Aerial Robotics Club Finishes 5th in Student UAV Competition
June 30, 2004
By Dan Edwards, NCSU

The Aerial Robotics club flew Duck , a low-canard, high-wing aircraft, to a 5th place finish at the undergraduate AUVSI Unmanned Aerial Vehicle competition in June 2004. An aerial imagery payload was installed in the flight vehicle, including an operator-controlled live video downlink on a pan-tilt mount and a club designed triple still-camera array. Duck flew wonderfully, capturing all six GPS waypoints and identifying two of the four visual targets. From takeoff to image analysis, the mission lasted 35 minutes and covered a course of nearly 3 miles while taking high resolution images and transmitting surveillance video for immediate analysis.

Club members worked through a disastrous crash just 3 weeks before competition. Switching to the backup vehicle, the aerial imagery payload was modified, integrated, and tested in time for competition. The backup vehicle could not be modified for the Micropilot autopilot flight computer in time but still showed the aerial imagery payload well. With more preparation time, club written autonomous target-pointing code for the video system could have been implemented on Duck .

The club has renewed vigor to exceed the current capabilities of Duck . A new turbine-powered primary flight vehicle is in the near future and will greatly increase payload capacity and range. The flight computer will be integrated with new sensors and set up to control the autonomous target pointing live video camera. Implementation of visual recognition code and augmentation of existing navigator code will allow Duck to autonomously reconfigure its flight path to concentrate on interesting visual targets. The club's “launch and recover” UAV is on the way to completion.

This 2004-2005 year holds an exciting future for the club as it expands current UAV technology and work to better its 5th place finish.

If you are interested in becoming a member or sponsoring the NCSU Aerial Robotics Club, please contact:

Dan Edwards
President of NCSU Aerial Robotics
MAE NCSU, Box 7910
Raleigh , NC 27695-7910
djedward@ncsu.edu
(919) 614-1489
http://www.ncsu.edu/stud_orgs/ar/*