The UAV Challenge Medical Express rules have been released.
The Mission for 2016:
"Outback Joe is at his property in remote Queensland, Australia and has been feeling unwell. He has had a remote consultation with his doctor using video conferencing, and his doctor has requested some blood tests be done as soon as possible. Joe is well prepared, has a home sample taking kit, and has taken his blood sample. The challenge is now to get the blood sample to the lab. Joe’s property is very remote and to make matters worse, it has been cut off by floodwaters.
Teams are invited to attempt to retrieve a blood sample from the remote Outback Joe and return it to base where medical staff will be waiting to analyse it. Teams must deploy unmanned aircraft to Joe’s location, and then return a sample bottle from him utilising a remote landing and takeoff site close to him. They must complete all of this within one hour."
Documentation can be found here:
Rules PDF here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5JgqjkRDqw8dTllN085ZTJyNjQ/edit
Site: http://uavchallenge.org/medical-express/
Challenge FAQ: http://uavchallenge.org/medical-express/medical-express-faq/
Brief overview of the 2016 OBC rules:
- Two aircraft are allowed that can detach/reattach to eachother > one as retrieval aircraft and one for support > both can be airborne at the same time
- Range required +40km but no more than 60km through "bent" geofenced transit corridor - waypoints will likely backtrack to get the total distance, but will be at least 250m apart. (see FAQ)
- Flight must not take longer than one hour so the airframe must be able to achieve roughly 90-100kmh average, as well as be VTOL or STOL (!)
- The RF Link range required is approximately 10km (3-4G Mobile and Satellite comms allowed - safety case req. for landing zone etc)
- 1500ft AGL altitude restriction
- 25knot average wind over 10 minutes will cancel the event (which is higher than last time)
- Joe GPS coordinates that are provided are within 100m of Joe. One must locate him and land no closer than 30m, but no further away from Joe than 80m - distance away is scored at 2 points per meter - Joe has lost his colorful shirt but kept his jean pants on - phew!
- payload to be picked up is 20x100mm and no more than 100g and must be returned intact back to base.
- aircraft must remain motionless for 1 minute after landing near Joe before Joe will approach to place payload - Takeoff Arm switch is required by Joe at pickup location with one minute takeoff delay after activation
- Biggest points are for delivering intact sample back to base
- Only the top 20 ranking teams through D1-D3 will get to go (based on paperwork, flight logs and videos) - That will be tough
- Might not be at Kingaroy this time...
No specifics are given to the makeup of the Joe takeoff landing site or base site, apart from that it will "impede low glideslope landings". So this could allow something like a Skywalker X8 with a quadcopter strapped underneath to launch and fly to location, identify and locate Joe exactly, then detach the quad for payload retrieval, while the X8 stays above the landing zone as RF relay until quad is released to takeoff, then both can head back with the X8 arriving first and possibly landing with a parachute and then the quad with payload some minutes later. A single VTOL might be nice but you'd have to land/takeoff blind without RF link. Helicopters welcome.
Shouldn't be too hard.... I think I have the gear for that here already. Time to dig out old Tinker Bell and send her back to get Joe! ;-)
Comments
I reckon if you are using 915Mhz with reasonable antennas you'll only need the support a/c for a comms link when it's on the ground. So the with the RFDesign radios a sync any option might be good for the ground station talking to the retrieval a/c.
Something to be aware of is our mobile phone coverage once out of the cities is pretty average, as you get further out data speeds can really drop (although some places still surprise me that I can be so remote yet still have good data speeds). This is likely to be next to a small queensland town and not a major city. Also if you choose a mobile carrier other than telstra you typically have very bad reception out of the major population centers or corridors. Also most of the carriers dont do a public IP address, they are all NAT'ed so if both sides are mobile (which they will have to be) then you have to use a 3rd party server (which I think is against the rules). You can get a public IP if you have a business plan and then only if you ask. I'd say this would only be a feature to look at for a nice to know.
I agree I think it will require people to think about the airframes a lot more.
Chris
The RMAX is apparently too slow as it only goes 40kmh. It has electric start though...Need rotor stop on landing to pick up the vial...for which it's a pretty big bird for the task! Also pricey and only available to rent in Australia.
