The Shorthorn - It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s ... oh. It’s a plane

HOME

Organizations

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s ... oh. It’s a plane

Written by Sylvain Rey

Tuesday, 22 July 2008 09:20 PM

One of the dreams of all students is to combine excitement with opportunity.

The members of the Autonomous Vehicle Laboratory team do precisely this. The Autonomous Vehicle Laboratory team is a group of students and faculty who share a passion in remote-controlled aircraft and participate in national competitions every year.

The team also takes part in international events each year organized by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle System International, said Arthur Reyes, computer science senior lecturer and team adviser.

This year’s event took place at the Patuxent River Naval Air Test Center’s Webster Field Annex in Maryland June 18-22. The team won first place in the journal paper and oral briefing categories, and third place overall, said Brandon Watters, aerospace engineering senior and team captain.

“The goal is to design an autonomous vehicle, to fly autonomously, and to find targets,” Watters said.

Geometric shapes of different colors with inscribed letters supply the targets, he said. The letters spell a short message. This year, the words were “FLY MARINES,” he said. “There is also a bonus target,” Watters said. “It simulates a downed pilot. This year, it was a manikin in a car.”

Job opportunities are just one of the many advantages to participating in the competition, said Sobhan Rahimi, aerospace engineering senior and camera operator.

“Lots of companies come, such as Boeing,” he said. “Usually, we go to the companies and give them a resume, but here, they come to us.”

And it’s not just about competition, Rahimi said. “Even if we have no plane, we talk to other teams. We give papers,” he said. Watters said that he joined the team to follow his passion for remote controlled aircraft. “I fly remote-controlled planes for fun,” he said.

“Before I came here, I was interested in putting cameras on planes, and I found out about the cost. Then I learned about the organization, and joined.” To Reyes, being a part of the team brings many benefits to students as well.

“They work on developing very realistic systems,” he said. “It is much more than coursework. Bigger, more complicated. They get to apply what they have learned in class.” “It helps them apply for a job,” he said.

Reyes finds an important outlet in being one of the team’s four advisers. “It is the closest thing I have to a hobby,” he said. “There is no official evaluation of the work I do. It is not part of the job description.”

This summer, the team will continue to work on next year’s aircraft, and sometimes fly the plane they have built.

The winning craft, however, crashed last Saturday, Watters said. “In the competition, the antenna was damaged. We bought a new one, but apparently [it didn’t work],” he said.

“The aircraft went down into a spiral and crashed nose first.” With September coming, guidelines for next year’s competition will be released, and the team will start working on a new plane project.
Views: 2161 | E-mail

Be first to comment this article

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 24 September 2008 03:24 PM )

< Prev		Next >

[ Back ]