Cal Poly Drone Team Soars High at Competition

Cal Poly’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) “SkyBarge” came in second place at the 22nd annual American Society of Mechanical Engineers (A.S.M.E.) Student Design Competition in Montreal, Canada.

The second-place finish was among 21 collegiate teams that included a roster of topflight engineering teams from China, France, India, Peru, Turkey and the U.S.

The teams were tasked with designing and building an original drone that could navigate a series of high and low obstacles, complete with a targeted payload drop, and return to the start in one piece.

“The key challenge of this UAV competition involved maximizing vehicle weight while maintaining controllability,” said Russell Westphal, the team’s faculty advisor.

The Cal Poly team included mechanical engineering students Gordon Belyea, Garrett Gudgel, Ethan Juhnke, Brandon-Roy Sadiarin, Eric Dreischerf and Seyhun Oh, along with aerospace engineering students Hank Mandsager and Armand Lim; and agricultural engineering student Shane Thulin.

In order to advance to the finals, Cal Poly won the A.S.M.E.’s western regional competition held at Cal Poly in April.

First place went to the University of North Dakota.

To watch a video of the competition, go to: http://inr.synapticdigital.com/ASME/studentdesigncompetition/