Georgia Tech teammates wrestle the probe boom and attached robot (seen in the metal cage at the bottom of the image) into place on the underside of the helicopter. (Dave Bender)
Two Georgia universities are among ten college engineering teams from the US and other countries at Fort Benning near Columbus this week. They’re all taking part in an annual aerial robotics competition.
The Georgia Tech helicopter takes flight. In the background is the mock village it will autonomously reconnoiter. (Dave Bender)
The scene: an open field deep in the piney woods of the massive Army infantry training base. The target: hidden in a two-story building, somewhere in a full-sized mock up of a small village.
The teams are here with miniature helicopters and a small fixed-wing plane, chests full of electronic testing and radio gear, and control trucks nearby.
But these aren’t your dad’s old radio-controlled planes: over the next three days they’ll take off and fly their craft, which carry different tries at the same goal: a small, self-guided robot probe.
A team member checks the charge on the internal battery on the robot probe, "Rover," after its sortie. (Dave Bender)
The aircraft drop the robots near the entrance to the targeted building. From there, they’ll send back recon data via cameras and microphones -- all without human intervention, and in 15 minutes.
Georgia Tech team member Nimrod Roos described the scene, as their gold and white helicopter buzzed by just a hundred feet overhead after takeoff:
“There’s a bunch of waypoints around, and it’s basically flying the waypoints, and this would represent if you were flying to your destination… they want to see that they can actually give us points, and we can follow them and traverse.”GT and the other teams have four tries to win the $80,000 grand prize. But Roos says getting the prize will take a very clever robot:
“We want some kind of an autonomous vehicle that can go in, survey the site and make it’s own decisions about where to look for stuff.”
The helicopter, unaided and correcting for wind skewing the boom aside, cautiously lowers the robot probe on a dual electric winch. (Dave Bender)
The Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International began the competition in 1991 at Georgia Tech. The organizers say the craft are meant to be used in biohazard and nuclear inspections missions, search and rescue, and military hostage rescue, intelligence and reconnaissance missions.
But successfully designing, programming, building and flying an autonomous robot is a lot harder than playing Wii or PS3.
Georgia Tech team leader Claus Christmann talked about their second time trial on Tuesday, as they recovered the helicopter and two-wheeled, football-sized probe:
“We successfully released the Rover; it came out, unfortunately, on the outside – but it did what it’s supposed to be doing. Immediately after the drop, it self-righted itself, and then started doing a 360-degree panorama shot for the first glimpse of where we are – but it was on the outside, so [there was] no chance of getting a picture done.”
Claus Christmann and team members reset the probe boom, and carefully rewind the rope onto the winch after the flight. (Dave Bender)
The vehicle was stopped cold by a four-inch step in front of an open doorway.
But while Georgia Tech's team didn't fully succeed, at least they're still in the running. Southern Georgia Polytechnic's entry crashed on takeoff, and they pulled out of the race.
Later in the day West Virginia Tech's helicopter got a little too autonomous, and flew away up to 1,800 feet. The approved flight ceiling is 500 feet.
The craft flew a seemingly random path around the field, and over the crews, as worried teammates and bemused judges looked on.
But crews and judges alike ran for cover when the craft started a drunken roll, and appeared to be nosing down into the center of the testing area. After the mock dive, a team member took manual control of the craft via a standard radio control box, and brought the craft to a safe landing to applause from the other teams.
The competition continues through Thursday, when the winning team will be announced.
Click here for more GPB News coverage of events at Fort Benning and the vicinity.
