UIU team reaches top 10 at global UAV competition

A robotics team from United International University (UIU) has secured 10th place globally and 2nd place in Asia at the TEKNOFEST 2026 International Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Competition in Malatya, Türkiye.

TEKNOFEST, a global aerospace and technology festival, was held this year from September 8 to 13 at Malatya Tulga Airport in Türkiye. This year, the finals of the International and Inter High School Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) competitions brought together 113 teams to compete across three categories: Fixed Wing, Rotary Wing, and Free Mission.

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Uro Bangladesh, a student-led robotics and UAV research team from UIU, competed in the Rotary Wing category with Prohori, an autonomous rotary-wing UAV designed to carry out complex aerial missions with limited human intervention. In this category, participants were required to develop and demonstrate UAV systems for assigned missions.

The team is made up of UIU students, with Md. Darain Khan from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) serving as the team captain, focusing on software, autonomous systems, and UAV piloting. The team also includes Anika Tabassum Orchi as mentor, A. M. Zayed Abdullah in mechanical design, Md. Farhan Zaman in research and development, Md. Tanvir Ahmed in electrical systems, Tamjid Alam Taj in logistics and operations, and Samira Bintey Haque and Nusrat Jahan Piyal in marketing and communications.

“Prohori is an intelligent flying system that can understand its mission, navigate through the designated area, identify required targets or objects, and perform specific tasks with minimal human intervention,” explained Darain. The team says they aimed to move beyond a conventional remotely controlled drone by developing a UAV capable of making mission-level decisions and completing assigned tasks autonomously.

The project went through several development and testing stages before the team travelled to Türkiye. The team first submitted a Project Presentation Report, which covered the technical design, development process, and capabilities of the UAV. It then took part in the Preparation and Mission Video stage before qualifying as an international finalist.

The team later travelled to Türkiye for technical checks, UAV preparation, field testing, and mission flights. During the final missions, Prohori had to perform assigned tasks accurately and autonomously under competition conditions.

However, the team faced several challenges during its preparation. The competition dates were moved forward, leaving the team with less preparation time. The team also had limited opportunities to travel to Türkiye and test the UAV in the actual competition environment. Changes and updates to the competition rules added another challenge, while the Turkish visa process made travel planning more difficult. “We dealt with these challenges through extensive testing and preparation in Bangladesh, where we simulated different mission scenarios as much as possible,” Darain said.

Uro Bangladesh had international competition experience before TEKNOFEST. At the CanSat Competition 2024 in West Virginia, USA, the team finished 11th globally and 3rd in Asia. It later became World Champion in Technical Documentation and secured 5th place in Project Demonstrations at the MATE ROV World Championship 2025 in Michigan, USA. According to Darain, those competitions helped the team gain experience in aerospace systems, embedded systems, mission planning, and international presentations.

UIU provided logistical support to the team and a separate laboratory where members could develop, test and conduct research on the UAV.  The team says that the latest achievement has encouraged them to continue working on autonomous UAVs, computer vision, and intelligent aerial systems.

“Our plan is to continue improving our existing platform, develop more capable autonomous systems, participate in larger international competitions, and gradually transform the knowledge and technology we develop through Uro into real-world applications,” Darain shared.