{"id":82882,"date":"2014-09-27T13:41:42","date_gmt":"2014-09-27T03:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=82882"},"modified":"2020-11-23T16:38:37","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T06:38:37","slug":"canberra-uav-wins-50000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/09\/27\/canberra-uav-wins-50000\/","title":{"rendered":"Canberra UAV Wins $50,000"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The successful Canberra UAV team with the elusive Outback Joe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

September 27, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Canberra UAV is a not-for-profit team of engineers, teachers, software developers and pilots from the ACT.<\/p>\n

They were the red-hot favourites to take out the challenge this year.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

This time around they made no mistake, although the flight wasn’t entirely without its dramas.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

However, the flight continued safely, located Joe and then released a parachute-delivered 500ml water bottle.<\/p>\n

Canberra UAV weren’t the only team to locate Joe …<\/strong><\/p>\n

Team SFWA (brothers Ben and Daniel Dyer, from Melbourne) made history when their entry was the first to successfully complete the challenge.<\/p>\n

Also successful were Team Robota, from the United States, and Team Thunder (Australia).<\/p>\n

However Canberra UAV came out on top of the competition after accumulating the most points.<\/p>\n

Their water bottle drop landed just 2.6m from Outback Joe, far closer than any of the other teams.<\/p>\n

Points also came from flying performance and other technical data.<\/p>\n

As well as a cheque for $50,000, Canberra UAV also were presented with the Rod Walker trophy.<\/p>\n

Prof Walker, who died in 2011, was heavily involved in the establishment of the UAV Challenge.<\/p>\n

The winner of the high school competition, the 2014 High School Airborne Delivery Challenge, was the MUROC DareDivas from Mueller College in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n

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