Fourth Year of Competition for Students

UAS4STEM is an Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) sanctioned competition for students aged 11 through graduating high school seniors. Teams compete throughout the year to make it to the championship at AirVenture.

Teams must design, build, and fly unmanned aerial systems to compete virtually and be selected for the championship, which is in two classes- beginner and advanced based on skill level and age. First, second, and third place teams receive scholarship money and Skydio equipment from AMA.

The AMA competition consists of three stages: The first is to Build a small unmanned aerial system (sUAS), that is a quadcopter with components necessary to complete a specific mission as presented in the rule book. An important element is that the mission be completed autonomously, which requires learning how to program an autopilot system. Students are required to complete an online ground school covering the basics of flight, the national airspace system, and more.

The second stage is to Complete a challenge mission requiring the drone and ground control station (laptop) to negotiate a waypoint flight and deliver a specified payload. The drone must comply with departure and arrival procedures and remain within the assigned airspace. It is also tasked with searching for an area of interest and to conduct a point recon.

The third stage is the evaluation of each team’s performance of the assignment to design and build the sUAS system and to complete the challenge mission.

The competition will be held in the southwest corner of Camp Scholler in the beginning of the week.

FMI:  www.eaa.org/airventure/ , amablog.modelaircraft.org/uas4stem/