UVA students team up with Virginia Tech for international robotics competition

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - University of Virginia students are putting aside a big rivalry to test technologies that may one day be found in self-driving cars.

On Saturday, they teamed up with students from Virginia Tech to test drones in the air and on the ground at Milton Field in Albemarle County.

It's all part of a lead up to an international robotics competition happening on February, 26 in Dubai. The competition sees students from around the world working to help advance autonomous vehicle technology for everyone.

"What is really great is that we are challenging {a} very very difficult task to achieve, and we have to do it fully autonomously using the robots, and we can just you know exchange, you know, what kind of technologies we do have and it’s not only about the competition but also we share it,” said Tomonari Furukawa, an engineering professor at the University of Virginia.