For those following the Outback Challenge UAV competition, check out the CanberraUAV site, which is doing a good job of daily reports. This is the home team of APM:Plane lead developer Andrew "Tridge" Tridgell, the legendary gentleman on the keys above. They won the last competition and will be the team to watch when they fly later this week.
Today's report:
Today was the first Search and Rescue Challenge flights at the OBC.
It was a fair bit quieter with the high school teams gone, but it did give us all time to chat with the other competitors and make some new friends.
Some people have been asking if there is something more than the “UAV Challenge Live” feed on Facebook and Twitter. There is a live video stream in the competitors tent, which shows the activity at the flight line (where teams takeoff/land their UAVs and put their ground stations). Since the UAVs fly up to 6km away, we don’t actually see much of them except for the takeoff and landing sequence. Other than that, we are reliant on the Facebook feed too!
On to today’s teams:
OpenUAS – This was their 3rd OBC. Their UAV made it to the search area but crashed shortly afterwards.
Condor – Had technical difficulties and elected to go to the back of the queue
Monash UAS – Flew very well and imaged the search area. Unfortunately they could find Joe in the images. They landed successfully back at the airport.
PerthUAV – Imaged most of the search area, but couldn’t find Joe. They landed successfully back at the airport.
Compass UAV – Imaged some of the search area, but couldn’t find Jo. They landed successfully back at the airport.
SwissFang – Crashed part way to the search area.
MelAvio – Had technical difficulties and elected to go to the back of the queueTomorrow starts with VAMUdeS.
At this stage, CanberraUAV will likely be flying Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.
Comments
good job.so nice.
good job
Gobsmacking isn't it. I have added to the front page here with no grace or cleverness. I can't say enough how much admiration I have for OBC teams from all over the world that travel so far and risk it all. Truly amazing.
2.6 friggin' meters precision, from a plane! (bottle drop). Man ...
Wooooooohoooooooooooooo!
Congrats to Tridge & the CanberraUAV team for winning the Outback Challenge !!!
@Gary - Winner is determined by total points. Points are earned for a few things like the 3 reports that were due during the two years leading up to this, if auto takeoff/landing is used, successfully finding Joe, dropping bottle, distance of bottle to Joe etc. There are full rules on the site but the point is that it's a lot of things other than just getting the bottle closest to Joe. Apparently the winner will be announced within the next 5 hours. Probably sooner.
Great to hear that Canberra completed the challenge too.
Congratulations.
Look forward to hearing the stories of all the competitors.
So is there only one actual winner of the Challenge in the end and how is it determined?
Best Regards,
Gary
Four teams found Joe and successfully dropped the bottle, including Canberra UAV, of course!
Wow! Hard to believe how fast this field is progressing. From an almost "win" from Canberra UAV at the last challenge, (and no one else finding Joe) to now four confirmed wins.
Congratulations to all, especially the Canberra tram and Tridge who have made all these advances possible.
There is one multirotor in the Outback Challenge and it's searching as I type this. I can't figure out how they can get the flight time to do the mission but I guess we will know soon. The big news is that CanberraUAV is next up to fly!
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