{"id":335,"date":"2020-04-30T12:36:29","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T17:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mtlott.vtol.org\/?p=335"},"modified":"2020-05-05T08:09:19","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T13:09:19","slug":"the-8th-annual-micro-air-vehicle-student-challenge-what-a-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mtlott.vtol.org\/?p=335","title":{"rendered":"The 8th Annual Micro Air Vehicle Student Challenge \u2014 What a Journey!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 8th Annual Micro Air Vehicle Student Challenge \u2014 What a Journey!<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Chantal Boucher<\/p>\n

It all started at Forum 75 in May 2019 at the 7th<\/sup> Annual MAV competition in Philadelphia when some of our Montreal\/Ottawa Chapter teammates saw firsthand what was required to host and organize a competition of that magnitude. We took the time to gather feedback from some of the organizers, the judges and the competitors.<\/p>\n

After meeting with the 7th<\/sup> edition organizing team, we sat down to start discussing how to go about the 8th<\/sup> MAV competition, which was scheduled to happen during the 76th<\/sup> VFS Annual Forum in Montreal this May. We decided to raise the bar and started drafting new rules for the competition. Taking inspiration from the historic flooding of Quebec in Spring 2019, we decided that the mission for the 8th<\/sup> edition would be to deliver sandbags along the banks of a river to protect the waterfront residents. The teams could utilize either an autonomous or a manually piloted drone. The detailed rules are posted at www.vtol.org\/mav<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/nyp-corp.com\/images\/pic_thoughtful-disposal-sandbags.jpg\"
The mission for the competition was to transport sandbags along the banks of a river to protect the waterfront residents<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The challenge started in October with the first deadline at end of January 2020, where the 13 teams submitted a report detailing their proposed design and sandbag delivery predictions. Seven teams were downselected to move forward and build a vehicle. Teams were required to submit a video of their vehicle flying to demonstrate competition readiness in mid-March, along with a progress report.<\/p>\n

However, at the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic started having an impact on travel, schools and non-essential services. We started receiving feedback from the teams that travelling to the competition was becoming an issue and, in some cases, access to their school campus was prohibited. Soon, even Forum 76 had to be rescheduled into the next school year, making a flyoff untenable.<\/p>\n

We did not want to abandon the idea of completing the competition, so to underscore each team\u2019s effort, we brainstormed ideas on how to determine the competition winners. We decided to use the progress videos in conjunction with the team\u2019s prediction to determine the scores and select the winners. Seven judges reviewed the submissions from the seven teams, and chose the four winning submissions, using a thorough scoring process:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • 1st<\/sup> position: Maryland University – ASET<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • 2nd<\/sup> position: Maryland University – AMAV<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • 3rd<\/sup> position: McGill University VFS student Chapter<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • 4th<\/sup> position: Penn State University<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The organizing team and judges were very pleased with the creativity and imagination applied to find great solutions for sandbag pickup and drop off.<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    Winning Team – University of Maryland – ASET
    Top row (graduate student members) left to right: Nicholas Rehm (Team leader), Abhishek Shastry, Ilya Semenov. Bottom row (undergraduate student members) left to right: Peter Ryseck, Derek Safieh, Robbie Nawrocki<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Winning Team Gate 2 Video
    \n<\/strong><\/p>\n