This past summer, the Aerial Robotics Club (ARC) competed in the first of three International Aerial Robotics Competitions culminating in the Millenial Event in 2000. The summer 1998 competition was considered a pre-qualifier, while the 1999 event will be the qualifying round for the ultimate competition: the Millenial Event. The challenge this year was to develop an autonomous flying vehicle that can map a five-acre field of barrels, identify the labels on the barrels, and retrieve small discs placed on top of the barrels. The competition took place at Hammer, a government facility in Richland, WA. The 1999 competition will include a ground vehicle that will work with the helicopter. Finally, the Millenial Event will simulate a massive disaster, such as an earthquake, in an urban area. Each team must search for survivors and identify obstacles for a group of rescuers to overcome. Each team's performance will be compared to that of the rescue team. The task seems daunting, but the Rose ARC remains unfazed.

Rose entered the 1998 competition with a Bergen custom "Industrial Twin" helicopter named Hilbert. Hilbert was powered by a two-cylinder, 4 hp engine, and governed by a 486 computer. They also make use of a NovAtel differential GPS system, which allows for up to 2 cm of accuracy. Hilbert uses three cameras for imaging: infrared, zoom, and wide angle. Hilbert also has a video transmitter and a radio modem for communication with the ground team.

The Rose team competed with fifteen other universities from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Germany. Overall, the team did much better than the previous year, when the hot weather wreaked havoc on the electrical system. The problem was fixed for this year's competition. However, this year the engine did not receive enough power to get far off the ground. Despite this complication, the Rose team did very well. Ben Thompson, the team leader, is especially proud that they were able to demonstrate full telemetry at the event.

Out of the fifteen universities competing, Rose took third, finishing ahead of MIT and Georgia Tech. Rose-Hulman was the highest scoring U.S. team. Such success is astonishing, considering that the Rose ARC is a young club. They have only competed for two years. They are also looking to expand due to a need for a new group of students to work on the ground vehicle that will be used along with Hilbert in the 1999 Qualifier.

Thanks to the labors of Professor Wayne Padgett, ARC advisor, they are enjoying their largest budget yet but are still looking for new sponsors in order to raise necessary funds. Hilbert is also three months away from autonomous flight. All of this suggests that great things are in store for the Rose-Hulman ARC.

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