UT Dallas CS/ECE Team Place First in the 2022 Raytheon UAS Showcase
In Spring 2022, six Texas-based universities contested against each other in a bid to win the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) competition sponsored by Raytheon Technologies. The UAS University showcase featured UT Arlington (UTA), the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), Southern Methodist University (SMU), the University of Texas at Austin (UT) and of course the University of Texas at Dallas.
Student teams in each of the participating universities were given a budget and then tasked with completing three unmanned aerial systems challenges with the help of their autonomous drone. During the competition, each team was asked to complete a series of challenges within a specified time frame. The level of precision with which autonomous tasks were completed by their custom built drone (without any human assistance) and also its speed were among the criteria being measured.
The UT Dallas team, made up of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering students initially kickstarted the project in Fall 2021. Several teams from both the Computer Science and the Electrical/Computer Engineering departments worked diligently to develop a software that was instrumental in the development of the autonomous drone. While building the software, the Computer Science team worked alongside the Electrical/Computer Engineering team to build a hardware for a drone which they dubbed ‘Temoc Air’. Temoc Air became the drone used in competing at the 2022 UAS Showcase.
For the competition, the team had to conquer three main huddles with their autonomous drone:
Challenge One: Get Temoc Air to lift off to a certain altitude and land autonomously after flying straight for 30 yards on a football field. For this challenge, the team implemented algorithms that make use of GPS navigation to allow Temoc Air to autonomously take off, fly straight for 30 yards and then land on the field.
Challenge Two: Temoc Air was required to fly and search for the UT Dallas logo placed anywhere on a football field, then land on it. To accomplish this task, the team implemented computer vision algorithms to find the shape and color of the UT Dallas logo and then estimate the geolocation of the logo. Temoc Air then can use this information to navigate to and land autonomously on the UT Dallas logo on the field.
Challenge Three: Temoc Air had to autonomously navigate through obstacles to reach the UT Dallas logo on the field. For this challenge, the team implemented object avoidance algorithms to avoid obstacles while flying, using information from an onboard camera (the Zed 2 camera from Stereolab.)
Temoc Air’s ability to successfully conquer each challenge led the UT Dallas to victory. At the end of the competition, the students were awarded the first place trophy.
At UT Dallas’ Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, seniors are required to participate in a Capstone Program known as the UTDesign Capstone. The sponsor-led projects that students participate in give them a chance to gain hands-on design experience as well as soft skills needed to solve real world challenges.
Each UTDesign team typically consists of 4-6 senior students working an average of 10 hours a week for two semesters (15 hours per week in the summer). Computer Science offers a one-semester project during Spring and Fall semesters. During that period, the teams are mentored by both a corporate mentor who acts as the technical point of contact for the company, and a UT Dallas faculty advisor. The students who participated in the showcase were guided by Computer Science Professor Nhut Nguyen and Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Marco Tacca. The team worked closely with Raytheon mentors Christine Nezda and Alfonso Lopez. Prior to the competition, the students spent two semesters gaining hands-on experience learning about the technical issues of hardware design, software design, construction, and operation of autonomous aerial navigation systems.
The knowledge gained in the classroom contributed and the intensive nature of the UTDesign Capstone program greatly prepared the students for the 2022 UAS Showcase.
Complete list of Spring 2022 and Fall 2021 teams:
Electrical & Computer Engineering Team
Alexander Doudnikov
William Joseph Greenfield
William Wade Mullican
Ian Wesley Falk
Sean Isaac Njenga
Preetika Kondepudi
Computer Science Spring 2022 Team
Waste Mahmood
Sulayman Syed Hafizullah
Matthew Ryan Lineberry
Ernesto Franco
Tulsa A Patel
Computer Science Fall 2021 Team:
Mauricio Orozco-Munoz
Bisma Ahmed
Zainab Anwar
Nusrat Baset
Pei-Yun Tseng
James Baker
This Fall, the #UTDesignCapstone team will be partnering with more organizations to bring innovative projects to life. To learn more about the benefits of sponsoring a project, connect with us here.
