Bumblebee the III

Like Hollywood, NUS has its own Bumblebee — black, yellow and smart. On 25 February, Professor Chua Kee Chaing, Dean of NUS Engineeringand Associate Professor Gary Tan, Vice Dean, Student Life of NUS Computing, unveiled Bumblebee 3.0, an autonomous underwater vehicle which promises to be faster, tougher and more manoeuvrable than its predecessors.

Similar to its earlier iterations, the new and more streamlined Bumblebee 3.0 can navigate underwater and perform a series of tasks without any remote control assistance. One of Bumblebee 3.0’s enhancements is a new customised cooling system capable of removing heat from some of the vessel’s electrical components. There is also an automated communications interface to enable real-time monitoring of the vehicle’s status. The system software underwent a revamp as well, allowing users to better control and manoeuvre the vehicle remotely, as well as carry out more precise object tracking and localisation.

Year 3 Mechanical Engineering student, Tey Kee Yeow (left) and Year 2 Mechanical Engineering student, Steven Harta Prawira testing Bumblebee 3.0 at Queenstown swimming pool

In his opening address, Associate Professor Marcelo Ang from NUS Mechanical Engineering shared that the journey towards Bumblebee 3.0 started four years ago. “[Robots] have a big impact in our daily lives,” he said, citing driverless cars and smart jumpsuits which enable humans to lift heavy objects more easily as projects undertaken in NUS.

NUS Engineering alumna Ms Grace Chia thanked the University and industry partners who had supported them. Speaking of student recruitment, she said, “There is only one major attribute that we look for, and that is passion.” Ms Chia exhibited such passion when she returned to serve as Team Manager, having co-founded the Bumblebee team.

Bumblebee 3.0 was developed by a group of dedicated students from NUS Mechanical and Electrical & Computer Engineering departments as well as NUS Computing, who all share a keen interest in robotics. The team is currently preparing for the Singapore Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge (SAUVC) 2016 in March as well as the 19th International RoboSub Competition (RoboSub) in July. In 2015, Team Bumblebee came in 1st in SAUVC and 2nd in RoboSub.

Team members with Bumblebee 3.0