Inspired by the Outback Challenge's waterbottle drop challenge, we're happy to now announce the start of the 8th round of the T3 Competition.
Your mission this time: have your UAV autonomously drop an egg as close to your home/launch position as possible (heads up!).
(Note: Our contest judge, Gary Mortimer, reminds us that it is illegal to drop any solid object out of an airborne vehicle in some countries, including the UK, so please check your local regulations to determine if this is legal in your area.)
How you have your UAV carry the egg and what mechanism you use to drop it is up to you (maybe a good time to use the built-in relay on your new ArduPilot Mega board?). The only requirement is that the drop be AUTONOMOUS--you need to set your autopilot to initiate the release when it detects that it's the right distance from the home location. The aircraft must be in forward motion with a speed of at least 15mph at the time of drop, and at least 50ft high (ie, no unfair advantage for quads!)
Because this first "T" in T3 stands for "trust", we're going to trust you to mark your home position and measure the distance the egg landed from that--no need to strap a GPS logger to the egg. The path your UAV takes before and after the drop doesn't matter, as long as it was under autonomous control during the drop part of the run. You will get EXTRA POINTS for an unbroken egg. How you achieve that (parachute, whatever) is up to to you, but please document your method with pictures.
Please submit the following in the comments as your entry: KML track of your UAV, with drop point, egg impact point, and "home" marked. Distance measured and reported, along with autopilot type. Please include a picture of your egg after it's landed, broken or not.
Scoring will be as follows: competitors will be ranked in closeness of egg to home. You get a 10m bonus for an unbroken egg.
Deadline: about six week from now--Sunday, September 5th at 12:00 midnight PST.
Have fun!
Comments
And Rubber Chicken with pulley in the middle?
The evidence is use case and contest rules.
The points are given for hitting near a target with a load similar to heavy grenade.
HOWEVER nobody cares if the bottle will land intact! Nobody states: the bottle must stay visible after landing. Nobody states: you must not hit closer than x metres to the person, they say 'you must not hit him directly' (this is same as saying 'you must not hit a nearby scorpion on the left leg'). This is clearly military thinking: delivering something heavy, round shaped near a specific location.
The results of this research will be USELESS about delivering a water for exhausted traveler,
but will produce well working low-payload bomber.
A person inside a circle is just a random idea there.
Krzysztof, I really don't know why you think the Outback Challenge is actually designed for military utility--do you have any evidence?
A water balloon would still be illegal, just like adding silica gel to competition ballooning sand bags is, they then fly through cloud and increase the water content and by doing so increase duration. Laxatives are also banned because you can fill up on food, take some bags with you and create some usable ballast during the flight. Have I gone way off topic here.....
I think that this discussion has broken out is in itself promising as it shows we are maturing as a group. Its an Eggcellent starting point for the defining two things:-
1. The role of sUAS
2. The rules under which we will fly them.
This competition is supposed to be a bit of fun that pushes the envelope.
I will leave it to Chris to decide where we go with this round.
G
I have just realised that nobody could actually legally enter this round in the UK as UAS are now classified as aircraft and as such fall under the ANO which states, that only water (gliders) or finely divided sand (me in a gas balloon) can be dropped from the air.
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