Success of the HORUS team in an international drone competition

The UAS Challenge is an annual competition that emerged in 2014. It starts each year in October, with the beginning of the design of the vehicle by the teams, and ends in England, where the final phase takes place in which the participants from all over the world compete with each other to demonstrate the best performance of their vehicles in humanitarian emergency situations. The term UAS refers to the acronym in English for Unmanned Aerial Systems, and encompasses the system as a whole that allows you to control and direct an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), popularly known as a drone.

The HORUS team from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) in Spain has participated in the UAS Challenge 2022 competition. Its members attended the event with suitcases full of enthusiasm and have returned with a feeling of full satisfaction. The HORUS team has achieved third place in the general category of the competition, and first place in two specialized categories. The event has taken place in Buckminster (England, United Kingdom).

It is also the first participation of a UPV team in this competition, in which students from various degrees from around the world, with a predominance of Engineering, have competed with each other to demonstrate the effectiveness of drone systems they have designed and built since October of last year. In the case of the Valencian team, it was the H110 FALCO.

Organized by the UK Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 33 teams have participated in this ninth edition, most from the UK but also from the Netherlands, Pakistan, Portugal and Turkey, to name a few.

The group that represented the UPV was made up of more than 40 students from various degrees, with a greater presence of students from the Degree in Aerospace Engineering and the Master’s Degree in Aeronautical Engineering. HORUS has completed a podium in the general category in which the representatives of the Queen’s University of Belfast have occupied the second position, and the English team Peryton Heron, from the University of Surrey, has revalidated the 2021 title.

The fact of facing his first participation has redoubled the feeling of satisfaction in the UPV team, according to Sergio García-Nieto, professor in the Department of Systems Engineering and Automation, and supervisor of the project, “the result has been spectacular because the team had no previous experience in the competition. In addition, they competed against universities with a much larger budget”, argues García-Nieto.

First place in Airworthiness and best premiere

The UPV team has won third place overall, but has won two other awards: First place in the Airworthiness category and the best debut for a new entrant in the competition.

The HORUS team has achieved first place in the airworthiness category and the best classification for a rookie. (Photo: HORUS / UPV)

Joan Albert, as student coordinator, highlights the difficulties they have had to overcome over the months. “We had the hope of being up to the task but we were in doubt. We have had unforeseen events up to two days before the competition. Besides, it was our premiere. With all this, we have not been able to have a greater reward”, he defends.

Continuity to the project

Regarding the future, Albert is committed to the continuity of the HORUS project through the formation of two teams: The competition team, which will seek first place in the next edition of the UAS Challenge; and the research one, focused on taking advantage of the progress made in recent months, as well as all the work carried out since the HORUS project took its first steps in 2018. (Source: UPV)