AUVSI, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, sponsored its fourth annual Student UAV Competition at Webster Field Naval Base, Maryland last week. Of the eighteen undergraduate teams who competed, Brigham Young University placed second, a great accomplishment since it was the first time they competed.
Six ground targets were placed within a small search area among the runways of Webster Field near the Patuxent River in Maryland. Normally, large helicopters and small jets use these runways, but this time, the largest plane was only ten feet in wingspan. BYUs plane was a runt even among these small planes. With a wingspan of just five feet and weighing just 4.5 pounds (the maximum allowable weight was 55 pounds), many wondered if BYUs plane could handle the flight conditions and return good aerial photography of the search area. Each teams goal was to identify an unknown number of ground targets on the field and to report back their identity, their orientation, and their GPS location.
Using hardware and software developed at BYU, the students had a great foundation to build upon in entering this contest. During winter semester of 2006, thirty-five senior students in Mechanical engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Computer Science combined into four teams who competed head-to-head in an in-school competition at BYU. From the winning teams, six team members were chosen to continue developing the system for the international competition.
BYUs team is composed of Breton Prall, Paul Millett, Andres Rodriguez, Matthew Nokleby (all in Electrical and Computer Engineering), Nathan Rasmussen (Computer Science), and Neil Johnson (Mechanical Engineering). All of these students have been working towards the competition since January, though most of the development for the final event occurred since winter semester ended in April.
The MAGICC Lab (Multi-AGent Intelligent Coordination and Control Laboratory) at BYU has over ten years of experience in designing and implementing robotic systems, and several years specifically in aerial robotics. Composed of mostly graduate students, the MAGICC Lab has become well-known for their quality flight software. These graduate students helped mentor the undergraduate team which competed in this years AUVSI competition. Dr. Tim McLain of the Mechanical Engineering Department, and Drs. Beard and Taylor of the Electrical Engineering Departments are the leaders of the MAGICC Lab and acted as advisors to the AUVSI team.
Among BYUs sponsors, Procerus Technologies, based in Orem, UT, has marketed the MAGICC Labs hardware and software, producing quality aerial unmanned systems. Procerus provided discounted autopilots and software to all four teams that competed in April and has continued to provide support for the national competing team. Two other teams, Cornell University and University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, also used Proceruss products in the AUVSI competition this year.
BYUs other sponsors include the International Telemetering Foundation, Raytheon Company, and L-3 Communications. Thanks to their support, BYUs team was well-equipped for the event.
BYU excelled because of a simple, stable system and innovative vision software. In order to locate ground targets, their plane followed a prescribed waypoint course in the air and then responded to user feedback to locate and circle ground targets. When a target was identified in the video displayed on the users laptop, the user simply clicked on the screen where he or she saw the target. Then, the plane began circling the target while attempting to point its camera at the target. Once the GPS location was established in a satisfactory manner, the user would issue a command for the plane to continue searching the field.
The team had just forty minutes to autonomously launch the plane, search the field, respond to changes in the flight plan, and land the plane autonomously. Any extension of the time cost the team points. BYU was able to complete their objectives in 39 minutes, finding 5 of the 6 ground targets. The winning team found the same number of targets and probably won due to better image quality from their plane.
In its first year competing in the event, BYU students were pleased to receive second place in the flying portion of the event and in the overall competition. Altogether, the six students won $4900 in prize money for their performance. The small plane proved it could hold up next to much larger entries, giving BYU a chance to be seen in a rapidly expanding market of unmanned vehicle systems.
