Contact:
Ginelle Nazareth, 604.353.6577; gnazaret@sfu.ca
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.9017; Marianne_Meadahl@sfu.ca

Photos: http://at.sfu.ca/NnWrkv

They placed “near the middle of the pack” at a recent international competition, but a team of Simon Fraser University students markedly improved how its unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can spot and record targets – technology that could one day help monitor events like forest fires.

Team GUARDIAN, based at SFU’s Surrey campus, has just returned from the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) competition in Maryland, which draws teams from as far off as India and Turkey.

Officially, they finished 24^th out of 35 teams but their 2.2-meter wing-spanned craft, flying at an average altitude of 100 meters, “spotted” five of nine targets – a significant result as the group moves forward with its research.

“There were more teams competing and far fewer crashes this year, so the level of competition has risen considerably,” says Ginelle Nazareth, a third-year engineering student who co-leads the team. Five of the team’s dozen members travelled to Maryland for the contest.

The system performed extremely well when the team competed last year for the first time at a national competition – placing second overall. Confident, the team moved on to the contest in Maryland, but the craft experienced a glitch and crashed. “Since then, we have been working to improve the accuracy of the target locating system and have modified most of the UAV in the process,” Nazareth explains.

“For example, the airframe, camera and vision system transceivers have all been changed. The autopilot has also been upgraded and testing procedures improved as well.”

The group carries out its hands-on work in an SFU lab but will be spending several afternoons a month testing the craft in a Surrey field. “Our goal now is to focus on perfecting the craft’s target location capabilities – we’ve brought back new ideas and we’re already working towards next spring’s competition.”

Simon Fraser University is Canada's top-ranked comprehensive university and one of the top 50 universities in the world under 50 years old. With campuses in Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey, B.C., SFU engages actively with the community in its research and teaching, delivers almost 150 programs to more than 30,000 students, and has more than 120,000 alumni in 130 countries.

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