Students at Queen's University Belfast have created unmanned aircraft technology, capable of delivering relief to disaster zones.

Teams were tasked with designing and building autonomously-controlled aircraft from scratch, which are capable of delivering two bottles of water and a medical kit to disaster victims using its own in-flight system.

The designs were put through their paces during test flights in Co Antrim.

Two of the teams from the MEng Aerospace Engineering degree programme will now travel to the Institute of Mechanical Engineers UAS challenge in Wales, where they will be competing with other universities from throughout Europe and the UK.

Dr Joe Butterfield, lecturer from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, said: "This project emphasises the need for our engineers to be multidisciplinary designers.

"It requires them to understand the implications of integrated design work and the difference between what the answers are when they complete their calculations and simulations, and what it actually is when you construct the final system."

"Drones and drone design is a topical issue in general with the proliferation in systems for everything from delivery of consumer items to the inspection of oil lines and electrical systems, so our students will graduate from Queen's, not only with a good grounding in the basic principles behind aircraft design, but also a wealth of knowledge when it comes to drone design."

Demand and applications for unmanned air systems has grown at an exponential rate in recent years, and Queen's says significant market opportunities exist for drone manufacturers and supply chain companies which provide specialised equipment that drones can carry.

Applications include accident reporting, crop monitoring, infrastructure inspection, mapping and surveying and humanitarian relief.

It says: "As precision guidance, autonomous operations, high-definition geocoded images and high-volume data processing all improve, drone usage will continue to proliferate.

"Companies like Amazon are planning for automated delivery systems and Rolls Royce are looking at the autonomous air taxi systems of the future."

Main image: Left to right: Joe Butterfield, module lecturer; Ross McConnell, pilot & Stage 4 aerospace student; Dominik Bosowski, Stage 3 aerospace student; Gerico Vidanes, Stage 3 aerospace student; Zafar Kazanci, module lecturer and Rob Watson, module lecturer. The module is Aircraft Design 3 | Image: Queen's University