To attract more students to the field of robotics and with the belief that “hands-on” activities provide a much-needed opportunity to enhance traditional classroom teaching, in 1991, former-AUVSI President Prof. Robert C. Michelson, created the International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC) while heading the organization's Technical Committee.
The DARPA Grand Challenge and DARPA Urban Challenge have encouraged development of even more autonomous capabilities for ground vehicles, while this has been the demonstrated goal for aerial robots since 1990 as part of the AUVSI International Aerial Robotics Competition.
The Gavilán was presented on June 10 of 2008 in San Diego, California by 'Hydra Technologies of Mexico' in AUVSI (Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International) North America 2008, the biggest global expo of this particular industry in the world.
Launched in 1997 and co-sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Foundation and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the goal of RoboSub is to advance the development of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) by challenging a new generation of engineers to perform realistic missions in an underwater environment.