Building Smarter Boats: A Student Spotlight on LSU’s Autonomous Vessel Capstone with Integer
Recently at one of our Baton Rouge events with our LSU team, a group of six LSU College of Engineering seniors debuted their final design capstone project that we sponsored throughout the school year: a catamaran-style unmanned surface vessel (USV).
On a warm, sunny day by the water, our team of engineers, along with LSU professors, research associates, and post-docs, gathered to watch the students present the intricate work they had done — designing and building the vessel from scratch — before successfully launching it for a demonstration around the lake.
The USV is capable of both remote control and autonomous GPS navigation. What’s equally impressive as their design work is the fact that, while these students had robotics experience, most had never dabbled in ship design before.
“Other than being on a boat, that was as much experience as I had,” joked Bryan-Allen Heikes, a Computer Engineering student who is graduating in December.
LSU capstone students and Integer Autonomy Engineer Will Ard (second from right) pose with the students’ senior capstone project that they built, a USV.
Jason Rodriguez, who graduated this month with a bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Robotics Engineering, echoed the sentiment: “There was a ton of information, and I remember at one point sitting in the design room looking at a document with details about the vessel dimensions, different hull forms and resistances, and more, and it was a massive challenge. But it was fun to figure out.”
This senior capstone program is a course run by the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Program at LSU. Regional companies like us had an opportunity to sponsor a specific project by presenting an industry problem and asking the students to find a solution. In our case, we asked students to design and fabricate the best USV.
Students opted for a spot working on the project of most interest to them, and engineers from our Louisiana team provided them with support and guidance throughout the year.
Integer + LSU: Developing Defense Tech for Autonomous Vessels
Our involvement with the capstone program is directly related to defense work we’re doing in partnership with LSU in the area of maritime robotics. We’re working to enhance the situational awareness and decision-making capabilities of ocean-going autonomous vehicles. The goal: improve the intelligence, autonomy, and communication of distributed networks of maritime intelligent autonomous systems for naval operators.
Last year, we opened an office on the Baton Rouge campus, supported by our Louisiana-based scientists, engineers, and staff, and a pipeline of qualified LSU graduates who get to work with our experienced team on real world projects.
The partnership positions LSU and Integer to build broader capabilities to serve U.S. defense and national security needs, including to secure maritime and cyber-physical critical infrastructure along the Gulf Coast. The team is developing and testing prototypes in waters off Louisiana’s ports and coast in real-world conditions, with an eye toward dual-use technologies with applications in domestic port security, offshore energy, and ocean and coastal remote sensing.
The Capstone Project
One of the many perks of having an office directly on campus is the opportunity for us to extend our work beyond the specific program we’re working on and help advance STEM education on campus and throughout the region.
Our engineers have the opportunity to interact and mentor students, providing them with direct insights on local and regional opportunities to start their careers. It was an honor working with the following students on our Capstone team, four of whom graduated last month:
- Grayson Grinnell, B.S., Mechanical Engineering; Minor in Robotics Engineering
- Bryan-Allen Heikes, B.S., Computer Engineering (graduating in December)
- Garrett Lavin, B.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering; Minors in Robotics and Software Engineering
- Jason Rodriguez, B.S., Mechanical Engineering; Minor in Robotics Engineering
- Evan Walker, B.S., Mechanical Engineering; Minor in Aerospace Engineering
- Grayson Woodworth, B.S., Electrical Engineering (graduating in December)
“I love the outdoors and just being on the water in general, so I saw this project as a way to extend my passion towards robotics and to get my hands dirty with something I’d really enjoy doing,” Garrett said.
Will Ard (third from left), an Autonomy Engineer at Integer, works with the students during the ship build.
This year-long course was divided into two semesters. First, they designed and analyzed the vessel’s functions and subsystems and defended their designs before a review panel. Then they brought their design to life during the second semester.
Grayson G. said: “We split up into mechanical and electrical design groups, based on our backgrounds. When it was time for building the boat, it was all hands on deck towards mechanical manufacturing.”
Embracing Academic + Industry Collaboration
Will Ard, an Autonomy Engineer in our Baton Rouge office, advised the team throughout the project, along with Mark Miller, Field Support Field Manager at LSU, who helped with the construction of the fiber vessel, and Dr. Corina Barbalata, their academic advisor.
“This was a bit of a learning process for me, too,” Will said, “because I wanted to provide them with the tools that they needed to solve the problems and didn’t want to give them the answer outright. I wanted to help them ask the right questions which would lead them to discover their own design approaches. Doing fiberglass and the other manufacturing work isn’t something you learn in school, and it was a rewarding experience to see the students succeed. They did some great work and should be proud.”
Evan said: “I’m thankful for Will and Integer for helping on the project through the entire manufacturing process. He dedicated a lot of time to our team.”
Mark Miller, Field Support Field Manager at LSU, helps students with the construction of the fiber vessel.
Integer will use the students’ boat for demonstrations and testing capabilities for the work it’s doing with LSU. The students said it was a rewarding experience unveiling their vessel earlier this month at our event, surrounded by LSU and Integer engineers.
“Everything went smoothly, and it felt really good, followed by a nice crawfish boil afterwards. We brought the boat and answered questions. It was cool to come together,” Grayson W. said.
“That demonstration was the most rewarding day,” Garrett said. “Seeing the team from Integer enjoying what we built and saying, ‘we can actually use this’ after a year’s worth of work was gratifying to hear.”
If you’re interested in partnering with us, visit https://www.integer-tech.com/partnerships/ to learn more about how we collaborate with universities.
Or, if you’re a student and want to see our open job opportunities, visit https://www.integer-tech.com/careers/.