Winning Entry Is VTOL Emergency Responder

A student team from the University of Missouri-Rolla took first place in a national competition sponsored by the Redstone Chapter of the American Helicopter Society, beating out Georgia Tech and the University of Alabama-Huntsville with their small unmanned helicopter.

Dubbed "Project SAVER," the helicopter is capable of vertical takeoff and landing and was designed to assist first responders in emergency situations, which is the whole purpose of the competition. The vehicle is a semi-autonomous VTOL emergency responder -- a coaxial, contra-rotating blade helicopter featuring a side-mounted camera.

Each student team was required to design and build a small VTOL unmanned aerial vehicle that could safely operate in and around buildings and the UMR aircraft does just that. A semi-autonomous control system and unique sensor suite allows it to be operated in and around buildings and outside of the line of vision of the ground station operator according to UMR.

"In the competition, we had to fly around a building and look into the windows with the camera," says Tim Assel, a graduate student in aerospace engineering.

The team qualified for the national competition last year, when their design was selected as a winning project. The team received $5,000 to build the vehicle and the students have spent the past year building the helicopter and securing additional funding.

"Our ultimate goal of forming and nurturing student teams such as the First Responder Team is to inspire, engage and educate students in order to produce well-prepared graduates who quickly adapt to technical innovations and are more competitive and productive throughout their careers," says team advisor Dr. Fathi Finaish, professor and associate chair of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UMR. "The rapidly changing technical world and the demands of future workforce requirements entail that future engineers must maintain an up-to-date knowledge and possess unique skills in order for them to be able to function in a high-tech global world."

The vehicle was evaluated based on total system weight, time to complete mission, number of object hits and total system cost.

Members of the First Responder Design Team are: Tim Assel of Cameron, MO; Peter Cross of Ash Grove, MO; Ryanne Dolan of Lake St. Louis; Paul Drews of Saint Charles, MO; Paul Leonard of Seattle, WA; Trey Lewellen of O'Fallon; Nick Lessley of Forsyth, MO; Brian Magaha of Saint Peters, MO; and Paul Robinette of Maryland Heights, MO.

FMI: www.ahsredstone.org, www.umr.edu