Teaching Engineering Through the use of a Student UAS Competition

For the past thirteen years, Mississippi State University has used a student unmanned aircraft systems competition as an approach for teaching students system design, systems integration, prototype development, and testing. The design team competes in the annual international student unmanned aircraft system competition hosted by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. The concepts introduced to the students allow them to engage in real-world engineering activities including designing a system based upon the requirements given in a request-for-proposal, integrating various sensors and electronics into their air vehicle, writing test plans to evaluate system components, and conducting ground and flight tests for the system. 1 Background In January 2003, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle System International (AUVSI) established the student unmanned aircraft systems (SUAS) competition “aimed at stimulating and fostering interest in this innovative technology and encouraging careers in the field, the competition challenges the students to design, fabricate, and demonstrate a system capable of completing a specific and independent aerial operation.”1 The Seafarer Chapter of AUVSI hosts the annual competition during June at Webster Naval Outlying Field (Webster Field) in St. Inigoes, MD. Webster Field is an auxiliary field of Naval Air Station Patuxent River, home of naval flight testing. After hearing about the competition at the AUVSI conference in 2003, it was decided Mississippi State University should form a team to compete in the 2004 AUVSI SUAS competition. From the early stages of consideration, it was understood the team would greatly benefit from being multidisciplinary. Although based in the aerospace engineering department, team membership was opened to all engineering disciplines with an emphasis on electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and computer science or software engineering. There are many names used to describe an unmanned aircraft system including unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), remotely-piloted aircraft (RPA), unmanned aircraft system (UAS), and drone. In terms of the air vehicle, UAV, unmanned aircraft (UA), RPA, or drone can be used. The most common nomenclature within the unmanned community is UAV, which as defined in the Department of Defense Joint Publication 1-02, “DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms,” as follows: “A powered, aerial vehicle that does not carry a human operator, uses aerodynamic forces to provide vehicle lift, can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely, can be expendable or recoverable, and can carry a lethal or nonlethal payload. Ballistic or semi-ballistic vehicles, cruise missiles, and artillery projectiles are not considered unmanned aerial vehicles. Also called UAV.”2 The terms UAV, UA, or RPA emphasizes the air vehicle. However, since 2005, the Department of Defense (DoD)3 and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have used the term UAS, which not only includes the unmanned aircraft, but also includes the associated ground control station (GCS), telemetry/data link, communication and navigation, and sensor package. 1.1 Competition Overview The competition, aimed at performing an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) mission for a small marine reconnaissance team, was scored based on three parts: a journal paper, a flight readiness review, and the mission performance. Over the years, the competition has expanded to include tasks such as locating infrared (IR) targets, sensing and avoiding (SAA), air dropping, cyber-security tasks, and others. Overall, the objective was to provide real-time or near real-time intelligence of various targets and actionable intelligence for at least one target in a designated search area. The UA must navigate the search area autonomously while searching for targets (geometric shapes cut from plywood) as illustrated in Figure 1.1 The sizes of the targets range from four feet (width and length) up to eight feet. The number of targets located in the search area can range from four to 14 targets. The characteristics of the targets that the competitors must identify are the location (latitude and longitude), orientation, shape, color, and alphanumeric character on the target. Locating the targets can be accomplished either manually by the students identifying a target in their pictures or automatically with the use of auto-targeting recognition and location (ATARL) software. While in the search area, the UA must fly autonomously. This is achieved by an onboard autopilot or GPS-capable flight control computer. The UA can perform a conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) or automatic takeoff and landing (ATOL). The UAS must also have the capability to be dynamically re-tasked while inflight. To do this, new latitude/longitude coordinates have to be uploaded to the UA, which will send the UA to a new location within the search area to look for what is known as an emergent target (otherwise called “pop-up” target). The students have to identify the emergent target as well as provide its location. The emergent target, over the years, can be nearly anything from a downed firefighter to a lost airplane as shown in Figure 1.2. Figure 1.1 Since the targets have alphanumeric characters written on them, they can be combined to spell out a secret message. After finding the targets, presumably all of the targets, then the students have to rearrange the letters, either manually or automatically, to determine what the secret message is, Figure 1.31.