Announcement – Student Competition Phase 1 Winners

Phase 1 of the 2016 Student UAS Competition is complete. A judging panel, comprised of Canadian subject matter experts, has completed its independent review of the technical papers submitted by all 18 teams. The competition scenario deals with precision agriculture where the teams must use their UAV to identify the crops’ location, type and health and map them with an airborne sensor system. The additional challenge is to drop a probe to measure soil conditions in specific locations to validate the aerial results obtained from the imaging system. Overall, the judges were impressed by the quality of the reports, the inclusion of new technologies into the systems and the way the solutions were presented. Unmanned Systems Canada is therefore pleased to announce the top three design papers as follows:

UAS Design Paper Competition

1st place: University of Toronto – UAV Division
2nd place: University of Toronto – Aerial Robotics Division
3rd place: Carleton University – Blackbird UAV Team

Phase 2, the flying portion of the competition, will take place in Southport MB April 29th – May 1st 2016. Prizes for both phases will be presented at the competition awards banquet on the closing evening. Special thanks to Southport as our host, our Contributing and all sponsors for making all of it possible. Sponsorship opportunities are still available – contact us today to become involved as we support and celebrate the best and brightest of the Canadian UAS sector.