The International Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Chase Challenge will be held April 9 at the Purdue UAS Research and Test Facility (PURT). Here, giant plastic blocks represent an urban environment that the drones in the competition must avoid while tracking a robot.

Hosted by the College of Engineering, the 2022 International Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Chase Challenge will take flight on April 9.

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the event will be held at the Purdue UAS Research and Test Facility (PURT) at the Purdue Airport.

During the challenge, autonomous drones will actively track one of several ground robots. Towers and tunnels made out of large plastic blocks abstractly represent an urban environment that the drone must avoid while tracking the robot. Competitors will use computer vision and machine learning to develop solutions for object tracking. Qualifying solutions will be tested on an actual drone at PURT.

Faculty organizers for the Chase Challenge:

• James Goppert, managing director of UAS Research and Test Facility, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Yung-Hsiang Lu (PI), professor, Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• John Mott, associate professor and head of the School of Aviation and Transportation Technology
• Shaoshuai Mou, associate professor, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Qiang Qiu, assistant professor, Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Shreyas Sundaram, Marie Gordon Associate Professor in the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Wei Zakharov, assistant professor, Libraries and School of Information Studies