No Pilots, No Problem: Students Build Autonomous Aircraft

07 October 2006 08:00 AM (GMT -05:00)

BY JASON LADAY

Many people may remember the scene at the beginning of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. A small, flying droid hovers in the air and tracks Han Solo across an arctic wilderness. Then it attacks.

Practical applications for such autonomous robots—once launched, they are not controlled from the ground—could include locating victims of a natural disaster and aiding the military in surveillance of enemy areas. And while the technology in science-fiction movies might be a dream to some, the university students in the 16th Annual International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC)—which took place from 24 to 27 July at the U.S. Army base at Fort Benning, Georgia—are making it a reality.

Started in 1991, the IARC is a competition to design unmanned, autonomous flying vehicles that must complete a range of maneuvers while on a “mission.” Some years find the UAVs not up to the challenge; on average it takes four years before a mission is completed.

This year’s mission was in its sixth year. And, once again, it was not completed successfully; a US $60,000 prize went unclaimed. Several $400 prizes were handed out, however, to recognize new technology and best performance. Every year that the competition fails to yield a winner, $10,000 is added to the pot for the following year.

MEET THE FOUNDER The goal of the competition is to further the design of unmanned, autonomous flying machines, explains Robert Michelson, who organized the first IARC 15 years ago. Michelson, an IEEE senior member, spent 30 years, beginning in 1973, as an engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Research Institute, in Atlanta. He coined the term “aerial robotics” in 1990 to describe a new class of small, highly intelligent flying machines.

“I tried to interest Georgia Tech in sponsoring an aerial robotics event,” he says, “but I had to wait until I became the technical chairman for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.” The association, headquartered in Arlington, Va., provided the competition’s seed money, and funds the grand prize.

This year, 24 teams competed—17 from the United States, 6 from Canada and 1 from India. Teams were made up of anywhere from two to 20 undergraduate and graduate students. The only IEEE Student Branch team was from Purdue, in West Lafayette, Ind. Its six-person team built an autonomous helicopter. “We went to the IARC primarily to learn how the competition works,” says the branch’s Aerial Robotics Chair, Richard Arima. “We got a lot of invaluable knowledge just by mingling with the other competitors and professionals there.”

FLYING DAVINCI Designs vary, of course—from mini airplanes and helicopters to hovering systems of fans. Some vehicles are the size of a football, others resemble a shopping cart. The vehicles navigate with an onboard Global Positioning System. Maps of the competition area show precise latitude and longitude for key locations, which are then programmed into flight paths.

The Purdue aerial robot, named Davinci, was built around a model helicopter kit. It’s slightly less than a meter long and less than a half a meter tall, and its two propellers are driven by a single internal combustion engine. Davinci holds a payload of GPS sensors and a custom 24-bit digital camera with image processing software.

This year’s mission required the aerial robots to fly along a 3-kilometer path, locate a group of buildings, identify the IARC logo painted on one of them, enter this building through a window, and take photos and relay them back to the team’s computer—all in 15 minutes. It was the first mission with a time limit, and it had more difficult tasks to complete, including searching for the logo and identifying a suitable entrance into the building.

Although several vehicles performed the actions required, none, including Purdue’s, completed the mission in the time allotted. Some teams had glitches along the way. For example, one team brought its robot out of autonomous control before it completed the course, while another team accidentally disabled its onboard camera.

The 17th IARC takes place in July 2007, again at Fort Benning—with a grand prize of $70,000. “We are certainly entering and are confident we will be competitive,” Arima says. “This year we laid down a strong foundation, and next year we plan to advance.”

For more information on the IARC, or to register for the competition, visit http://iarc.angel-strike.com/.