Simulink Student Challenge Winners

MathWorks announces the winners of the 2015 Simulink Student Challenge. Congratulations and thanks to all the students who entered.

1st place

The MAMMOTH Rover - Simulink Student Challenge 2015

Will Reid - University of Sydney

The MAMMOTH Rover project is focused on researching new ways to improve the mobility of planetary rovers. This project uses the Robotics System Toolbox to collect data from an RGB-D sensor which is then analyzed and results sent to 16 actuators located throughout the rover to alter its shape. By utilizing hardware-in-the-loop, this group was able to rapidly design and test their project. The result was an impressive video that displayed how well the MAMMOTH rover is able to overcome the various challenges that it could face while on a different planet.

2nd place

Gyroscope, Aircraft and Manipulator

Aleksey Ivanov - Saratov State Technical University

This project aims to help students understand the basic principles of hardware used for orientation and navigation. Users of this project manipulate a device that sends information to Simulink over a Bluetooth connection. The received data is then analyzed and displayed in two different ways. The first is a simulation that shows how the data it receives effects a virtual ship. The second method uses an Arduino to move an external device in response to the received data. This video also demonstrates how MATLAB and Simulink can be used to help students learn difficult concepts.

3rd place

Second Order Sliding Mode Control of a Four Mecanum Wheel Omnidirectional Mobile Robot

Veer Alakshendra - Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur

This project simulates an omnidirectional mobile robot that has three degrees of freedom in the horizontal plane. The equations used to model the problem are complex and required a number of parameters in order to simulate. By using the Parameter Estimation Toolbox along with parallel computing, these values are found in a fast and efficient manner. This project also utilizes SimMechanics to build visualizations of the mobile robot while it is in motion. This video demonstrates how multiple toolboxes can be combined to solve a complex problem.