I agree that Rob can probably come up with something better. But getting +90kmh and 60km range is still a feat, especially if it is electric. Open for options though.
But Rob could probably do better than Yamaha ;-)
Yep - RMAX !
Looks like I was wrong with the range requirements for the challenge.
According to the new FAQ page on their website now (details in blog have been updated) the range requirement is actually between 40 and 60km! And this has to be accomplished inside of 60 minutes to boot, which means the aircraft will have to transverse the transit corridor at over 90kmh to get there and back in time.
I think this means it has now officially become an airframe "challenge", as without an adequate airframe the challenge cannot be achieved in time. Electronic recognition of Joe and landing site won't be as difficult IMHO as getting an aircraft this range in the required time. A fast VTOL is required. Electric might prove difficult too.
What I don't get is why their minimum flight logs for Deliverable 3 don't reflect the required performance to complete the mission. 20km or 30 minutes of flight logs is only half the distance and time to complete the challenge. Even if one uses two aircraft and drops one off over the landing area, then the half course measure would be adequate for the drop craft, however, both aircraft need to return to base to complete the mission, so the support craft must do the full +40km back and forth.
The other thing that concerns me now is that the flight corridor will likely have backtracking waypoints, that means the aircraft will likely zigzag back and forth and up and down to achieve the 40km range, as per the rules the landing zone will remain inside a 10km radius. If both the support and drop craft need to do this then using the support aircraft for just a comms link will be complicated.
On the bright side 3/4G mobile and satellite comms are ok provided a safety case can be made for their use, ie a failsafe is implemented should they fail. This should make landing with comms at Joe's possible, even if it is 10km from base, and also leave the possibility to do an FPV style approach.
Anybody know of a flying platform, that can fly 60km at 100kmh (37mile at 60mph) with VTOL that I can buy? :-(
Thx Martin
Sounds good. Keep me posted if you don't enter the competition yourself and if your airframe becomes available, I'd be happy to purchase one instead of developing it ourselves. Just PM me if it is so. There's many other things that need to be done, that's why I starting early! Roger on the autogyro and blade locking, I realise that, that's why I'd prefer to shrink the quad parts instead and just leave them blowing in the wind. Somewhere in there, there is a balance of performance vs complexity and weight, and that's what I'm trying to find. So your input is much appreciated.
Yes JB if you can get a matched efficient prop and motor combo for your sized wing, you may have some better results. We certainly didn't reduce the quad motors as we wanted our design to function normally but if you just want a limited VTOL then why not. Autogyro design is not too efficient and of course you don't want your props to stop or even rotate in the other direction- this could cause an inability to restart or even damage the escs. Stowing props and moving motors can be quite tricky and heavy- let alone the coding required to get the autopilot to play ball! We did play with rocket boosters for a while(just for fun on a weekend) It worked surprisingly well but it's a one off shot and was incredibly loud- not recommended! Our current prototype would easily have the capability for this competition, we just have to sort out the autonomous side- we are thinking about it ;-)
Rob, sorry- I managed to delete the reply whilst trying to edit. We are keeping relatively quiet about the latest design until fully ready for release. I can say that it is a multirotor with heli technology and a new style of airframe design. I know you are a big fan of heli/multi combos ;-) please don't hate me! I have been a commercial heli pilot for many years, I know where you are coming from. I am in contact with David Anders at skymationuav and will be running it by him for his opinions when we are finished. I would value your opinions highly too, would it be ok to pm you at that time?
Martin, no, I didn't see your delete response if it was regarding your modified heli designs?
Thanks Joshua. Can you link back here when the FAQ becomes available please? Thx
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Martin thx for that. I'm still hunting for the sweet spot with this, but I think the trick with this one is using the minimal amount of quad propulsion to get it up to a speed that is fast enough to produce enough lift from a small airfoil, in forward flight, that can be sustained by the pusher. The quad rotors will either have to be so small they don't impact the forward flight or otherwise they need to be stowed or autorotate to assist in the lift. At least that's how I see it atm, but there might yet be another better solution. I just need to vtol and cruise, with a relevantly safe airframe design that I can make a case for auto landing, even with limited comms link. Out of interest does the design you are working on have about 25km range and VTOL? That might be an option for the competition otherwise! ;-)
There are many people using several different variations on this theme. Be good for this competition :-)
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