Iranian National UAV Competition
sUAS News Editors note: Ali Parvazi was kind enough to write this multi part story for the sUAS News.
The impetuous for this story is to give some apolitical insight into what Iranian academia et al, have been able to accomplishing under sanctions, and basically on their own. That notion was conveyed to Ali when asking if he was interested in publicly sharing information about the contest and the entrants. The results of that request are as follows. The article has been gone through, a few of the photo’s have been cut and or resized to save space, as well as some changes made to sort out language continuity issues. However, it has been left as true to the author’s original composition as possible, and we hope that you find it as enjoyable and informative as we did.
By: Ali Parvazi
Edited by: Patrick Egan
History:
In 2006, Sharif University initiated a competition for designing and operating small and medium size UAVs. This competition was sponsored by some different military and non-military organizations to excavate new talents and creativities in the field of UAVs.
This competition consists of 3 different levels:
1- Conceptual Design
2- Making nonflying prototype
3- Making flying prototype
In the first stage, about 65 teams participated in the competition for designing the UAV, but just 20 of them reached the final.
The competition did not have a winner, but Aria UAV (Isfahan University of Technology) and Parastoo (swallow) (Azad University-Science and Research Branch) achieved second place together.
Second Year of competition:
Because of general ovation for this competition, the secretariat of the competition decided to separate the competition into different levels and codify the rules and scoring systems to avoid any misjudgment. Also, they provided an overview to the missions’ targets for future years’ competitions.
According to their decision, they divide it into 3 levels: high school students, Universities and professionals
Ayandeh Parvazan (Future Fliers)
In this level, high school students try to solve some of engineering problems or some engineering interests by finding similar usage in the nature. For example we have lots of birds that fly at very low speeds. They try to study their methods and try to find a solution in real engineering world. This method is known as “Bionic”.
Best researches and papers will win the competition.
Homa Sazan (University Level) Missions and Goals:
This competition was sponsored by some different military and non-military organizations to excavate new talents and creativities in the field of UAVs.
This competition consists of 3 different levels:
1- Conceptual Design
2- Making nonflying prototype
3- Making flying prototype
In the first stage, about 65 teams participated in the competition for designing the UAV, but just 20 of them reached the final.
The competition did not have a winner, but Aria UAV (Isfahan University of Technology) and Parastoo (swallow) (Azad University-Science and Research Branch) achieved second place together.
**Div-e-Sepid (White Demon)
Damavand mount is the highest peak in Iranwith the height of 5621m (18,441’) and it is located near the southern coast of the Caspian
Sea, 66 kilometers (41 miles) northeast of Tehran.
This is a free style-professional competition in which each team must prepare a UAV and take off from a specific location, fly to the mountain area and reach the elevation of 4500m from the sea level, make a full turn around the peak and return to the base at the minimum time.
This competition was sponsored by some different military and non-military organizations to excavate new talents and creativities in the field of UAVs.
Homa Sazan (University Level) Missions and Goals:
1-Level 1 (2010-2011)
In this competition, participants must provide a UAV equipped with a Camera to search a 10 square kilometer area for at least 40 minutes to find 3 square meter marks on the ground with different English letters on them. Finding ground targets and reporting the geo location are criterion for choosing the contest winner.
2-Level 2 (2011-2012)
For this mission, the UAV must fly at two different altitudes with a minimum difference of 3000 feet. Flight time is about 120 minutes (60 minutes for low and 60 minutes for higher altitude). The UAV must patrol in the constant radius of 500 meters and send the captured video of the area to the base station at the distance of 2 Km from Flight area. The goal of this mission is to simulate the mannerisms of predators like eagle’s patrol and observing a fixed area.
3-Level 3 (2012-2013)
Based on conservation programs designed to find wood smugglers in the jungle, the UAV must take off from a specific position outside of the jungle and reach an operation altitude of 8000 feet, then enter to the jungle independently and find two separate vehicles, a red and a white truck between the trees, in the shortest amount of time, transmit the respective vehicle coordinates and return to the base safely.
4-Level 4 (2013-2014)
In this mission, participants must expand upon the abilities of level 3 mission (with the minimum changes) for rescue operations. In this mission, the UAV must find the two vehicles (red and a white trucks) in the jungle and drop a 2 Kg rescue package that includes water, food and first aid kit with the goal of being nearest position to the trucks. The rescue packages must remain undamaged during the entire rescue operation.
5-Level 5 (2014-2015)
At this level, you were successful in passing level 4. In this mission, the UAV has to do a rescue operation in the water (seas, lakes or rivers). The UAV has to find a broken boat which has erected two red and yellow flags, report their coordinate to the base (to send rescue team) and throw a 2 Kg rescue package include water, food and first aid kit. The point is that the water mustn’t damage the package contents and the package musn’t be lost in the sea.
