An Innovation Challenge in Small Unmanned Aircraft System Communications for Students

Sponsor: IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (VTS)

Organized By: IEEE VTS  Bangalore Chapter and IEEE Bangalore Section

Stage I Prize: INR 35,000 to 10 Teams

Stage II Prize: 1st Prize INR 1,00,000, 2nd Prize: INR 50,000, 3rd Prize: INR 25,000

IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Bangalore Chapter and IEEE Bangalore Section in association with IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (VTS) is pleased to announce an Innovation Challenge in Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Communications for current undergraduate and graduate college and university students.

Objective:  Participants engineer a working solution for coordination between two UASs to accomplish a task jointly.  The objective is to demonstrate the use of UAS-to-UAS communication and coordination in a realistic, operational flight environment. 

Suggested Equipment: Two small drones (UAS-1 and UAS-2) and a ground control station (GCS) each  equipped with an embedded computer board (such as a Raspberry PI, Arduino, Jason) and a radio (such as WiFi, LoRa, LTE, or any custom design).  While Fig.1 illustrates a suggested framework for the design, the choices regarding the number of GCSs, and the location of the embedded computer and radio, are up to the designers.

Guidelines:

• Projects should demonstrate a collaborative task involving two UASs.
• UAS-to-UAS communications, i.e., UAS-1 and UAS-2 sharing telemetry and/or application-specific information between them and with the GCS, as an integral component of the project.
• Projects must be simple enough to be demonstrated, but, useful enough to be part of a real-world application with a broader impact.

Eligibility: This innovation challenge is open to small teams of students attending colleges and universities around the world. Each team must identify a leader and the team leader must be a student member of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society at the time of submission. At least 50% members of the team should be IEEE Members. Kindly mention IEEE Membership of team Members.

Two-Stage Selection Process and Prizes: Selection of participating teams takes place in two stages. 

Stage 1: In the first stage, teams will submit a three-page (maximum) concept paper with their design, use case, communication protocol and illustrations following IEEE conference paper format. About 10 teams will be selected based on the submitted concepts.  Each winning entry will receive INR 35, 000 prize and a certificate from the IEEE VTS Ad Hoc Committee on Drones during the IEEE Bangalore Humanitarian Technology Conference (IEEE B-HTC) 2020 that will be held during Oct. 8-10, 2020.  Only those teams selected in the first stage will be eligible to move to the second stage.   

Stage 2: The second stage involves outdoor demonstrations. Given the current COVID pandemic situation, Committee provides following option for the student teams to demonstrate their projects.

Teams will first demonstrate their project at their own locations. They will then submit the program, a video of the demonstration and the supporting documentation to the committee.

Optionally, if the COVID pandemic eases and travel is allowed, one member from each team will be invited to participate in the demonstration which will be held in Bangalore. The venue will be decided and shared with the selected teams ahead of the demonstration. A maximum of three teams will be selected during the second stage. Travel and Accommodation support (Maximum INR 10K) will be provided to all the three teams. Three winning teams in stage 2 will receive cash awards of INR 1,00,000, INR 50,000, and INR 25,000 respectively and a certificate during AGM of IEEE Bangalore Section.

Teams Own the Design Copyrights: The teams will own the copyright for their designs and programs. However, they must share the design, software (code), and documentation details with the selection committee. The committee will provide a letter of assurance to protect the team’s intellectual property or copyrights through IEEE.

Why is IEEE VTS organizing this event? IEEE VTS established an ad hoc committee on drones to promote UAS research and education within the IEEE community. In addition, IEEE Communication Society and IEEE VTS are jointly sponsoring the development of UAS-to-UAS communication standards through IEEE P1920.2 Working Group. The innovation challenge is an event to promote UAS research among the students.

Timeline and Submission Process: Stage 1 submission window will open on August 1 and will close on September 30, 2020.  Stage 1 Winners will be announced by October 10. They will be recognized during the IEEE B-HTC 2020. Stage 2 submission window will open on November 15 and will remain open until December 15, 2020.  Winners will be recognized during the IEEE Bangalore Section AGM in Jan 2021.  

Evaluation Committee: The committee consisting of the following members will evaluate the submissions: 1) Kamesh Namuduri, University of North Texas, USA, 2) Prof. K V S Hari, IISc Bangalore 3) Dr. Navin Kumar, Amrita University Bangalore, 4). Dr. Subhas Mondal, WIPRO, Bangalore 5). Puneet Kumar Mishra, ISRO, Bangalore

Contact Information for Enquiries:  Dr. Navin Kumar, Chair, IEEE VTS Bangalore Chapter, Email: navin_kum3@yahoo.com or Puneet Kumar Mishra, Chair, IEEE Bangalore Section, Email: chair@ieeebangalore.org.

Kindly Submit Your Entries at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1k-v0AzvXdEkg9ha8_U9tS1QijT0VwLcFBcN5CppF0w0/edit