A team made up of researchers, professors and students from Public University of Navarra (UPNA) competed, from September 16 to 20, at International Micro Air Vehicle Conference and CompetitionA drone competition one of the most recognized in its field, organized in Bristol (United Kingdom). In total, 29 teams from more than 15 countries participated in the different categories offered by the organization. During this edition, UPNA was the only national representative and the team placed third in its category, out of eight participating teams.
He equipmentcomposed of Manuel Prieto (doctoral collaborating researcher), Paul de Porcellinis (industrial doctoral student), Fermin Sola (4th year student of the International Diploma Program in Computer Engineering), Javier Ponz (3rd year student of the International Engineering Diploma in Industrial Technologies), Daniel Alaez (doctoral collaborating researcher and substitute professor) and led by the professor and Jesús Villadangos, researcher at ISCcompeted in the “outdoor” multicopter category, where they used their own manufactured aircraft to solve a series of wildlife conservation challenges.
In the four proposed challengesthe plane had to fly a circuit several times to assess its effectiveness, conduct a search for wildlife in a field, clearly photograph animals in given locations at the time of the competition, and successfully drop a camera at one location indicated by a marker.
The International Micro Air Vehicles, Conference and Competition has been organized since 2004, with the presence of universities renowned in the field of aeronautical engineering such as ISAE-SUPAERO, TU Delft, RWTH Aachen or the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, among others. The trip to Bristol and the registration of the team were possible thanks to the collaboration of the Navarrese companies Fuvex, SL and Sistemas Navarra, SA
In view of the good results obtainedthe team, coordinated by the Distributed Systems Group, seeks to strengthen its proposal for next year by participating in the “interior” and “exterior” categories, and encourages students interested in the field of drones and programming to be part of the project.
