UWF UNMANNED AERIAL SYSTEMS TEAM PLACES SECOND IN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
June 29, 2009
PENSACOLA - The University of West Florida Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) team competed and placed second in the flight competition out of 25 colleges and universities in the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), the world’s largest non-profit organization devoted exclusively to advancing the unmanned systems community.
UWF received $8,000 in prize money. The students who competed in the competition are Neil Edmonston, electrical engineering major; Eric Becker, electrical engineering major; Clint Edmonston, undeclared major; and Steve Long, computer engineering major. The UWF team outperformed larger teams of seniors, graduate students and doctoral students.
“The team preformed very well in flight competition, placing second against large well-known universities,” said David Algeo, UWF robotics laboratory manager. “They also completed more bonus tasks than any university in the history of the competition and took fourth place overall. They performed in such an extremely professional manner that the judges stated no other university came close to them. To my knowledge, UWF’s aircraft was the only aircraft that took off, performed the mission and landed without any action from the safety operator.”
The primary objectives of the competition were for each team to build an unmanned aircraft to fly autonomously, navigate a specified course and use onboard sensors to locate and assess a series of man-made objects on the ground prior to returning to the launch point for landing. North Carolina State University, the University of Manitoba (Canada), Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Texas were among the schools that participated in the competition.
“The Delhi College of Engineering, University of Delhi, India told us that our UWF team inspired them to compete,” said Algeo. “They used the same system that UWF used on a past aircraft.”
Many UWF students gain potential career experience through UWF’s robotics laboratory, which has produced national award-winning teams including the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) team and the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) aircraft team.
Students gain skills designing and building robots and have numerous opportunities to compete side-by-side with students from other top-ranked colleges. Students involved in the team have access to advanced equipment through the engineering department and have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience and network with potential businesses looking to hire tomorrow’s engineers.
For more information, contact Algeo at (850) 857-6411 or e-mail dalgeo@uwf.edu.
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