IARC5

Entering the third decade of the Ultimate Collegiate Challenge

342 Days
 

o 6th Mission IARC Rules

o The 6th Mission occurred 11 through 14 August 2010. The venue was the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. Results will be forthcoming here after the next site update.

o In concert with the IARC, the 2010 Symposium on Indoor Flight Issues was held 12 August, 2010. Review the online Call for Papers here.

o A 2011 Winner will receive: $20,000

The IARC forums are now available. Click here to go to the forums.

ADVANCING THE STATE-OF-THE-ART IN AERIAL ROBOTICS YET AGAIN

The new 6th Mission is an extension of the 5th Mission theme of autonomous indoor flight behavior, however the 6th Mission will demand more advanced behaviors than are currently possible in any existing aerial robot. The initial prize award is set at $10,000 and grows by an additional $10,000 for each year that the mission remains uncompleted. Interdisciplinary teams from around the world are encouraged to take on the IARC challenge and make application to the 6th Mission of the AUVSI International Aerial Robotics Competition as it enters its third decade as THE world's PREMIER aerial robotics challenge that time and again has advanced the state of the art in aerial robotic behavior.

The 6th Mission continues to adhere to the Competition's long standing practice of posing tasks that cannot be completed with current technology and skills. As with previous missions, nothing within the World military or industrial arsenal of robots is able to complete the proposed mission at the time the guidelines are released.

The 6th IARC Mission

The 6th Mission of the AUVSI International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC) was held on the campus of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM) on 13 August 2010. This was the inaugral event of the 6th Mission which marked the 20th year of continuous operation for the International Aerial Robotics Competition. Attending this year were teams from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Technology--Madras, the University of Michigan, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Oregon State University, and Pima Community College.

Mission 6 is the most challenging IARC mission to date. No aerial robot exists which can presently perform the behaviors required by this mission statement, however as with all past missions, the Organizer, Judges, and Staff fully expect a university team to meet this challenge with the space of several years, thereby again advancing the state-of-the-art in aerial robotics.

A description of Mission 6 can be found in its entirety in the Official 6th Mission IARC Rules but is also summarized in the following video dramatization.

Results of the 5th IARC Mission

In an outstanding performance, a team of nine students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) won the 5th Mission of the AUVSI International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC) which was held on the campus of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM).

Of the ten teams officially registered in the Competition, a field of seven attended the 19th annual event. Of those seven, three teams were finalists that competed in the UPRM coliseum on the 22nd of July, 2009. Going head-to-head was the Georgia Institute of Technology, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Each team had a different approach to solving the challenge posed by the 5th Mission, not only in terms of aerial robot configuration, but also the strategy for sensing and navigation apart from GPS cues.

The Embry-Riddle team developed a unique "monocopter" which had a single rotor blade and an opposing ducted fan (see figure). Although the team did not win the Competition, it did win an award for the "Most Innovative Air Vehicle". Georgia Tech approached the mission with a coaxial rotor helicopter that used a wall-following algorithm to search for the target within the hallways and rooms of the arena. MIT used a four-propeller "quad rotor" design that had a laser scanner to create a map of its surroundings as well as an optical system to aid in relative motion of the air vehicle.

In the end, this proved to be the most robust solution, allowing the MIT aerial robot to navigate hallways and rooms while avoiding obstacles. Even so, MIT was unable to find the target (a particular nuclear power plant control panel gauge) until minutes before its final fourth attempt timed out. The MIT aerial robot was able to be launched under JAUS control, report its position while creating a map of its surroundings and progress (see figure), and ultimately encountered the target which it successfully identified and photographed, sending pictures back to the Judges.

For their stellar performance, the MIT team was awarded the $10,000 IARC prize, and for completing the entire mission during the first year of the 5th Mission will, according to the Official Rules, receive its $1,000 entry fee back as part of the incentive program to encourage teams to put forth their best performance during the first year of the mission. In fact, this is the first time in the past 19 years of the IARC that any team has ever won during the first year of the mission. In 1995 Stanford University completed the 1st Mission on their first appearance at the IARC, but that was four years into the mission. In 1997 a team from Carnegie Mellon University completed the 2nd Mission on their first appearance at the IARC, but again, this was not achieved until the second year of the mission.

SamarEye


Embry-Riddle "Monocopter" (inset shows flight)

Georgia Tech machine
Georgia Tech Coaxial Helicopter


MIT computers

MIT Monitoring Progress on its Computer Cluster

Mapping
MIT Map Generation and Vehicle Path

MIT Machine
MIT Quad-Rotor Vehicle Entering Window
Winners
Winners in front of the Nuclear Control Panel

 

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IARC competitors and staff • photo taken from an MIT MAV at the awards banquet

 

JAUS

sepdac

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