News release from the organizers:
Alma, QC – May 3-5, 2013 – Ten university student teams from across Canada competed in the Operational Phase of the 5thUnmanned Systems Canada UAV Student Competition hosted by Ville d’Alma at the Centre d’excellence sur les drones (UAS CE). The teams were challenged to use unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) in support of forest fire fighting. They were tasked with automatically locating targets that would represent points of interest in an actual forest fire fighting scenario in the remote Canadian wilderness, using their own experimental unmanned aircraft flying under the control of autopilots.
Winning Teams:
Phase 1 Design Phase
1stPlace Team COBRA, University of New Brunswick
2ndPlace UTA Team, University of Toronto
3rdPlace Team VAMUdeS, Université de Sherbrooke
Phase 2 Operational Phase
1stPlace Team VAMUdeS, Université de Sherbrooke
2ndPlace UTA Team, University of Toronto
3rd Place Team COBRA, University of New Brunswick
All teams who participated in the operational phase of the competition received a cash award; overall $12,000.00 of prize money was awarded to the teams.
“It’s incredibly satisfying to see the rapid growth in capability that these teams bring to our annual competition,” said Eric Edwards, Chairman of Unmanned Systems Canada. “We provide a safe environment where the students can fully exercise their technical creativity, and the results are just stunning. They are self-motivated, and they are the best of the best from their respective faculties. The corporate sponsors of this event thoroughly enjoyed meeting each of them and seeing their potential future employees at the top of their game, under a bit of competitive stress and dealing with real-life complications.”
Participating Teams:
University of New Brunswick – Team Cobra
Université de Sherbrooke – Team VAMUdeS
École Polytechnique Montréal – Team Smartbird
École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS) – Team Dronolab
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi – Team UQAC
University of Alberta – Team UAARG
University of Toronto – UTA Team
University of British Columbia – Team Thunderbird
Simon Fraser University – Team GUARDIAN
Carleton University – Team Blackbird
Unmanned Systems Canada – Systèmes télécommandés Canada (USC-STC) is the not-for-profit association representing the interests of the Canadian unmanned systems sector – industry, academia, government, military, and other interested persons. It provides a single voice for advocacy and representation to government and international bodies, and jointly leads Canada’s regulatory development efforts for UVS. The organization promotes and facilitates the growth of the Canadian unmanned vehicle systems community through education, engagement of new market sectors, and exchange of ideas and technologies.
The Unmanned Aerial System Center of Excellence is a non-profit organization whose mission is to develop an international center of expertise and innovations focused on the development, applications and operations of UAS. Services are available to both private and public companies. The UASCE collaborates withTransport Canada towards the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles in the Canadian airspace. UAV flights have been conducted since March 2012 in the Alma region and the future looks promising for the Centre.
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