AUVSI USUAS – NCSU Aerial Robotic Club 2012 Resuts
- June 23rd, 2012
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The following details the mission performance of NC State University’s Aerial Robotics Club at the 10th annual AUVSI Student Unmanned Systems competition.
The autopilot successfully executed a fully autonomous take-off before switching over to manual control due to an error in the autopilot’s altitude configuration. It was later determined to have been operator error caused by improper zeroing of the altitude. Autonomous control was regained by flying at a higher altitude than originally planned. The waypoints, search pattern, and emergent target pattern were flown at this fixed altitude.
One special feature added this year was a laser altimeter. Despite early concerns of a failure, the altimeter performed well through out the mission.
The SRIC message was determined to be:
John Paul Jones, defeated British ship Serapis in the Battle of Flamborough Head on 23 September 1779
The targets this year spelled out the phrase, “Fear the goat”. This apparently has something to do with the mascot of the United States Naval Academy “Bill the goat”.
The emergent target this year was a wounded hiker and his backpack. Most of these details were visible in the images taken with the exception of his wounds.
