The 2023 Taiwan UAV Creative Design Competition came to a successful close on May 6th at the Jingguo Airfield in Miaoli. A team from National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) comprising five students from the school’s “Vision Class” participated in the event under the joint guidance of Professor Uzu-Kuei Hsu and Research Fellow, Shuo-Yu Tsai. In what was their first time entering the competition, the team successfully completed the flight mission and were able to win fourth place in the “load capacity” group.
With the students on the NPUST team coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, the competition was an opportunity for them to develop their potential, practice of “learning by doing”, and gain self-confidence to face challenges in life. Eighteen teams entered the competition in total, coming from Tamkang University, Vanung University, Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Feng Chia University, National Formosa University, Cheng Kung University, Air Force Institute of Technology, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, and other colleges and universities. Around 200 people participated in the competition, testing their capabilities in such categories as “Aircraft Design”, “Cargo Capacity”, “Flying Skills” and “Technical Innovation”.
NPUST began as an agriculture school, and evolved with the times to develop in a variety of science and technology orientated fields. Its research combines Industry 4.0, AI, IoT, Big Data, and cloud computing—much of which is being used to develop Smart Agriculture technology. The application of UAVs in farming and animal husbandry is also a hot field of development at the school. Most of the current plant protection drones and aerial photography drones on the market are multi-rotor drones; however, with limited battery and load capacities, they can only stay in the air for around 30 minutes. By developing fixed-wing UAVs with auxiliary applications, flight times can be extended to 2-4 hours, thus greatly improving operations and research capabilities in such areas as agricultural inspections, GIS geographic mapping, air pollution monitoring, ocean exploration, water and soil conservation, vegetation analysis, and meteorological observation. In addition to cultivating talents in electromechanical industries, NPUST’s Smart Mechatronics program strives to develop advanced sea/air UAVs, land/air communication technologies, smart unmanned factories, and various robot applications. NPUST is also cooperating with the Ministry of Education to promote University Social Responsibility (USR), and with the Ministry of Science and Technology to promote relevant education policies. The Vision Class at the university is specially organized to cultivate the professional abilities of students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds based on a belief that these students will become self-reliant in the future and become backbones of various industries as they pursue their dreams in life.
The Taiwan Aerospace Society has been putting on the Taiwan UAV Creative Design Competition annually since 2007, making it the oldest UAV competition in Taiwan. The competition, which brings together industry, government, and academia, was co-organized by the Tamkang University Department of Aerospace Engineering and Dragonfly UAS, with additional assistance provided by Miaoli County Government, the Miaoli County Model Aviation Association, and the Taoyuan City Professional UAV Pilot Association.
