International Aerial Robotics Competition

This video describes the 6th Mission of the International Aerial Robotics Competition which began in 2010. The 6th Mission involves the use of micro air vehicles ( MAV ) to find and steal a zip drive containing sensitive information, and replace it with an identical drive before leaving the building undetected. All of this must be done fully autonomously. A $20,000 prize will be awarded during 2011 if any team can demonstrate this aerial robotic behaviour in under 10 minutes.

A fully autonomous small unmanned aerial system infiltrates an enemy base, retrieves a flash drive with sensitive data on it and escapes undetected. That is the mission of the International Aerial Robotics Competition being held in Grand Forks, North Dakota August 8-12.

Hosted locally by the Red River Valley Research Corridor, the Unmanned Applications Institute and the Grand Forks Regional Economic Development Corporation, the competition will enter its third decade as the world’s premier aerial robotics challenge for university students around the world. Student teams spend nearly a year designing, building, and programming an aerial robot from scratch. The missions (or competition) is designed to provide an engineering challenge that ideally can’t be completed using existing technology.

With teams from the US, China, United Arab Emirates, India, and Chile the current mission is the most challenging IARC mission to date. No aerial robot exists which can presently perform the behaviors required by this mission, however as with all past missions, the judges fully expect a university team to meet this challenge and advance the field of aerial robotics.

Find out more details and the Official Rules about the International Aerial Robotics Competition and see photos and video of last year’s event at the IARC website.