Recently, the 2019 “Dream Angle Cup” International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC) was held at Yunnan Innovation Institute of Beihang University. Set up by the School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Team Yuyuan-X and Team Yuyuan-Y participated in the competition, and won the Best Thesis Award and Best Collaboration Award respectively.
The mission this year is to decode the password hidden in four fragmented QR code pictures under the attack of guard robots, open the box according to the password, take out the basketball in the box and put it in the designated place. During the process, the UAV can only be controlled by voice or gesture, which emphasizes man-machine interaction (non-electronic command and control), fused sensory enhancement of a human operator by a fleet of aerial robots, swarm interaction, aerial target designation and head-to-head interaction with opposing aerial robots.
The two teams are made up of Beihang postgraduate students as well as postgraduate students and doctoral students waiting for admission, all of whom have no experience in participating in such competition. With the strong support of the leaders of the school and under the guidance of young teachers, the two team leaders Song Xinyu and Zhang Wubin led their members to tackle key technical problems, formulate plans and sort out major problems, and held regular meetings for in-depth discussion about difficulties.
In the five rounds of the competition, Team Yuyuan-X carefully observed each step, actively revised the plan based on the problems, and even burned the midnight oil to improve the algorithm. At last, they successfully extracted and pieced together the fragments of the four QR code photos. By virtue of their excellent presentation and thesis writing ability, Team Yuyuan-X won the Best Thesis Award. Members of Team Yuyuan-Y raced against time to modify programs and debug their UAV. They never gave up any opportunity but strived to do their best. Finally, they found the best solution to decode the password without all the QR codes. With the excellent design of the control system, they won the Best Collaboration Award.
Founded in 1991, International Air Robot Competition (IARC) was initiated by Professor Robert C. Michelson from Georgia Institute of Technology, funded by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), and held once a year. The tournament so far has had a history of 28 years, with seven generations of tasks completed. In 2012, the Asia-Pacific division of International Air Robot Contest was set up, attracting students from well-known universities to participate in the challenge. The 2019 IARC was co-sponsored by Association for Unmanned Vehicles System International, Beihang University, Yunnan Innovation Institute of Beihang University, China Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics, etc. It aims to advance UAV technology by setting challenging, practical and meaningful competition tasks.
Reported by Song Xinyu and Zhang Wubin
Edited by Jia Aiping
Reviewed by Hu Xiaoguang
Translated by Zhao Yue
