October 17tth (Thursday) - A team of eight students from the School of Aerospace Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, were selected to participate in the finals of Petronas Technology Challenge 6 along with five other teams, where two teams are from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, one from Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (UIA) and one more from Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM Penang). These five finalists were selected from a total of 17 participating teams that handed in proposals and also pitch their ideas to the Petronas Research Team. These teams consist of students of varying backgrounds and studies where some teams consist of post-graduate students.

            Selected as one of the finalists, a grant of RM5000 was given to improvise and also to manufacture obstacles and structures to optimize the performance of the drone to efficiently complete the task given for the competition. The process of improvisation lasted throughout the competition until a day before the competition date. Numerous tests and failures have been encountered, but with each failure, knowledge is gained and in problem was improved upon.

Figure 1: Team USM’s structure and probe design on a Parrot Anafi Drone

            There were two parts to the final competition both require the drone to pass through loops and also touch and activate sensors with the probe design uniquely by all the teams. The first part was manual piloting where our team pilot manages to perform quick and precise maneuvers to complete the whole course activating and also passing through all obstacles under just five minutes which was a feat worth mentioning. The next part is to activate and also pass through obstacles, but it needs to be done autonomously by tailoring and designing a set of computer codes to allow the drone to perform actions that could complete the obstacle course at the press of a button. As many teams have scores tied to ours, this part of the competition became the deciding factor for the groups overall placing in the competition. Extraordinarily, the autonomous drone performed well beyond expectations besting three other universities in the score second only to a team consisting of post-graduates from another university.

Figure 2: Autonomous drone for touching the target and activating the sensor

            Team USM with exceptional teamwork and communication secures the position of 1st runner-up in the overall competition. Kudos to the team of their unwavering commitment and effort to participate and even secure a position within the top three in this competition. Teamwork and commitment are of the prominent elements to achieve this success. Thank you and congratulations, Team USM for bringing pride and fame to our university for this wonderful achievement.

Alone we can do so little; together, we can do so much.

- Helen Keller -

            The students who participated in the competition are Ernest Tay Yue Yang (Team Leader), Ch’ng Kia Chuan (Team Pilot), Lee Ming Wei (Programmer), Hedy Tiew Soon Keey (Programmer), Kevin Tai Chi Kin (Structural Engineer), Foo Chuan Yuan (Structural Engineer), Farah Hanum Binti Mohd Fadzil (Secretary) and Abdelrahman Abdalla Abdelrahman Abdelaziz (Obstacle Engineer) and many thanks to our team advisors which are Dr Ho Hann Woei, Ir. Dr Ahmad Faizul Hawary and Mr Mohamad Zihad Mahmud.

Figure 3: Members of Team USM and the advisor with the mock cheque and drone given by Petronas Research Sdn. Bhd.

Text/ Pictures by Ernest Tay