Competitions
WHAT WE COMPETE IN
Active competitions
The International Aerial Robotics Competition
The International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC) is the longest running collegiate aerial robotics challenge in the world, whose primary goal is to “move the state-of-the-art in aerial robotics forward”. In order to succeed with this ambitious goal, IARC poses challenges deemed “impossible” when introduced. The longest mission running was mission 6, going for 8 years before Georgia Institute of Technology solved the mission.
Student Unmanned Aerial Systems Competition
The Student Unmanned Aerial Systems Competition (SUAS) is held in Maryland on the easter coast of the United States. The competition focuses on Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) performing autonomous missions.Many of the tasks require autonomy to be eligible, and others receive more points for autonomy. Ascend rised to the challange and competed in SUAS for the first time this summer, and ranked in the top tens!
Previous competitions
The Tau Autonomy Center Challenge
A subsea and aerial drone competition for universities all across the globe. The competition is relatively new and was first held in the summer of 2021. The competition takes place at Tau Autonomy Center, situated in beautiful Tau, outside Stavanger, Norway.
Alphapilot Challenge
The Autonomous Drone Racing (ADR) group was started in February 2019 as Ascend's first foray into the world of autonomous drone racing. Formed to compete in Lockheed Martin and DRL’s brand new ADR competition - AlphaPilot - we placed 10th of 425 teams in the virtual qualifier. Unfortunately only the top 9 teams qualified for the four race long 2019 season.