UAV Forge

Summary

UAV Forge is a multidisciplinary engineering design team at UC Irvine focused on the complete development cycle of autonomous aerial vehicles, including design, manufacturing, programming, integration, and flight testing. The team was founded in 2013 by UCI students inspired by the DARPA UAV competition, and since 2017 has competed annually in the international Student Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) competition. Today, UAV Forge brings together students across mechanical, electrical, and software engineering to develop unmanned aerial systems capable of completing complex search-and-rescue inspired missions such as autonomous waypoint navigation, object detection and localization, aerial mapping, and precision payload delivery.

While our goal is to excel in competition, UAV Forge's broader mission is to provide students with hands-on experience solving real-world engineering challenges, bridging the gap between academia and industry. Our members are responsible for the entire engineering lifecycle, from initial design and manufacturing to software development, integration, and flight testing. Beyond our technical work, we emphasize leadership development, mentorship, and collaboration across engineering disciplines. UAV Forge has received the UCI’s Dean’s Choice Award multiple times, including in 2022 and 2025.

In both 2025 and 2026, UAV Forge placed 1st among U.S. teams in SUAS mission execution, with our 2026 aircraft, Widow, placing 6th internationally out of 63 teams.

Current Work / Recent Updates

For the 2026–2027 academic year, UAV Forge is undertaking a major redesign, transitioning from the quadrotor aircraft used in previous competitions to a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) fixed-wing aircraft. While we began researching this configuration last year, we are now working toward fully developing and testing the new platform. The VTOL design combines vertical takeoff and landing capabilities with the increased flight range and endurance of a fixed-wing aircraft.

Our Aircraft subteam is currently optimizing the aircraft's wing geometry, aerodynamic performance, and structural design, while beginning manufacturing of the airframe. Alongside this, Avionics is developing custom circuit boards and modular electronics, Payload is refining our delayed parachute release mechanisms, and GN&C is continuing to develop autonomous navigation, flight planning, and control software. Perception is improving our object detection and localization pipeline, aerial mapping, simulation, and onboard computer vision capabilities.

These developments build upon our success at the September 2026 SUAS Competition in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where our aircraft, Widow, completed the first fully successful competition mission in UAV Forge history. After an unsuccessful first flight, the team investigated the issues, made improvements across multiple subsystems, and returned to complete autonomous waypoint navigation, both payload drops, and aerial mapping.

Throughout this academic year, we will continue iterative prototyping, simulation, system integration, and real-world flight testing in preparation for the 2027 SUAS Competition.

Team Structure

UAV Forge consists of approximately 35 undergraduate students organized into six specialized subteams: Aircraft, Avionics, Guidance, Navigation, and Controls (GN&C), Perception, Payload, and Operations. The team is led by a Project Manager and the Chiefs of MAE and EECS, who coordinate development across the different engineering disciplines. Our team's faculty advisor, Professor David Copp.

Aircraft: Designs and constructs the drone's structure and component mounts, balancing structural integrity with a lightweight build. The subteam handles CAD, structural analysis, manufacturing, and airframe development.

Avionics: Manages all electrical systems. Work ranges from custom battery design and printed circuit boards (PCBs) to integrating flight controllers, sensors, motors, and power distribution systems.

Guidance, Navigation, and Controls (GN&C): Develops the software responsible for autonomous flight, including waypoint navigation, path planning, flight control, and our custom ground control station.

Perception: Develops the computer vision software for the drone. This includes validating code, training machine learning models, and building algorithms for object detection, localization, tracking, and aerial mapping.

Payload: Designs the mechanisms responsible for holding, releasing, and controlling the descent of payloads. The subteam tests and optimizes its designs for maximum delivery accuracy and consistency.

Operations: Handles team logistics, event organization, sponsorship procurement, budgeting, brand design, media, and outreach. This subteam supports engineering development by managing the resources and coordination needed to run the team.

Each subteam is responsible for a specific part of the aircraft, but all systems must work together to complete an autonomous mission. Through cross-subteam integration, students gain experience working on complex engineering systems while developing technical, communication, and leadership skills.

Project Media

Project Video

Project Poster