The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle team consists of several students from a variety of majors. We also have several professors and faculty working with us to make our project a success. Our Goal is to design and build an Aerial Vehicle and sub-vehicle to compete in the International Arial Robotics Competition In July. The Vehicle will be capable of flying 3 Kilometers via waypoints, After which, it will search for and find a specific building. Finally it will launch the sub-vehicle. The sub-vehicle will then enter the building and relay video information back to the base station. The real challenge comes from the fact the entire system will be autonomous, meaning the entire process will be controlled by computers on-board the vehicle.

The unmanned aerial vehicle team was formed for several reasons. The primary reason, for at least the first few years, is to compete in and win the International Aerial Robotics Competition. We would also like to gain some real world experience that we can take to our jobs after graduation. Another important reason for the SDSM&T UAV team is to explore the frontier of aerial robotics. The team would like to someday develop some new technologies which will be used in both commercial and military UAV’s.

Team Website  I  Competition Website