July 14, 2005

NC State’s Aerial Robotics Club Wins International Recognition

The NC State team flew the pictured modified senior Telemaster airframe to win third place in the third annual Student Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Competition. (Photo: Jim Curry)

The Aerial Robotics Club from NC State University took third place in the third annual Student Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Competition, hosted by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). The event was held June 30 through July 3, 2005, at the Webster Field Annex, Patuxant Naval Air Station, Maryland.

The AUVSI competition challenged teams to design, launch and navigate an unmanned, autonomous, radio-controlled aircraft and to use onboard sensors to detect a series of objects prior to landing. Takeoffs and landings were done manually. Thirteen teams, including the NC State team, came to the event, and 11 actually flew their UAVs, which included one helicopter from the University of Instanbul, Turkey.

The NC State team flew a modified senior Telemaster airframe that carried 8 pounds of payload during 40 minutes of flight. Onboard custom software provided various modes for tracking targets.

Dan Edwards, club president and team member, believed they were successful in the competition because they worked together toward a well-defined goal. Edwards said, “We used systems engineering principles to figure out the competition requirements, and we let those requirements drive our system design. Everyone on the team knew the goal and stayed focused on completing those objectives. We also just enjoy each other’s company.”

Edwards added that hundreds of volunteer man-hours from team members and support from sponsors “made the dream become reality.” Sponsors included Boeing, Hobby-Lobby, Malcom McAllister, Micropilot, Square D, the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Engineers’ Council, Flight Research and Student Government Association at NC State.

Most of the Aerial Robotics Club members are undergraduates in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the Department of Computer Science (CSC). Club members who participated in the competition included Jonathan Brandmeyer (ME), Ron Burnette (AE), Club Graduate Advisor Dave Burke (CSC), Club President Dan Edwards (AE), Matt Hazard (AE), Cheryl Marek (ME), Adam Propst (ECE), CJ Soques (AE) and Alan Stewart (AE). Their faculty sponsor is Dr. Charles Hall, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State.

In addition to placing third in the overall competition, the team took first place in the technical paper, oral presentation and safety award categories. They received $2,750 for winning third place and $250 for the safety award. The winning team was the University of Texas at Austin, and Virgina Commonwealth University came in second.

— mcblief —

Media contact:
Kathi McBlief, (919) 515-2283, mcblief@eos.ncsu.edu

/ Awards Index / Awards Archives Index /