Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Challenge 2018 lifts off

Student teams from around the globe are to compete to build the best unmanned aircraft system.

Some of the best young engineers in from the UK and overseas will be challenged to design and build an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) as part of the Institution's annual UAS Challenge.

An unmanned aircraft system, also known as a drone, is an aircraft operating autonomously. They are predominantly known for their use in military and special operations, such as delivering humanitarian aid.

This year’s competition will see some of the world's best young engineers develop their drones before taking on other teams in a ‘fly-off’ final held at Snowdonia Aerospace Centre, Llanbedr, Wales 18-19 June  2018, where they will be challenged to transport an aid package as accurately and rapidly as possible.

The UAS Challenge is a leading student competition within the aerospace sector designed to develop and inspire the next generation of engineers. It is open to student teams from national and international universities encouraging them to be resourceful, solution driven and to maintain and to push boundaries while working as a team.

“Team work was a huge aspect of the UAS Challenge, especially as every individual team member was a specialist for different aspects of the aircraft and I relied on their information to be able to work on my part of the design. There was a level of interdependence with my team members to work together and I think this really developed my team working skills.” – Swapnil Patra, Graduate Engineer, Leonardo Helicopters, former University of Bath team member.

The UAS should be able to conduct autonomous operations and perform a series of tasks such as way-point navigation, location search, accurate delivery of an aid package and return to base via a defined route. The focus on safety and technical competence throughout the competition is a very high priority.

Teams are supported throughout the project by the steering group which comprises of expert professionals in aerospace engineering and flight safety, many of whom are senior staff at leading organisations in aerospace and defence sectors.

Lambert Hepenstal, UAS Challenge Head Judge, looks forward to this year's event:

“With 24 teams registered from universities in England, Wales, Scotland, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Turkey the competition is already underway.

"It is good to see a number of new universities submitting entries and a growing participation from overseas. The teams are through the first hurdle of submitting a concept paper, describing their chosen concepts and how they arrived at that decision. There are some interesting airframe and propulsion ideas this year which should give us a very exciting demonstration event at Llanbedr in June.

"The humanitarian challenge remains as the focus of the competition but this year it is split into two missions; the first, as in previous years, delivering bags of flour to a pre-determined location from a height of 20 feet, the second doing a reconnaissance mission looking for and identifying markers over a wide area. Some teams have extended themselves this year in looking at some novel airframe concepts and aiming at higher payloads. Their next stage is to submit a critical design review report at the end of April, which will contribute a third of the marks awarded for the competition. We are looking forward to this all coming together in Llanbedr and are expecting some interesting results.” 

Teams taking part in the UAS Challenge in 2018 are:

1. Loughborough
2. UCL Team 1
3. UCL Team 2
4. Team Athena, Southampton
5. Team Horus, Southampton
6. Swansea University
7. Coventry University
8. University of Portsmouth
9. Sheffield Hallam University
10. University of the West of England
11. University of Surrey
12. Dundee University
13. University of Sheffield
14. Team NUST, Pakistan
15. Team Zarrar -DHA Suffa University, Pakistan
16. Queen Mary University London
17. Kingston University
18. University of Glasgow
19. University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
20. UCL Team 3
21. Istanbul Technical University - Turkey
22. Cambridge University
23. Nottingham University
24. University of Huddersfield
25. Bath University

To find out more visit www.imeche.org/uaschallenge.

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