{"id":13479,"date":"2026-06-22T07:44:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T11:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/student-lounge\/?p=13479"},"modified":"2026-06-22T07:44:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T11:44:42","slug":"mathworks-minidrone-competition-europe-2025-model%e2%80%91based-design-for-autonomous-uavs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/student-lounge\/2026\/06\/22\/mathworks-minidrone-competition-europe-2025-model%e2%80%91based-design-for-autonomous-uavs\/","title":{"rendered":"MathWorks Minidrone Competition \u2013 Europe 2025: Model\u2011Based Design for Autonomous UAVs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The MathWorks Cambridge office hosted the Europe 2025 edition of the MathWorks Minidrone Competition, welcoming students from universities across Europe. The 2025 edition drew applications from over 40 student teams.<\/div>\n
Following a structured simulation and evaluation phase, six top performing teams were selected to advance to the final In\u2011person deployment round at the MathWorks Cambridge office. For students who took part in the MathWorks Minidrone Competition \u2013 Europe 2025, the experience extended well beyond the final results. The competition accelerated learning, strengthened confidence, and challenged teams to apply classroom learnings in a real engineering setting.<\/div>\n
For those less familiar with the Minidrone Competition, this blog takes a closer look at what the program offers, why it is relevant in an academic context, and what made the Europe 2025 edition a meaningful and memorable experience for participating students.<\/div>\n
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Student teams at the MathWorks Cambridge Office<\/div>\n
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What Is the MathWorks Minidrone Competition?<\/span><\/h2>\n
The MathWorks Minidrone Competition<\/a> is a structured, academic program designed to help university students apply classroom theory to real-world autonomous systems using model-based design.<\/div>\n
The competition challenges students to design, simulate, and deploy autonomous flight control algorithms for a real minidrone using Simulink<\/a>, following the same workflow used by engineers in industry from system modelling and simulation to hardware deployment and validation.<\/div>\n
By combining curriculum-aligned concepts with hands-on experimentation, the program enables students to move beyond theoretical understanding and gain practical experience with system modelling, control design, autonomous guidance and navigation using image processing and Stateflow.<\/a><\/div>\n
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The Simulation Round: Where Designs Took Shape<\/span><\/h2>\n
The Europe 2025 edition of the MathWorks Minidrone Competition challenged students to design an autonomous minidrone line follower using Simulink, beginning with a rigorous simulation round before progressing to deployment on a real Parrot Mambo minidrone.<\/div>\n
Launched earlier in the year, the competition invited university teams across Europe to start their journey in simulation, where they developed and validated their algorithms using Simulink. Following a structured submission and evaluation process, top\u2011performing teams progressed to the final deployment round, where their models were tested on real hardware.<\/div>\n
This simulation-first phase was not a preliminary exercise, but a deliberate engineering filter. Teams were evaluated on accuracy, robustness, level of tool usage, and solution optimization of their models, reinforcing the principle that strong simulation is a prerequisite for reliable hardware deployment. This journey mirrored industry workflows\u2014model, test, refine, and deploy\u2014giving students an authentic taste of modern engineering practice.<\/div>\n
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Simulation of autonomous minidrone flight<\/div>\n
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The competition culminated in live finals held in November 2025 at the MathWorks Cambridge Office<\/span>, where shortlisted teams came together to deploy, test, and compete with their algorithms on physical minidrones.<\/div>\n
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At the MathWorks Cambridge Office: Deployment on Hardware<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Live hardware flight tests as part of the final deployment round<\/div>\n
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The Minidrone Competition \u2013 Europe 2025 brought together over 40 student teams from across Europe, reflecting the broad academic engagement with model based\u2011design and autonomous systems. From this group, six finalist teams earned the opportunity to compete in person at the MathWorks Cambridge Office.<\/div>\n
For finalist teams, the MathWorks Cambridge Office<\/span> marked a decisive transition from validated simulation models to autonomous flight on real hardware. In November 2025<\/span>, students arrived not to demonstrate concepts, but to test whether their designs could withstand the realities of a physical system.<\/div>\n
Finalist teams represented a diverse set of institutions, including:<\/div>\n