From Queensland University of Technology:
Queensland University of Technology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science agency, have announced their next international unmanned aircraft challenge, UAV Challenge Medical Express 2016.
The previous UAV Challenge, held in 2014, tasked entrants with designing and creating an UAV that could deliver an emergency package to a hiker lost in the outback.
Announcing UAV Challenge Medical Express 2016 at an unmanned systems conference associated with the Avalon Airshow, event co-ordinator Dennis Frousheger said the 2016 challenge was designed to push UAV technology to the limit.
“It’s unlikely that traditional fixed-wing unmanned aircraft or small multi-rotor vehicles will be capable of meeting this challenge – new hybrid flying robots will probably be required,” said Mr Frousheger, an engineer in CSIRO’s Digital Productivity Flagship.
“This time, our hapless bushwalker is stuck in a clearing in the Australian Outback, surrounded by floodwaters, and his doctors have requested an urgent blood sample be sent to them. He’s found his way to a clearing and has emailed his GPS coordinates.”
“Joe’s located in an area surrounded by obstacles so teams will need to develop systems capable of understanding the landing site, and plan and execute a landing – all of this at a distance of at least 10kms from their location.”
To complete the mission, teams will need to deploy an aircraft from a small town outside the flooded area and have it fly autonomously for at least 10km to find Outback Joe. The robot aircraft must locate Joe and automatically land nearby. After Joe places his blood sample into the aircraft, it must take off and fly quickly back to the town.
UAV Challenge co-founder Professor Jonathan Roberts, a QUT robotics expert with the Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation, is not expecting a winner in the first year of the new competition – but is happy to be proven wrong.
“It took eight years to save Joe in our Outback Rescue competition – that’s with more than 2,000 people from 350 teams working on the problem and sharing their knowledge,” Professor Roberts said. “We’re expecting many of those teams to take up the medical express challenge, along with others keen to push the envelope for UAV capabilities. The prize for saving Joe will again be AU$50,000.”
The competition will take place in September 2016 in Outback Queensland, Australia.
Comments
Especially if the same flight termination requirements / process exists!
I also don't think standing under a hovering UAV helicopter is particularly safer either.....
The problem with a gas helicopter is that you may have to shut down all moving objects so the UAV can be approached safely for the payload to be attached. You would need electric start as I cannot imagine anyone being allowed to approach a gas helicopter with the motor running.
My main thing is what the person who puts in the payload is allowed to do after it is done.
Yes Trad heli is my vote. Anyone making real clark Y aerofoil blades? Reckon That could be clincher as I see it.
I have to agree with Rob here. As the challenge stands now, a nice 90 size gasser helicopter is the obvious choice. When you get into the larger sizes there is a lot of lift in forward flight. Not quite airplane efficiency, but MUCH better then any multicopter will ever have. And with a gasser you can get really long flight times regardless.
As I see it the only problem will be managing the vibrations typically associated with helicopters. Both with regard to sensors and computer vision. Ohh.. and solving the navigational & obstacle avoidance task, whatever that will be.. :)
@Tridge,
Funny you should ask that. The new SF30 is able to create both distance maps as well as signal strength maps. A retro-reflective target would stand out like the spots on Ceres.
We're putting in an alarm system for collision avoidance that produces a high signal on an alarm output if the distance gets below a certain value - this is like a one bit resolution distance map. We could also configure the alarm to trigger on signal strength instead to give a one bit reflectivity map. This would allow the unit to run autonomously in the background until such time as it finds a reflection that is significantly above the background signals.
@Laser Developer,
Interesting, thanks! Will the new high rate lidar give both distance and signal strength, or just distance? I'm wondering if we can infer anything about the material it is reflecting off from the data.
Cheers, Tridge
If Outback Joe is wearing a reflective jacket like on previous occasions, the laser signature is extremely strong.
The reason is that the reflective material is actually what is known as a "retro-reflector", meaning that it has the crazy property of sending any light that hits it, straight back to the source with very little attenuation, irrespective of the angle that the light comes from. This is the same stuff used on road signs and is mostly made by 3M.
The silver looking strips on the yellow jacket are usually "diamond grade" material and to the human eye or a camera they don't have any special properties because the eye and camera don't actually transmit any light. Instead they are relying on light from the sun to illuminate the strips and, guess what, the sunlight is being reflected back to the sun.
So you absolutely need to have an active light source before the strips really light up. A few years back we ran some tests on the same material using a laser and were easily able to pick up the reflective signature from several kilometers away. This gives you some idea of how reflective it really is!
Just saying...
Hi Rob
I read somewhere that your 600 size electric heli can run for about 40 minutes, is there any detail info regarding this project. It use variable pitch direct tail drive, where can I get those require components ?
I am asking because I would like to develop a Pixhawk power electric traditional heli for our conservationdrones. We always having problem to find proper landing site for air plane base UAV in tropical forest.
For your beautiful gas power heli, what is the endurance ?
Thanks
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