Scavenger Hunt by Plane

Despite the in-flight fire caused by a faulty speed controller, an unmanned airplane designed and built by Jacobs School undergraduates won second place at an international scavenger hunt. The plane has a 10-foot wing span and a body of composite fiber that encases an autopilot and an object-recognition system. The competition resembles a scavenger hunt except that the students and their target-finding airplanes are not told exactly what they are looking for. The autopilot charts the course while the object-recognition system searches the ground, more than 200 feet below, for potential targets. The plane that identifies the most targets—without any human assistance—wins. This academic year, the Jacobs School undergrads plan to design their own target recognition system using algorithms developed at UCSD. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International organizes the annual event.