October 25, 2004
UA Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) wins Competition
Aerospace Engineering students from the University of Arizona have won first place at a Micro Air Vehicle competition. These aircraft are little mavels, and represent a great deal of work in order to stabilize and operate. My hat is off to the students, and I do hope to be competing against them at some point in the not-to-distant future.
Posted by elkaim at October 25, 2004 12:15 PMUA's Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) team took top honors earlier this month during the 4th International Micro Aerial Vehicle Meeting in Toulouse, France. The event included more than a dozen teams from France, Germany, Belgium, Norway, and the United States.
The UA plane, a flying wing with a 6-inch wingspan, was easily the smallest surveillance plane at the competition. The radio-controlled MAV flew a triangular course that was 100 meters on a side. It also used an onboard video camera to photograph and return an image of a target placed along the course. 100 meters is about the length of a football field, including the end zones.
"At 100 meters, the plane is just a dot," said Jeremy Tyler, an aerospace engineering senior. "So it had to fly itself. I can't see if the wings are level at that distance, and just giving it very gentle left and right steering commands is all I can do."
While the 6-inch plane almost flies itself, the UA team entered a plane in another part of the competition that actually does fly completely on its own. This MAV, which has a 12-inch wingspan, uses an autopilot and GPS navigation to fly hands-off. Once the team members turned it loose, the plane flew itself around a square course that was 300 meters on a side.