The first attempt at Mission 8 of the IARC (International Aerial Robotics Competition) finished on August 1^st in Atlanta Georgia. No team completed the mission, as expected, but three of the teams did qualify and had an opportunity to demonstrate their capability in the arena. By far and away, the Norway Team (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) with 5 flying attempts was the best prepared but Olin (Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering) and St. Olaf (St. Olaf College) each made 4 flight attempts. Other teams present were Missouri University of Science and Technology, Pennsylvania State University, PES University (from Bangalore, India), University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Texas at Austin. Teams travelling to the competition face many challenges. For example, the PES University Team’s vehicle was destroyed going through customs from India. The Georgia heat melted one team’s vehicles and they had to scramble to replace their propeller shrouds.

This contest has been held once a year for 28 years. The goal has always been to stretch the technology and it was created to be “hard.” It was/is/and always will be a competition based on autonomous vehicles. This year was the first year that the autonomous vehicles could be directed by a human operator through voice or gesture commands. Also, this is the first year that the mission was hindered by active sentry drones. There were four of them and their mission was to prevent the human in the arena from completing the mission. The rules explain in detail what is required and there is also a promotional video that dramatizes the task.

The next opportunity for college teams to meet the Mission 8 challenge will be at the Asia/Pacific Venue on August 24-25 in Kunming, China. Thirteen teams from China and 3 from India are slated to attend. The past two missions were completed at the Asia/Pacific Venue. It is possible but unlikely to have one of the Chinese teams complete the mission and collect the prize money. That would bring up Mission 9 and severely disappoint the creator of the competition. He wants the challenge to be tough enough to take a couple of years to accomplish. On the Past Missions page of the IARC Website one can see that Professor Michelson got his wish on every mission except for Mission 5.