Dubai: In the build-up to the International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC), students from 28 universities across the globe have been developing prototypes for flying robots that can "think" for themselves. No longer the domain of science fiction, autonomous aerial vehicles have uses in the military, natural disasters, medical emergencies and other areas that have yet to be looked into. This year Bits Pilani's Dubai team came first in the IARC held recently in North Dakota. The eight students, whose majors include electronics, mechanical engineering, computer science and IT, built an autonomous indoor flying vehicle that could navigate through an unknown environment and retrieve a 100-gram object. Although the prototype didn't manage to retrieve an object -- to win the $20,000 prize money -- it got the maximum number of points.