The on campus student Aerial Robotics Club has placed third place this past weekend at the AUVSI student Unmanned Aerial Vehicle competition, picking up $3000 in prize money.  Note the official website has not been updated yet. The rankings are 3rd place overall performance, 1st place technical paper, 1st place oral presentation, 1st place (tie) safety award.  I am pleased to announce higher placement than MIT and Cornell this year, however lower than Texas A&M and Virginia Commonwealth (1st place).

The AUVSI student UAV competition is a competition open to schools around the world.  The goals of the competition are to challenge a new generation of undergraduate university engineers to design and build unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) capable of performing realistic autonomous missions in an aviation environment, and to foster ties between young engineers and the organizations developing UAV technologies.  This year’s competition was sponsored by companies including Northrop Grumman, MicroPilot,  Johns Hopkins APL, Raytheon, BAI Aerosystems, EG&G, Boeing, EMA, and Titan Corporation.

The NCSU Aerial Robotics club is an interdisciplinary effort between aerospace, computer science, and electrical  engineering.  We compete in the AUVSI student UAV competition as well as the IARC.  Our primary advisor is Dr. Hall, aerospace professor.  Our hanger of a lab is located in Broughton 1404.

Special thanks go out to everyone that has helped us, from technical advice, to equipment, to lab space (MAE department), and especially funding wise from the College of Engineering, Engineer’s Council, and SGA.