The 2nd China Intelligent Boat Challenge (Waterway) was held in Yangzhou from May 7th to 9th. The event was directed by China Association of Science and Technology, sponsored by the Chinese Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, China Navigation Society, China Ocean Society, and China Artificial Intelligence Society, and hosted by the Jiangdu District of Yangzhou Municipal People's Government. A total of 22 teams from higher-education institutions and companies, including Shanghai Jiaotong University, Harbin Institute of Technology, China Ocean University, and the PLA Military Transportation University, participated in the competition.
The challenge comprised two parts, navigation and function. The navigation part featured competitions in three events: full, half and short course navigation, while the function part featured autonomous obstacle avoidance, image acquisition, and optional function display. The full and half-course races were held on the Mangda River, with the half-course covering 15 km and the full-course covering 22.5 km. The short-course and function competitions are held on Xingbei Lake, with the short-course covering 1.5 km. The obstacle avoidance competition required boats to surround 7 buoys with an average distance of 10 meters between each. The image capture competition requires shooting of the designated landscape. Participants can choose to display optional functions.
Wang Jianhua and Zheng Xiang, teachers from Institute of Logistics Science and Engineering, guided graduate students in the challenge. They brought two boats, “Haixiang” and “Haiyue”. “Haixiang” won the special prize in half-course navigation and the second prize in function competition for its satellite data transmission system; "Haiyue" competed in short-distance navigation, obstacle avoidance and optional function display, winning the second prize in function competition. At the closing ceremony, Secretary General Lin Xiandong of the Chinese Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers commended and recommended the institute’s rapid development of the "Haixiang" and "Haiyue" twin boats.
"Haixiang" and "Haiyue" were independently developed, designed, produced and named by the graduate students of Transportation Industry Key Laboratory of Shipping Technology and Control Engineering, under the guidance of Wang Jianhua and Zheng Xiang. All software was written by graduate students, with independent intellectual property rights. The Challenge was an excellent opportunity for academic exchanges and to stage the achievements of SMU teachers and students.
