The Waterloo Aerial Robotics Group is a team of University of Waterloo students who, with the support of our sponsors, are developing a series of fully autonomous flying robots for entry into the International Aerial Robotics Competition.

The objective of this multi-year competition is to push the envelope of technology by seriously challenging students to accomplish near-impossible mission objectives. The goal is to build a fleet of air vehicles capable of flying three kilometres, identifying target buildings, entering the structures and navigating inside to obtain visual reconnaissance information. This must be done within a period of 15 minutes and without the help of any crew.

WARG is led by the following people:

Executives
President: Brent Tweddle and Jason Dyck
Technical Leader: Brent Tweddle and Jason Dyck
Secretary: Jake Lifshits
Treasurer: Yassir Rizwan
Faculty Advisors: Prof. David Wang

Technical Council Members
Fixed Wing Aircraft - Mechanical: Jason Dyck
Fixed Wing Aircraft - Electrical: Robert Hesse
Multi-Rotor: Yassir Rizwan

You can contact WARG by emailing warg@engmail.uwaterloo.ca.

What's new:

Winter Term 2007 Recruitment

• The recruitment meeting for the W07 term will be Wednesday Sept 19 at 6:00PM in DWE 2536.

Spring Term 2007 Recruitment

• The recruitment meeting for the S07 term will be Monday May 7 at 5:30PM in DC 1304.

Fall 2006 Recruitment Meeting

• WARG's F06 Recruitment Meeting will be held on Monday September 18 at 5:30PM in DC 1304.

First Meeting of S06 Term

• We will have our first meeting of the S06 Term on Monday May 8, 2006 at 5:30PM in E2-2366.

Email Accounts Changed

• All email accounts at warg.uwaterloo.ca have been closed including pr@warg.uwaterloo.ca. You can reach warg using warg@engmail.uwaterloo.ca.

Recruitment Meeting

• All are welcome to attend Monday September 26, 2005 in DC 1404 at 5:30PM.

WARG Maintains 2nd Place at IARC 2005

• Read the details here.

General & Sponsorship Info Available Online

• You can now download our General Info Package and Sponsorship Package online.

WARG Travels to Georgia for International Aerial Robotics Competition

• The competition will be held from July 18Th to the 22nd. See the press release.

WARG 2005 IARC Journal Paper Available for Download

• Our journal paper for the 2005 IARC competition is complete. Check it out here.

WARG Programming Competition with CASH PRIZES!!!! Sponsored by the Mathematics Endowment Fund

• All math students (i.e. CompSci, SoftEng, Applied Math, ActSci etc..) at the University of Waterloo are invited to compete in a programming competition to identify windows in photographs of buildings. The prizes are: 1st place $500, 2nd place $250, 3rd place $100. Details of the competition can be found here. The deadline for submission is April 29, 2005.

Canadian Student Summit on Aerospace 2005

• WARG will be at the CSSA on January 28th to 30th at the University of Toronto. We will have an exhibit booth where you can meet the team. We will also be giving a presentation during the Student Speaker Series on WARG and the International Aerial Robotics Competition. See you there!

WARG Programming Contest with CASH PRIZES!!!!

• This term (W05) WARG is holding a programming contest for all University of Waterloo Math Students (i.e. CS, SoftEng, PMath etc..). This contest will involve developing image processing algorithms to detect open windows on buildings. Cash prizes are being provided by the Mathematics Endowment Fund. Further details will be available at our recruitment meeting on January 25, 2005 at 5:30PM in DC 1303 and more information will be posted here shortly.

Complete Success at 2004 Competition

• Here's a list of our accomplishments:
• First Place in 2004 (final scores)
• Level 1 Completed (3km fully autonomous flight out of visual range)
• Best Technical Paper (see below)
• We were informally commended by the judges and organizers on the stability and smoothness of our custom autopilot. On our successful Level 1 attempt we completed the 3km course in approximately 2 minutes and cleared one of the waypoints by less than 15 meters according to the waypoint judge.
• Over the next year we plan to build on this experience and implement the vehicles described in our paper, including a 4 meter wingspan fixed wing aircraft, an autonomously guided parachute, a 3-dimensional vision system and an indoor surveillance robot. We are also continuing to make excellent progress with our ducted fan VTOL aircraft.

WARG 2004 IARC Journal Paper Available for Download

• Our journal paper for the 2004 IARC competition is complete. The paper outlines a network oriented multi-vehicle approach implemented with a number of new vehicles for this year. Check it out here.

WARG's First Fully Autonomous Flight Flies Perfectly!

• After our longest day of test flights ever (11 flights in one day), at 17:08 on April 23, 2004, our pilot switched our aircraft into fully autonomous mode for the first time ever. WARG members watched the aircraft fly from one GPS location to the next as different waypoints were selected on the base station. The aircraft maintained heading, elevation and airspeed all by itself (our pilot even took held his hands up in the air to prove it).
• WARG's fixed wing aircraft relies almost entirely on custom developed components. Everything from the printed circuit board, to the low level device drivers and the autopilot control software, was designed and implemented in house by WARG members in their spare time. This system utilizes cheap components and costs WARG under $3500 CDN to purchase.
• WARG will continue to fine tune the aircraft for better performance and will begin reliability and endurance testing shortly.

WARG Featured on the Discovery Channel

• Tuesday September 9, 2003 at 7:00 PM Eastern, the Discovery Channel will cover the Waterloo Aerial Robotics Group at the 2003 IARC Competition in Fort Benning, Georgia. Be sure to watch!

Overview:

The Waterloo Aerial Robotics Group is a team of University of Waterloo students who are developing a series of fully autonomous vehicles (both air and ground). The goal is to have a fleet of robots that can work cooperatively toward some predefined goal without help from any human crew. The robots are equipped with abilities to perform various tasks such as autonomous flight and navigation, mapping, visual recognition, and hazard detection.
 

Links:

How to get involved
All about sponsorship
The International Aerial Robotics Competition
Workshops and Design course topics
Our internal webpage - For members only.
 


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