Accelerating emergency aid drones
Pushing the boundaries of innovative drones at the iMechE UAS Challenge
The annual UAS Challenge in England is a high-profile event where students design and build an autonomous drone that can perform a rescue mission. Tasks include area search, independent navigation, Aid Package delivery, and more. More than thirty student teams from all over the world take part in this challenge.
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2023 iMechE UAS Challenge – July 2023
DroneTeam Twente has taken part in this challenge over the last four years, and is focused on developing unique drone designs for long-range aid delivery. For 2023, we will compete with a new design that aims to improve on range, payload and reliability! Subscribe to our newsletter for more information.
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Previous results
2022 UAS Challenge
With Thunderbird, DroneTeam Twente competed in the 2022 UAS Challenge. The drone has a unique box-wing design to increase efficiency, and shows what the future of drones might look like. With it, we won the Media & Engagement Award!🏆 We effectively engaged with media, schools and local students by STEM Outreach. Due to a technical issue the drone could not fly on time, and we finished 17th.
Media & Engagement: 1st
Grand Champion: 17th out of 32 participants

2021 UAS Challenge
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers hosts the UAS Challenge to encourage the further innovation in this field of technology. DroneTeam Twente worked during the year on an award-winning design. We competed with Phoenix at the hybrid part of the iMechE UAS Challenge, and won the ‘Most Promising Team’ award.
Most Promising Team: 1st

2020 UAS Challenge
Our drone ‘VAU2’ competed at the online UAS Challenge in 2020. In total 38 teams from 10 countries competed. With our innovative design, containing highlights such as a tilt-rotor mechanism, a 3D-printed modular frame and combined vertical stabilizers and landing gear, we won our very first prize as a team: the Innovation Award!
Innovation Award: 1st
Media Award: 3rd
Business proposition: 7th
Design Award: 8th out of 38 participants

2019 UAS Challenge
Our first UAS Challenger, Toothless competed in 2019, but unfortunately could not take part in the fly-off and finished 19th. It still got third in the ‘Design’ category.
Design Award: 3rd
Media award: 6th
Business proposition: 10th
Grand Champion: 19th out of 32 participants

2018 DroneClash
We participated in DroneClash 2018, an event to increase drone safety, and achieved a semi-final finish.
Semi-finals
