OLD TEAM MINION NEWSROOM

Look back at some of the things we did before the summer of 2024!

09/27/22

Hurricane Ian slammed into the west coast of Florida as a Category 4 storm. Team Minion prepared the boat and lab for the incoming storm. Check out our storm prep time-lapse below.

09/09/22

Team Minion is back in action for the Fall 2022 semester! With competition 63 days away, the team is putting in a lot of effort to prepare the boat. The team meets every Friday in the MicaPlex MP 106. If you are interested in joining the team, please contact Erasmo Landaeta at landaete@my.erau.edu.

01/19/21

COVID-19 has definitely changed the way we have been testing! Despite the 2020 RobotX Challenge being cancelled, we still had plenty we wanted to showcase. In lieu of a traditional competition, Team Minion had a local, socially-distanced, public demonstration in New Smyrna Beach! We were able to test our new camera enclosure and sub-deployment system, as well as our updated path planning and obstacle avoidance algorithms.

Check out some articles on our New Smyrna Beach Demo!

02/15/20

We can’t think of a better way to spend Valentine’s Day Weekend than with our Valentine, Minion! We were able to test our new sub-deployment system. We sent ROVer, our BlueRobotics ROV2, out into the water and we were able to reel him back in with our passive tether management system.

01/11/20

Minion made a new friend and caught some waves today! Just another day of testing in paradise!

05/02/19

Team Minion is excited to represent Robonation at the 2019 AUVSI XPonential Conference with our other RAER competition teams! We couldn’t bring the whole boat out to Denver, so we brought our innovative propulsion system with azymuthing thrusters that can raise and lower out of the water with the help of a linear actuator.

02/26/19

Demonstrating strafing in Jacksonville at the NDIA First Coast “Amazing Grace” Innovation Event! Minion is able to perform this complex movement with just two rear-mounted, azymuthing thrusters.

12/15/18

After a long week out on the water, we couldn’t be prouder of all that we have accomplished at the 2018 Maritime RobotX Challenge. Team Minion took home the Best Overall Design, winning First Place in all five design categories, and 3rd Place Overall. We learned a lot, made great friends, and, most importantly, had a ton of fun! Can’t wait to do it all again in 2020!

12/10/18

On the third day of competition, qualification rounds began. We qualified in 2 tasks!

12/9/2018

The second day of competition was a practice day for all teams. We got on the water and recorded a lot of data on the course.

12/8/2018

Today was the first day of competition! Today’s focus was getting the boat unpacked and assembled.

11/7/2018

This was the first test where our submarine, Anchor, went for a ride on Minon. Everything went well, but we didn’t have electronics quite worked out, so we weren’t able to do a deployment.

10/27/2018

Nate was able to get some good close-ups today!

10/19/2018

Testing is starting to go smoothly, and becoming a regular part of life, instead of a special occasion. Marco and Tim did some controls testing today, and the following day, we focused on testing our mission planner to complete some tasks.

10/11/2018

Our photographer, Nate, gets the best photos of Minion when he’s on the chase-boat. Here’s some nice glamour shots of the boat during the transit from the boat ramp to our test site.

9/15/2018

First in-river test of our 2018 submarine, named Anchor! We can’t see much with it, but that’s more the fault of the Halifax River than the sub’s camera.

9/1/2018

Our new testing location is the same as our testing location from 2016, but with hurricane damage from Irma, we have to put in at a marina a mile upriver. We don’t mind so much, but the boat ramps are a bit steep.

8/18/2018

A pleasant day on the water! Just trying some controls tuning, and collecting some perception logs.

8/4/2018

This is the first time our new thrusters from Copenhagen Subsea have been spun-up. Preliminary results: We’re excited to fight the currents at Sand Island.

6/1/2018

Our generous sponsor, Pelican, paid us a visit, and we were more than happy to talk about the innovative ways we’ve been using their products.

3/1/2018

While appearing at a community outreach event in New Smyrna Beach, we thought it would be a good idea to get some controls testing in! You can’t tell in the pictures, but we really had to fight with the wind that day.