Flawless Sweep: MOGUL TEAM Takes 1st Place & Sets 1.84 m/s World Speed Record at RobotChallenge Tokyo

Operating inside Ryogoku Kokugikan, the autonomous line-follower divisions presented what international scrutineers termed the highest dynamic chicane challenge in the 18-year history of the competition. The track spanned 48.2 linear meters, comprising compound radii drops of 15cm paired with sharp ninety-degree reflex transitions.

MOGUL's Photon Tracer X1 relied on our custom-engineered 20-channel optical reflex array paired with GaN (gallium nitride) motor drivers. While conventional silicon switches suffer gate-charge heat throttling at elevated PWM frequencies, our GaN circuit permitted instantaneous 40kHz PWM switches without overheating our dual-core DSP.

“The pivotal turning point was run 48,” noted Elena Rostova, software lead. “We identified high-frequency oscillation in our D-gain term when entering the negative camber banked curve. Within our 3-minute pit turnaround, we uploaded an adjusted feedforward velocity profile that enabled full lateral adherence at 1.84 meters per second.”