The Magazine of IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu October 2017 - 28

FEATURE
members evolve into senior members, it becomes their
turn to mentor the new members. The cycle continues
as each individual student progresses during their time
working on the project and as the project matures. Both
the project and the individual mature and progress
resulting in a rich learning environment that is passed
down to new students for their own experience with this
VIP project.

Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the contributions made by
past and present members of VIP UHDT. This work was
supported by the Boeing Company, VIP Consortium,
and the University of Hawaii College of Engineering.
The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance and
support of Mr. Ted Ralston and Mr. Iam Bouret for their
knowledge and expertise in drone technologies.

References
[1] M. Ilarslan, M. K. Bayrakceken, and A. Arisoy, "Avionics
system design of a mini VTOL UAV," IEEE Aerospace and
Electronic Systems Magazine, vol. 26, no. 10, pp. 35-40,
Oct. 2011.

Rescue Robotics, Workshop, Kobe, Japan, 2005, pp. 105-
110.
[9] "Competition Rules | SUAS 2017." AUVSI SUAS. N.p., n.d.
Web.
[10] A Z. Trimble, W. A. Shiroma, D. Garmire, and A. T. Ohta
"Multidisciplinary vertically integrated project (VIP) teams
at the University of Hawaii: challenges and synergy,"
in 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New
Orleans, LA, June 2016.
[11] J. F. da Silva, A. V. Brito, J. A. G. de Lima, and H. N. de Moura,
"An embedded system for aerial image processing from
unmanned aerial vehicles," 2015 Brazilian Symposium
on Computing Systems Engineering, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil,
2015, pp. 154-157.
[12] "OpenCV Library." OpenCV Library. N.p., n.d. Web.
[13] OpenCV: CV::SimpleBlobDetector Class Reference. N.p.,
n.d. Web.
[14] "Canny Edge Detector." Canny Edge Detector - OpenCV
2.4.13.2 Documentation. N.p., n.d. Web.
[15] "Clustering."
Clustering
Documentation. N.p., n.d.

Chase R. Yasunaga is a University of Hawaii
at Manoa graduate with a BS degree in
electrical engineering. He was the Program
Manager for VIP UHDT from 2015 to 2017.
During his time at the university, he was also
involved in projects with the Hawaii Space
Flight Laboratory.

[4] H. Qin et al., "Design and implementation of an unmanned
aerial vehicle for autonomous firefighting missions," 2016
12th IEEE International Conference on Control and
Automation (ICCA), Kathmandu, Nepal, 2016, pp. 62-67.

Kalani R. Danas Rivera is a mechanical
engineering undergraduate at the University
of Hawaii at Manoa with an expected

[5] Y. Naidoo, R. Stopforth, and G. Bright, "Development
of an UAV for search & rescue applications," AFRICON,
Livingstone, 2011, pp. 1-6.

[8] S. Kang, W. Lee, M. Kim, and K. Shin, "ROBHAZ-rescue:
rough-terrain negotiable teleoperated mobile robot for
rescue mission," IEEE International Safety, Security and
28

2.4.13.2

Biographies

[3] D. Erdos, A. Erdos, and S. E. Watkins, "An experimental
UAV system for search and rescue challenge," IEEE
Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, vol. 28, no.
5, pp. 32-37, May 2013.

[7] F. E. Schneider, D. Wildermuth, and H. L. Wolf, "ELROB and
EURATHLON: Improving search & rescue robotics through
real-world robot competitions," 2015 10th International
Workshop on Robot Motion and Control (RoMoCo),
Poznan, Poland, 2015, pp. 118-123.

OpenCV

[16] "Mission Planner." Mission Planner Documentation. N.p.,
n.d.

[2] W. Ward, L. Park, and E. Coulson. Park Operations:
Economic Impacts of Search-and-rescue Operations on
Wilderness Management in the National Parks (n.d.): n.
pag. National Park Service. Web.

[6] J. Roberts, D. Frousheger, B. Williams, D. Campbell, and
R. Walker, "How the outback challenge was won: the
motivation for the UAV challenge outback rescue, the
competition mission, and a summary of the six events," in
IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, vol. 23, no. 4, pp.
54-62, Dec. 2016.

-

graduation date in Spring 2018. He has been
a member of VIP UHDT since 2015. During
the 2015-2016 academic year, he served as
a

member

of

the

image-processing

subsystem. Throughout the 2016-2017 academic year he was the
subsystem leader for both the aircraft and air-delivery subsystems.
His research interests include fluid mechanics, guidance and
navigation controls.
Joseph

D.

Harris

III

is

a

computer

engineering undergraduate at the University
of Hawaii at Manoa. He has been a member
of VIP UHDT since 2015 and has served as
the Mission Operations Lead and Chief

www.hkn.org // THE BRIDGE
http://www.hkn.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Magazine of IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu October 2017
