CUAir team takes first place

The CUAir team came in first place overall at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Annual Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) Student Competition held at the Patuxent Naval Air Station, Maryland on June 19-22, 2013.  Moreover, the team came in first place in the flight portion of the competition (which comprises 50% of the score) and first place in the written report competition that describes the basis for the design and system integration of the unmanned air vehicle the team had developed and tested throughout the year.

The AUVSI is the professional society that promotes activity in all unmanned systems, both air and ground.  The UAS competition involves unmanned air vehicles developed and outfitted by student teams that include on-board autonomous flight control and imaging systems to identify targets that are placed on the ground at locations known only to the judges.  The aircraft execute fully autonomous flights over a grid programmed by the students from specifications given to the teams at the competition.  The unmanned air system developed by the CUAir team was the only one at the competition that identified all of the stationary targets.

The top three places in the competition went to 1) Cornell, 2) North Carolina State University and 3) Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS) from a worldwide field.

The team leader was Phil Tischler and the team included over 30 students from CS, MAE, ECE, and other departments.  Ten team members attended the event (the maximum allowed).  The faculty advisor was Prof. Tom Avedisian.  The CUAir team did a superb job to win this very challenging competition.