It's that time again!
With only 2 weeks until the UAV Outback Challenge (OBC) 2014, there is a record 20 teams from around the world ready to win the Challenge.
The OBC is a civilian UAV competition where teams must design, build and operate a UAV that is capable of finding a missing hiker and dropping a bottle of lifesaving water to them. It is held in Kingaroy (Australia) every second year and has attracted many hobbyist and university teams.
First prize is $50,000 and is yet to be claimed, giving an idea of the technical challenges involved in the OBC.
Many of the teams involved are using open source flight controllers (such as APM:Plane) and do contribute back to the community, furthering the hobbyist UAV movement.
The full list of entrants is:
- Aeolus (Singapore)
- Open UAS (Netherlands)
- NCSU Aerial Robotics Club (USA)
- Team Condor (Australia)
- Monash UAS (Australia)
- Perth UAV (Australia)
- IRSA Group (Iran)
- Compass UAV (Australia)
- Swiss Fang (Switzerland)
- MelAvio (Poland)
- VAMUdeS (Canada)
- SFWA (Australia)
- TinBox UAV 2 (Australia)
- Robota (USA)
- Rescue Robotics (Australia)
- Team Aetournos (France)
- H2Joe (Australia)
- MUROC Wild Hogs (Australia)
- Canberra UAV (Australia)
- Team Thunder (Australia)
As the manager of the CanberraUAV team (that were first place winners in the 2012 OBC), I'd like to offer the best of luck to all teams competing in the 2014 OBC, and we'll see you all in Kingaroy in 2 weeks!
Comments
As a NCSU graduate, I too and cheering for that team. But really, for all the teams. This is a significant event for anyone interested in advancing the state of the art.
Jerry: I'm not aware of anyone using FPV video steaming in the OBC. All teams need to comply with the ACMA spectrum regulations anyway. In our case, we are using a 4W digital link (Ubiquiti radios) at 5.8 GHz to transfer some of our imagery, though the bandwidth isn't enough for realtime imagery (it's enough for the occasional still image though).
Gary: We've not been advised of any video streaming of the OBC. From our experiences in 2012, the organisers are pretty good are updating the OBC Twitter feed with competition updates. They've also got a dedicated Facebook page for live updates:
https://www.facebook.com/UAVChallengeLive2014
https://twitter.com/uavchallenge
How are you guys running video feeds legally given that you can't use any frequency but 5.8ghz at 25MW? You aren't going to get any distance with that setup.
Aussie, aussie, aussie, oi oi oi
No video streaming this time?
@Marcus Wright; this page will be getting updated live during the competition if that's what you're looking for.
Good luck to everyone!
My money is on Canberra. But would love to see the NCSU guys do well since I am only an hour or two from there. I hope we can get updates as it happens?
Go Perth UAV team!
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