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Estimation, Search, and Planning (ESP) Research Group

  1. ESP
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Severn Lortie

Severn sitting in the Martin 16 Sailboat
  1. B.A.Sc. (ECE, Queen's)

I joined the ESP research group in May of 2025 to develop a full scale, autonomous sailboat. The project is underway and has presented fascinating challenges in both the design of the hardware and software. For the hardware, the project is being built on a Martin 16 sailboat due to its centralized rigging, uncapsizeable design, and the existence of a pre-made actuation system called the Martin 16 Power Assist. For the software, data from a suite of NMEA 2000 marine-grade sensors is being bridged into a ROS 2 system to allow for localization, control, and planning. Once the platform is developed, the project will be continued in the direction of path planning and optimization.

Conference Proceedings

  1. S. Silva, D. Courtis, J. Hodgkinson, S. Lortie. “Creating a Corn Yield Estimator: A Deep Learning Approach via UAV Imagery.” Canadian Undergraduate Conference on Artificial Intelligence. 12-16. Mar. 2023.

Scholarships and Awards