UA Flies High at International Competition

Engineering students place second overall with their Micro Air Vehicle, and first indoors.

By Pete Brown and Sergey Shkarayev, UA College of Engineering
June 17, 2009

Engineering students with The University of Arizona Micro Air Vehicle Club took second place in overall performance and first place in indoor flight performance in the 4th International Micro Air Vehicle Competition, held June 1-5 in Pensacola, Fla.

Micro Air Vehicles, or MAVs, are very small airplanes that are useful for military and civilian surveillance, search and rescue and many other applications. The MAV competition required the student team to fly their creations both indoors and outdoors.

Our team demonstrated outstanding performance," said Sergey Shkarayev, the student team's faculty adviser and an associate professor in the department of aerospace and mechanical engineering. Teams from the U.S., Germany, France and Australia entered designs at the event.

During the competition, the miniature aircraft were required to land on small raised platforms, navigate through buildings to identify targets, survive gusting winds and demonstrate superior endurance. The University of Arizona vehicle is unique because it can fly horizontally like a normal airplane and also transition to a hovering mode for maneuvering in tight places. This makes the vehicle very adaptable, and capable of performing well in a different environments.

This innovative design meant the UA was the only team able to use the same vehicle for all the different challenges. "The team successfully completed all of the missions and the vehicle drew a lot of attention from other teams," said Shkarayev. "The hard work and dedication paid off when the team took first place in the indoor competition and second place over all."

Outdoor missions pushed the limits of autonomous flight and required the MAVs to fly to specified GPS coordinates, land at precise locations and follow vehicles by camera. The indoor missions tested the maneuverability and hardiness of the designs.

The UA team sponsors include the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command; the University of Arizona's College of Engineering; the department of aerospace and mechanical engineering; and the Arizona Student Union Association.

The UA MAV team has a long history of international success at these meetings, including:

• Three major awards at the 1st U.S.-Asian Demonstration and Assessment of MicroAerial and Unmanned Ground Vehicle Technology in Agra, India, in 2008: (1)Best mission performance (tied with MIT; ENAC-Toulouse, France; and MartinMueller Engineering, Germany); (2) Best MAV design; and (3) U.S. Army Aviationand Missile Research Development & Engineering Center Meritorious Award (withMIT and ENAC).
• Second place in 10th International Micro Air Vehicle Competition in Provo, Utah, in 2006.
• First place in the first U.S.-European Micro-Aerial Vehicle Technology Demonstration and Assessment, in Germany in 2005.
• Second place in 8th International Micro Air Vehicle Competition in Tucson, Ariz., in 2004.
• First place in the 4th International Micro Aerial Vehicle Meeting in Toulouse, France, in 2004.
• Third place in 7th International Micro Air Vehicle Competition in Gainesville, Fla., in 2003.

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