Autonomous UAS Decision Making Displayed at International Competition

Autonomous UAS Decision Making Displayed at International Competition

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The Israeli Technion was placed 4th in the AUVSI International Student UAS Competition for developing and flying an autonomous aero-system.  

Universities from all over the world (mainly from the US) took part in this most important student UAS competition, held in Maryland. The Israeli students were participating in the competition for the third time.

The students, a joint team from the facultis of Aeorspace Engineering and Electrical Engineering, developed an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system capable of autonomous take-off and flying, autonomous ground target identification, avoiding obstacles, and performing autonomous air-drop missions, all of which make up an autonomous aerial system for a reconnaissance mission. The advanced air vehicle was made entirely of composite materials.

The students also developed a photography nose turret with a stabilized camera; obstacle avoidance algorithms (which enables the aircraft to sense and avoid virtual obstacles while flying autonomously); an algorithm for Automatic Detection, Localization and Classification (ADLC), which is based on a state of the art deep-learning algorithm and implemented on-board the aircraft using a lower power GPU platform; a mapping algorithm that enables continuous displaying of coverage area in real-time; and, of course, an advanced computer operating interface that enables the ground operation team to control and perform all the tasks.

The project was supervised and directed by Dror Artzi – from the faculty of Aerospace Engineering, with Amit Aides from the faculty of Electrical Engineering and Evgeny Gutnik from the faculty of Aerospace Engineering.

According to Artzi, “In the industry it is called UAS – Unmanned Aerial Vehicle – however in this competition the systems were purely civilian. We decided that students from both faculties will join the team because it has been a highly complex and multidisciplinary project, involving aspects of aerodynamics, structure, propulsion, command and control, communications, computers and image processing”.

The team received support form the Technion direction and organizations, as well as from many companies such as Rafael, IAI, Elbit, Intel, DHL, PGRC, Intellitech, Vectornav and Otentik.

Artzi, a private pilot and alumni of the Technion’s Aeorspace Engineering faculty, had worked in the Technion for 21 years. “Basing on my experience, it is not enough to be a good engineer. You must know how to ‘sell’ your developments”.