On Sunday, May 7, teams from Rowan University, Villanova University, Bryn Mawr College, and Drexel University gathered in the Drexel Athletic Center to compete in the 2nd Annual Indoor Aerial Robotics Competition!

The IARC was formed by Dr. Paul Oh in parallel with the Congressional mandate that requires 30% of all U.S. deep-strike aircraft to be capable of autonomous navigation by 2015. To keep in line with this mandate, the competition was revised to increase the difficulty each year with the goal of having a “backpack-able” vehicle that flies autonomously inside buildings by 2015.

In the first IARC in 2005, also held on Drexel’s campus in the DAC and sponsored by the Drexel Student Chapter of ASME and the MEM Department, the teams were asked to autonomously follow a line through a course and later find and tag “casualties” in a separate course. This year the teams were challenged to navigate along a set path using only fiducials to dodge obstacles, as well as hover over a bull’s eye, spying through a window on the mannequins inside.

The competition kicked off at 11:00 am, and each team was permitted three trial runs, with the best score to be counted in the final tally. Points were awarded for time, accuracy in following the course, and more points were awarded to those who could perform these tasks autonomously as opposed to remote control. Through most of the trials through the maze, the teams remained locked closely in points. Villanova, having experienced technical difficulties earlier in the day, removed their team from the competition. In the end, Drexel pulled away in the point tally relying on their speed through the course to set them apart from the other teams and taking the competition for the second year in the row!

Following the success of this year’s competition, Drexel has already begun planning the third competition to take place in 2007 which promises to add more challenges into the course. Drexel would like to recognize the Philadelphia Senior Section of ASME, IEEE, Drexel’s Commissions for Activities and Programs (CAP), Ed’s Pizza restaurant, and the Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics department at Drexel for their contributions and assistance in making this competition a success.

To view footage of the 2005 IARC, please visit http://dasl.mem.drexel.edu/multimedia.htm

To view footage of this year’s competition, please visit http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~vn43/main/IARC2006/IARC2006.html