September 27, 2014
A bunch of UAV enthusiasts from Canberra went home $50,000 richer after the official winding up of the 2014 UAV Challenge at Kingaroy Airport on Friday.
Canberra UAV is a not-for-profit team of engineers, teachers, software developers and pilots from the ACT.
They were the red-hot favourites to take out the challenge this year.
In 2012, the team located the elusive dummy, “Outback Joe”, but didn’t deliver the rescue package. They still took home $10,000 in prize money.
This time around they made no mistake, although the flight wasn’t entirely without its dramas.
During the autonomous takeoff, the UAV was caught in a cross-wind and came closer than the team would have liked to organisers on the eastern side of the airstrip.
However, the flight continued safely, located Joe and then released a parachute-delivered 500ml water bottle.
Canberra UAV weren’t the only team to locate Joe …
Team SFWA (brothers Ben and Daniel Dyer, from Melbourne) made history when their entry was the first to successfully complete the challenge.
Also successful were Team Robota, from the United States, and Team Thunder (Australia).
However Canberra UAV came out on top of the competition after accumulating the most points.
Their water bottle drop landed just 2.6m from Outback Joe, far closer than any of the other teams.
Points also came from flying performance and other technical data.
As well as a cheque for $50,000, Canberra UAV also were presented with the Rod Walker trophy.
Prof Walker, who died in 2011, was heavily involved in the establishment of the UAV Challenge.
The winner of the high school competition, the 2014 High School Airborne Delivery Challenge, was the MUROC DareDivas from Mueller College in Brisbane.
PS. And where was Outback Joe? His position has changed over the years, but this time around he was taking a kip on land owned by Stanwell to the south of the airport.
Related articles
- Brothers Find Outback Joe … At Last
- Search Begins For Outback Joe
- UAVs Ready For Take-Off!
- Will They Finally Rescue Outback Joe?
- Joe Found (But Not Saved)
- Can Anyone Find Outback Joe?
