Hoping Computerized Plane Is A Winner

After three years of hard work, a team of engineering students at the University of Alberta successfully launched their unmanned, computer-controlled aircraft into the Edmonton skies last summer. Now they’re ready to take on a new challenge.

The University of Alberta Aerial Robotics Group (UAARG) is building a bigger version of their lightweight foam and fiberglass aircraft to enter in an international Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) competition to be held in Maryland in June, reports the Edmonton Journal.

The competition is sponsored in part by the US Navy, and places intense, real-world demands on the UAVs. Each craft must be in fully autonomous flight, navigate a specified course, and use onboard payload sensors to assess man-made objects in a search area prior to returning to the launch point for landing.

This mission scenario is a complex, intense replication of military support operations in a hostile combat zone, showcasing the increasing capabilities and uses of UAV’s.

UAARG President and mechanical engineering student Stephen Dwyer, 19, said the students have entered two Canadian competitions over the past year and learned a great deal each time. They will be fine-tuning their aircraft over the next five months to be ready for the June competition.

"We’re definitely not ruling out a crash," Dwyer said with a laugh.

The UAV is equipped with an onboard autopilot, programmed by computer. A digital camera transmits pictures back to another ground-based computer for processing. While the aircraft does have a radio-controlled system as a backup, it is designed to be an automated flying machine.

Mechanical engineering student Jamie Yuen, 20, explains, "We just say "Go here and search," then it takes care of the actual flying."

The UA Aerial Robotics Group is made up of students from various fields of study, with different levels of experience in airplanes, electronics, building and programming.

The design and building of a fully autonomous aerial vehicle is a very complicated feat, and the group is focusing on competitions dedicated to providing students with hands-on experience in design and construction in this exciting field.

FMI: www.ece.ualberta.ca/~uaarg/