April 2, 2012
Entries are now open for the annual UAV Challenge – Outback Rescue which will be held in and around Kingaroy between October 1-4 this year.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) will be competing in two major competitions:
- The Search and Rescue Challenge which is open to Australian and international university students and aerospace enthusiasts; and
- The Airborne Delivery Challenge which is only open to students in Australian high schools. This competition challenges students to develop an airborne delivery system that can deliver a package to a lost bushwalker, “Outback Joe”.
In the Search and Rescue Challenge, participants must conduct a remote airborne search to locate Outback Joe.
The UAV must not travel outside of the search area and must locate “Outback Joe” within 60 minutes of take-off. “Outback Joe” will be sitting “in a typical resting pose in a rural setting”.
If the GPS location for Joe provided to the judges by the team is within 100m of Joe’s actual location, the team will be given approval to deliver the emergency package, 500ml of “life-saving” water. The package must be dropped as closely as possible to Outback Joe without landing on him.
The UAV will then return to the Kingaroy Airport for recovery.
