Dupree & Zhu – ITC Best Student Paper

Matthew Dupree, Yingchao Zhu and Computer Engineering Capstone (ECE 189) course instructor Dr. Yogananda Isukapalli received the award for their paper “Optically-guided multirotor autonomous descent and landing on a moving target,” International Telemetering Conference, Oct 2021.

Dupree, Zhu and Isukapalli based the paper on Dupree and Zhu's Computer Engineering Capstone Senior Project "VisHawk." The VisHawk project pursues RF-silent autonomous flight of multirotor UAVs between ships underway at sea. The team implemented this behaviour by guiding the final approach with Apriltag visual fiducials. Using GPS and a known initial trajectory of the landing vessel, VisHawk closes to within visual range of the vessel. VisHawk then uses the visual marker to produce a safe approach trajectory, updating in real time to consider uncertainties such as sea conditions moving the deck of the landing vessel. Pursuing RF-silent autonomous flight of multirotor UAVs between ships underway at sea by using computer vision to guide final approach where GPS would be too inaccurate.

Dupree is currently a PhD student and Graduate Teaching Assistant at UC Santa Barbara and Zhu is pursuing her MSc. in Marketing Analytics & Insights at The National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School.

As part of the process of encouraging and appreciating the quality of written and presented work in the technical program, ITC presents awards to authors of regular technical paper given at the conference and published in the proceedings. In the process of determining the award winning paper, the ITC awards committee considers reviews and comments from several sources.

The International Telemetering Conference (ITC) addresses the wide range of topics important to the telemetry professional. The exhibit areas showcase the latest systems and the technical sessions lay the groundwork for tomorrow’s systems. The International Foundation for Telemetering (IFT) sponsors the annual ITC. The foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the professional and technical interests of the “Telemetering Community.”

The 57th Annual ITC Conference was held October 25–28, 2021 at Bally’s in Las Vegas.

ITC Best Student Paper – “Optically-guided multirotor autonomous descent and landing on a moving target,” M. Dupree, Y. Zhu, Y. Isukapalli, ITC Oct 2021