8D congratulates the ETS Team S.O.N.I.A. for their victories at SAUC-E and Robosub Competition
2012/07/23

Montreal — July 23rd 2012 – 8D Technologies, ETS Team S.O.N.I.A's (Système d'opération nautique, intelligent et autonome) partner since 2011, would like to congratulate the team for their 1st place at SAUC-E (Student Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition in Europe) in La Spezia (Italy) from July 6 to 13 and their 3rd place at the International Robosub Competition that was held in San Diego, California from July 16th to 22nd.

These two competitions challenge future engineers to advance the development of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). The AUV must complete several tasks autonomously while navigating a course that contains several obstacles.

This year, ETS Team S.O.N.I.A. was the first North American team to participate in the European competition SAUC-E. This competition was held at the NATO Undersea Research Center in the Gulf of La Spezia, Italy. It regrouped fifteen European universities and Grandes Écoles. These future engineers had to overcome several challenges including adapting to salt water, fixing computer bugs and repairing parts of their vehicle. In an interview to the Journal de Montréal, the Team SONIA Club Captain, Kevin Larose, said he was delighted with the results. "We knew we had a good run in the finals, but we didn't want to think about the first place. It was too crazy."

The deployment of the ETS Team SONIA vehicle in the basin of the NATO Undersea Research Center at La Spezia (Italy)

The team continued its performance by winning the 3rd place at the International Robosub Competition in the United States. More than thirty teams from North America, Europe and Asia took part in this competition organized by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and the Office of Naval Research.

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About 8D Technologies (www.8d.com)
8D is a world leader in the development of the most advanced, intelligent wireless, Machine-to-Machine (M2M), multi-function point of sale (POS) solutions. 8D's unique green urban transportation management and payment solutions include the award-winning city parking system (8D APMS™). This solution features 100% solar-powered wireless terminals that can manage both street parking and municipal bike-sharing services. It is the same software and hardware technology platform which is at the heart of 8D's parking solution, that propels bike-sharing systems on three continents, in the cities of Montreal (CAN), Ottawa-Gatineau (CAN), Toronto (CAN), London (UK), Melbourne (AUS), Washington DC-Arlington VA (USA), Minneapolis (USA) and Boston (USA).

8D's solution features real time secure wireless payment and remote control as well as management of all terminal functions, from payment to enforcement – and full monitoring of terminals and sensors – in wired and wireless environments. At 8D Technologies, "Terminals are just the beginning..."

For more information about the ETS Team SONIA, visit http://sonia.etsmtl.ca/en.

Contact :

Jade St-Laurent
Marketing coordinator
jstlaurent@8D.com
514.906.1212 x 338