June 2013 Newsletter: Mac-OU INC Client News: "Four OU students with Dataspeed place first in International Ground Vehicle Competition"

The Troy office of Dataspeed Inc. was, for the most part, empty the first week of June. Four of its employees were preparing for, and competing at, the International Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC), held for the past 21 years at Oakland University. Kevin Hallenbeck, Micho Radovnikovich, Steve Grzebyk and Mike Norman work full-time at Dataspeed on projects related to mobile robotics. In addition, they are working on their Ph.D., masters or bachelor degrees with Oakland University’s School of Engineering.

All the hard work has paid off with Oakland University’s team taking first place overall for their robot entered in the competition.

“I am really proud of the hard work and dedication that these guys have put forth, as well as their first place finish,” Paul Fleck, President of Dataspeed Inc, says.

The overall first place is Oakland University’s best finish ever in the competition. There were 41 teams competing in the challenge including teams from India and Japan. Oakland’s first place finish is based on a composite score taken from three competitions including second place in the design competition and JAUS challenge and third place in the navigation challenge.

Dataspeed is supporting TARDEC by working on mobile robotics applications, with the most recent project involving the integration of electronics and sensors on a John Deere RGator robotic utility vehicle. TARDEC engineers will experiment with this vehicle, using it as a test bed for various technologies.

“The practical experience gained at Dataspeed enabled us to more easily develop our winning vehicle at the competition. We were able to spend a lot of time on work projects that helped us develop software and algorithms quicker,” Micho Radovnikovich says.

Dataspeed is a client of the Macomb-OU INCubator and specializes in providing products and services for the mobile robotics industry. The expertise in robotics, as demonstrated by the Dataspeed team members who participated in the IGVC, can be utilized by clients who need support in developing mobile robotics technologies. The Dataspeed team has expertise in a variety of disciplines including electronics design, software and algorithm development, sensor integration, testing and validation. For more information on how Dataspeed can help solve some of your mobile robotics challenges please visit dataspeedinc.com or contact Paul Fleck at (248) 884-8201.