AU Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Team Working with Flying Army Robots

Auburn University's Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) team is collaborating with Huntsville's Redstone Arsenal on a new military technology used in flying robots that can probe a battlefield for danger before troops are sent in.

The UAV team is conducting research for the Army on the Shadow UAV, specifically investigating the use of wireless technology to replace cables that connect the ground crew to the antenna that communicates with the UAV. The team's job is to determine the feasibility of using wireless technology to deliver UAV video images under battlefield conditions.

"This is the future of the way we fight war," says Rep. Terry Everett. "People do not get killed. It will be a tremendous help to go out and locate the bad guys. "

Although the current payloads are nonlethal, the Army is also looking into arming a wider array of systems onto the vehicles.

Auburn University's Unmanned Aerial Vehicle team with the Shadow. From left: Alan Hunt, Kevin Richardson, Shawn Constance, Daniel Box, Drew Hamilton, David Umphress and David Last. Members not pictured: Anthony Friday, John Wu and Richard Chapman.