level.

Lake State, signing off (for now) 💙💛⚓

Mechanical team has begun carving up the ASV Superior in order to form a new and improved hull shape. Caleb here (with proper PPE, of course) is cutting away at the old shell to begin the process.