UD students use autonomous robots to help map the Hugh R. Sharp Campus in Lewes
Among the many applications for environmental robotics, mapping is an essential task and allows uncrewed ground vehicles (UGV), uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) to travel to locations that can be perilous or impossible for humans to reach. These systems are integral to advancing the Blue Economy, defined as the sustainable use of ocean resources to drive economic growth and preserve the health of ocean ecosystems.
Now, the University of Delaware is training the next generation of environmental roboticists. Students in UD’s Environmental Field Robotics course completed a term project over the fall 2024 semester using cutting-edge autonomous technology to create an unprecedented map of UD’s Hugh R. Sharp Campus in Lewes. Their mapping efforts also produced a 3D-printed model of campus and a virtual reality (VR) “digital twin” of the campus that students were able to walk through when wearing a virtual reality headset.
Art Trembanis, professor in the School of Marine Science and Policy, led the class. Over the course of the semester, students learned everything from mission planning to hands-on mapping out in the field, to analyzing the data to ultimately creating both a 3D and a VR model of the campus.