As many as 101 projects of unmanned air, land and sea systems were submitted by subsicks and students of civilian military universities for the prize of the Minister of National Defence. This year's edition – for the first time – besides competed in the fresh category: combating unmanned systems.
This is the 5th edition of the competition for the best student unmanned. As many as 101 applications were received from 4 military universities. In the first stage, the Chapter selected 28 projects whose designers received up to 70 1000 PLN of funding. In October, young designers had the chance to present the operation of their drones in practice during screenings organized at the 43rd Naval Aviation Base in Gdynia, the Commendation of Gdynia War Port and the Sailing Port in Rewa. The awards gala was held on 9 December at the Military method Academy in Warsaw. A fewer days earlier, the winners of the first seats participated in the celebration of Podchorzego Day and met in Belvedere with president Karol Nawrocki. – Investment in young, talented designers is an investment in the safe future of Poland. Unmanned systems are the future of the battlefield. Thanks to specified initiatives, Polish method thought has the chance to become a leader in this field, supporting the formation of drone troops," said Stanisław Wzątek, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Defence, presenting awards to the best designers.
Young scientists could study their constructions in 1 of 4 categories: reconnaissance drones, combat drones, support and systems to combat unmanned drones. The "circular ammunition" category in erstwhile editions disappeared from the competition.
A drone with fins will attack underwater
In the category of combat drones the squad from the Naval Academy was victorious, which created a biomimetic submarine equipped with a passive and active detection system. The Shadow Nerpa is simply a tiny drone carrying up to 1.5 kg of explosive, designed to combat submarines and submarines. – Three-man squad from the Department of Ship Automation, led by kmdr. dr. hab. inż. Piotr Szymak, has developed a task that has already been awarded in last year's edition, enriching it with solutions to accomplish full combat capability, says cf. mar. Daniel Powarzyński, a specialist in unmanned systems from AMW, who participated in the evaluation of competition drones.
What is simply a biomimetic vehicle? It's a drone that mimics the construction and behaviour of marine organisms. alternatively of the classical drive utilized in submarine unmanned vehicles, it uses fin propulsion. “This results in a much lower level of hydroacoustic noise, it works secretly and is hard to detect,” emphasises Lt. Mar. Powarzy.
Nerpa Shadow besides has a conventional drive, which allows it to rapidly scope the area of operation and then control to almost noiseless biomimetic drive and passive detection. mark detection starts with an analysis of acoustic signatures on the basis of which the strategy identifies the object in the area. After confirmation of the contact, active sonar is activated, which accurately determines the location of the detected objects, and subsequent scans let the current correction of the approach track. The drone operates full autonomously – after the location of the mark is determined, it heads towards it, transferring the explosive.
The structure was conceived as a small, cost-effective kamikaze-type drone, whose strength lies in the action of the swarm. “Fish” could quietly patrol the waters and, in the event of a threat, attack an enemy group unit. – Their loads will not penetrate the armor, but they can effectively harm the screw and immobilize the ship, beginning the way for further action by another means," explains the AMW expert.
He “fear” at the defender of heaven
In the category ‘Fighting Unmanned Systems’ the first place was taken by the BSP task ‘Strzega’, implemented by St. Filip Andula under the care of Major Tomasz Zienkiewicz from the Aviation Military Academy. ‘Third’ is simply a C-UAV kind platform designed to neutralise unmanned enemy aircraft and another means of aerial assault. The plan is distinguished by innovative solutions that importantly increase its effectiveness in combating drones. The advanced level of autonomy, advanced maneuverability, advanced mark detection mechanisms and the very short time to prepare for the mission make the "Third" platform with large possible for improvement and wide possibilities for future combat.
Sonars and artificial intelligence in marine recognition
The first prize in the category of reconnaissance drones was won by Korum, an unmanned water catamaran designed to detect and classify underwater objects utilizing side sonars and artificial intelligence algorithms. The task was created in consequence to the increasing request to increase the safety of marine and inland waters, especially in the context of threats related to military residues at the bottom, explosions, the request to monitor critical infrastructure or search for missing divers.
– Korum can carry out a wide spectrum of seabed designation tasks. It works both in search and rescue missions, as well as in the detection of mines," explains Lt. Daniel Powarzyński of the Naval Academy. The drone moves autonomously, and the data obtained is transmitted to the operator in real time. Importantly, thanks to the artificial intelligence algorithms used, it performs preliminary analysis and classification of detected objects. The task was carried out by a squad of civilian students from the Department of Ship Automation composed of Tomasz Niwczyk (leader), David Ciecholewski and Nicodem Daft.
In the same category, the title of the competition besides awarded first place to the squad from the Academy of Land Forces – Tomasz Śliwakow-Orlicek, Adam Ratajczyk and Kacprovi Constantly – for the thought of building an unmanned water and land strategy intended to conduct the reconnaissance of the territory of the opponent "Strzybog".
A full of six projects were awarded. In each of the 4 categories of the Chapter, she besides selected second and 3rd place winners and awarded distinctions. The winners were awarded financial prizes: PLN 50 1000 for first place, PLN 25 1000 for second, PLN 10 1000 for 3rd and PLN 5 1000 for projects awarded. This year's 5th edition of the Ministry of Defence Competition was of large interest to young designers – the number of applications increased by as much as 250 % compared to the first edition.
