The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) team received four awards at the International Aerial Robotics Competition held at Fort Benning, Georgia. The team took first place in the 2006 and second in the 2007 competition. The competition, sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, challenges students to launch an aerial vehicle, navigate a series of global positioning system waypoints and fly three kilometers to a complex of buildings where the vehicle must search the front of each building for a specified symbol. Then the vehicle must launch a second vehicle that enters the building, captures video or photos of some a specified type of data and transmits that data back the starting point. The entire operation must be fully automated.
The team received the Best Technical Paper Award, Best T-shirt Design Award and tied with Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech for the Best System Design Award. The team made two fully autonomous flights but did not complete any of the stages. They received more than $8,000 in prize money for their efforts. Team member Mark Sauder (industrial engineering 04) received a special award for Sportsmanship for helping the California State University at Northridge (CSUN) team bring their helicopter down from a very unsafe altitude to a low altitude where their pilot could take over and land it successfully. The CSUN team did not understand their autopilot well enough and Sauder shared his understanding of it to save their helicopter. In announcing the award, the judges stated the award was for actions far beyond the call of duty.
The UAV team is part of the Center of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing and Production, also known as CAMP, at the School of Mines. CAMP is a program that uses teams to offer an innovative engineering and science education and teach team-building and other skills students need and future employers want.
Team members: Tyler Batt, mechanical engineering, Spearfish; Raunaq Bhushan, industrial engineering, India; Alex Brech, computer engineering, Currie, Minn.; Roderick Carroll, computer science, Rapid City; John Heiberger, mechanical engineering, Rapid City; Adam Helmers, electrical engineering, Rapid City; Brian Jensen, industrial engineering, Rapid City; Erik Kaitfors, mechanical engineering, Spearfish; Scott Nelson, computer engineering, Rapid City; Jacob Oursland, mathematics and computer science, Rapid City; Mason Pluimer, electrical engineering, Rapid City; Thomas Simpson, computer engineering, Box Elder; Justin Williamson, M.S. mechanical engineering, Rapid City. Visiting alumni: Ray Burg, Mark Sauder and Jason and Valerie Howe.
