An aerial rescue vehicle developed by a team of students and faculty advisors at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute AirLab will advance to the next stage of the GoAERO Competition.
The Tartan Air Rescue team and its TRAAV-160 flyer was named a Stage 1 winner of the competition along with 10 other teams. Tartan Air Rescue also received a NASA University Innovation Award for its design. The team of graduate and undergraduate students from across CMU plans to participate in Stage 2 of the competition and, If successful, could receive additional funding for the next round totaling $500,000 from GoAERO, NASA and other sponsors of the competition.
“What we do at the AirLab is develop state-of-the-art methods for drone autonomy applications, including software, sensors and hardware. The GoAERO Challenge gives us the opportunity to take this to the next level and build larger scale, more capable drones for search and rescue,” said Steve Willits, a project scientist at RI and team lead of Tartan Air Rescue. “We’re very excited to have won the Stage 1 award for GoAERO and to also receive a NASA grant to get us started.”
Stage 1 of the competition required teams to submit a design concept for a portable, versatile and autonomy-enabled aircraft for use in not only everyday medical emergencies but also large-scale natural disasters, humanitarian emergencies and other rescue scenarios around the world. The aircraft must be operated remotely, without a pilot inside, capable of carrying a human, evacuating victims in need, providing emergency medical supplies, and aiding in humanitarian efforts. In Stage 2, teams must build either full-scale or scaled flyers and demonstrate flight with the aircraft while carrying payloads onboard. Top-performing teams in Stage 2 must advance to full-scale flight demonstrations before a final Stage 3 competition round of missions testing specific flight maneuvers and autonomy capabilities. More than $2 million in funding will be available throughout the competition with $1.65 million going to winning teams.
“Every second counts in an emergency. There is a growing gap between what current aircraft can do and what first responders need. Emergency Response Flyers created through the GoAERO competition will give every first responder life-saving aerial capabilities to ensure dynamic response to modern-day emergencies,” said Gwen Lighter, GoAERO founder and CEO. “Our Stage 1 winners are some of the brightest minds in the aviation and engineering industries, hailing from all over the world.”
Willits and Scherer led the first class focused on the design and development of Tartan Air Rescue in the fall of 2024.
The AirLab at CMU has a long history of developing emergency response robots to disaster scenarios such as nuclear spills, underground search and rescue, urban areas, wildfires and bridge inspections. Work on Tartan Air Rescue started in 2024, with Willits and Associate Research Professor Sebastian Scherer leading the effort. Willits and Scherer created a class at CMU that focused on the research and development of Tartan Air Rescue. In the class, students from multiple schools at CMU engaged in a full conceptual design process for Tartain Air Rescue.
One of the key challenges the team faced while developing Tartan Air Rescue was ensuring that the vehicle could carry both a human and essential supplies while maintaining a total weight of approximately 1,500 pounds, all while meeting Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards. They also had to ensure that Tartan Air Rescue could function with 80% of flight operations being fully autonomous. Without an onboard pilot, a remote operator oversees the missions from a command center, guiding the vehicle through complex environments, coordinating supply pick up, and directing supplies and people to safety. The team planned to achieve the necessary autonomy levels through reliable combinations of sensors, software and a robust pilot interface.
“We are going to have to face the challenge of flying in austere flight conditions. This includes not only daytime flying, but nighttime flying and the need for flying in fog, rain, snow and very windy conditions at times. We will also be confined to areas near the ground, where there could be lots of obstacles that need to be detected and avoided,” Willits said. “To do these missions, we’re going to need a very reliable and rigid aircraft control system, and we’re going to need a lot of power on board to give us the thrust-to-weight ratios that we need for flight control.”
Tartan Air Rescue plans to use the GoAERO funding to build a new airframe and test system components and is looking for sponsors. The team hopes to complete a final flight demonstration in 2026. Willits and Scherer plan to offer two more classes in the fall and spring semesters to continue developing and refining Tartan Air Rescue.
More information about the GoAERO competition and the Stage 1 winners is available on its website. To learn more about Tartan Air Rescue or to support the team, contact Willits.
For More Information: Aaron Aupperlee | 412-268-9068 | aaupperlee@cmu.edu