Remember back, way back in autopilot years probably about 20. The year 2009 and the first round of our gentlemens (ladies are allowed just none have ever entered) competition the T3 challenge.
Back then just flying way points was hard and all this gear was expensive. Ardupilots were made at Sparkfun in batches that ran out quick.
Lets try it again I suspect this time the challenge would really be flying it faster than somebody FPV racing.
Read about the first time here for hints and tips.
As tech has moved on all aircraft types welcome lets make it not above 50m and 5 laps. All of course autonomous. Extra marks if that is from take off to landing.I will count the time from take off to landing so screaming dives to the start will not help. KMLs as evidence please!
UPDATE: Rovers (and boats) are also allowed! There will be a special rover/boat class, and you only have to beat other vehicles in that class. The course for such ground/water vehicles is 100m x 100m.
I will accept FPV times for the sake of science and should they be much much quicker it will give the pure FPV crowd something to brag about.
An Easystar (yes before HK copied it) made one lap in less than a minute in 2009 so 5 in 5 minutes should be more than possible.
As ever the time frame is flexible but why don't we all meet back here on August the 1st and find out who won!
Please add your entries and adventures below. Points are always awarded for silliness, just as long as its safe!
Comments
Thanks Chris.
Appeal heard and granted. 100m x 100m it is for rovers! Post adjusted accordingly.
As for stopping, I get that it's a bit of a fuzzy thing with boats. I'll accept slowing to a walking pace.
-c
That's awesome Chris - thanks! I'm sure the Rover group (best people in the world) will be thrilled once they hear about this!
I have the same issue as Tom and I'm going to struggle to find a large ground area 200m x 200m. I did a bunch of google map searching last night in my geographically area and nothing popped up. We might need to think about tweaking it to 100m x 100m for the Rover challenge? That would be achievable.
However, I was actually thinking of entering with a boat which goes much faster then my Rovers and to be honest beating the aircraft. All that takeoff, landing messing around is going to slow you down. My reading is the timing is from standing start to fully stopped finish?
And Tom - I think your boat goes faster then mine!
Thanks, Grant.
Grant: A rover entry would be awesome. By the power vested in me by being the prize-giver (prize TBD), I hereby create a special category for ground rovers, which will only have to beat other rovers. (Gary: I'll edit the original post to include this).
So, does it have to be an aircraft type? Or can us gravitationally bound enthusiasts enter?
Thanks, Grant.
Just a note and for the Entertainment..
I Failed the second time. Again because of bad space weather.
The experience included a 1 hour search/walk of shame and climbing a tree.. beware!
All safety features including glitch detection/autoland worked perfectly well and prevented a flyaway :)
Good Job developers!
Vehicle and Pilot in good shape again.
Will see if time/weather permits another try.
Cheers
Linus
Not sure to add or subtract points for that flag ;-) 70 degrees angle of bank, that's insane. Well done for such spirited entries.
gary,
There are several reasons for teh butterfly pattern;
1) The mission was programmed by the guy with the PhD in Aeronautical Engineering....not the guy with the PhD in Robotics. Just saying....
2) We were using mission planner and have yet to work out how to do splines. Next attempt will be with Tower and hopefully splines.
We went out again with a hotter motor and a "hand built" prop on the weekend. The ESC burnt out halfway through the first lap. PhD in Aeronautical Engineering.......Just saying....
We will be back out in a few days
Not the 1st of August yet ausdroid ! If experience is anything to go by we get late entries. Stunning flight from down there. I wonder why there are almost two butterfly patterns in those fixed wing attempts. Was the wind in a similar quarter for both? Shorter wings bigger motor.......
The bar has certainly been raised, but I have hopes for the Skyfun with cranked params. And I think we can crank up Solo a bit more, too. More than a month to go to the deadline!
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