Team DLR wins IMAV 2011 Outdoor Competition

The German Aerospace Center (DLR), winners of the International Micro Air Vehicle 2011 Outdoor Competition in September, just posted this video of the event.The “Team DLR” was a joint effort to participate in an international micro aerial vehicle competition. It comprised DLR researchers of the Institute of Flight Systems, Braunschweig, and the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, Oberpfaffenhofen. The competition took place in t’Harde, Netherlands in September 2011.

Unmanned aircraft that showed a high level of autonomy, i.e. independence from a human pilot, received more points for each successfully attempted mission element than its manually piloted counterpart.

The team DLR was one of two contestants that managed and coordinated autonomous flight of up to four unmanned aircraft at the same time within the arena. As a result, Team DLR accomplished various mission elements within a competition time slot of just 30 minutes:

• Pass a 6m x 6m gate
• Recognise a sequence of digits
• Find and identify „drug dealers” that were hiding somewhere out of sight
• Drop spy microphones within a designated area and recognize what people were talking.

As the video shows, not all aircraft worked as planned. Nevertheless, all accomplished mission elements were performed successfully and autonomously, including take off and landing manoeuvres.

Source: Press Release