International Aerial Robotics Competition
MISSION 8 of the International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC) focused on demonstrating technologies involved with Man-Unmanned Machine-Teaming (MUMT). In particular, a single human was to communicate navigation commands by either gesture or vocal commands to a team of up to four fully autonomous aerial robots.
Key behaviors to be demonstrated are fully autonomous flight, execution of verbal or gesture commands from a single human, and deciphering and assembling noise-corrupted segments of a QR code to reveal an “unlock code” which must be communicated to the human team member.
The man-unmanned team must complete its task in under 8 minutes while being attacked by Sentry aerial robots that can disable the human with 10 or more laser hits. The unmanned aerial robot team can “heal” up to 4 laser hits when commanded to do so.
The details of the Mission 8 arena can be found here.
During the IARC, numerous team members were disabled by receiving 10 or more laser hits.
Mission 8 was successfully completed in under 8 minutes by three teams. The Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA) was able to complete the mission in 5 minutes and 6 seconds, representing the fastest completion time. Completing the mission within 10 seconds of NUAA, was Sun Yat Sen University. Harbin Institute also completed the mission, but did so with only 12 seconds remaining on the clock. By completing the mission in the least time, NUAA wins the grand prize of $10,000.
Beihang University (two teams): Haidian District, Beijing, China Civil Aviation University of China: Tianjin, Shandong, China Harbin Engineering University: Harbin, Heilongjiang, China
Hindustan Institute of Technology & Science: Chennai, India Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India KCG College of Technology: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Kennesaw State University: Marietta, Georgia, United States Missouri University of Science & Technology: Rolla, Missouri, United States Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics (two teams): Nanjing, Jiangsu, China Naval Aviation University: Yantai, Shandong, China Northwestern University: Xi'anm, Shaanxi, China
Norwegian University of Science & Technology: Trondheim, Norway Olin College of Engineering: Needham, Massachusetts, United States Pennsylvania State University: State College, Pennsylvania, United States PES University: Bangalore, Karnataka, India St. Olaf College / Carleton College: Northfield, Minnesota, United States Sun Yat-Sen University: Guangzhou, Guangdong, China Tsinghua University (two teams): Beijing, Beijing, China University of Illinois at Chicago: Chicago, Illinois, United States University of Michigan: Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States University of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States University of Texas at Austin: Austin, Texas, United States Xiamen University: Xiamen, Fujian, China Zhejiang University: Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China