Australian UAV Outback Challenge

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2013/2014 UAV Outback Challenge UPDATE

September 2014 in Kingaroy, Queensland

Teams from around the World will come together in September 2014 in Kingaroy, Queensland, to search for lost bushwalker, Outback Joe. Their mission is to fly their robotic aircraft over a large search area, find Outback Joe and drop him a package containing 500ml of lifesaving water.

Where’s Outback Joe?

Your system must be capable of searching an area of at least 2nm x 2nm, up to 5nm from the aerodrome. The target for your search will be a dummy positioned in a typical resting pose in a rural setting.

The GPS coordinates of the search area are provided in Search and rescue Challenge Rules. The air vehicle must not travel outside of the search area or transit lane, for its flight will be terminated if it does so. The search area will be not more that 5nm from the aerodrome.

Over a 60 minute period teams launch their aircraft, conduct their search and locate Outback Joe. Once he has been found a GPS coordinate representing Outback Joe's location must be provided to the judges.

Rescue Outback Joe!

If GPS location for Outback Joe provided to the judges by the team is within 100 metres of Joe’s location the team will be given approval to deliver the emergency package. The emergency package will contain 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.

The UAV Challenge also consists of a high-school competition called the Airborne Delivery Challenge. This is an annual event with a prize pool of $10,000. The next Airborne Delivery Challenge event will be held at Calvert, West of Ipswich, Queensland, on 24-25 September 2013.

READ THE COMPLETE PDF BELOW

Find out more

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UAV Outback Challenge 2012 in Review

No team completed the UAV Outback Challenge in 2012 but four
teams did launch their aircraft into the range with two returning safely to
the airport.

Search and Rescue 2012

1. Canberra UAV..................$10,000

2. OpenUAS............................$5,000

3. Forward Robotics........... $1,000

4. Compass UAV...................$1,000

Airborne Delivery Challenge

MUROC Hawks....................$8,000

Airborne Delivery Search Phase

MUROC Raiders. Search Phase winners were awarded $2,000

Insitu Airmanship Award

Nina Clark (Team Captain of Aviation High Thunderbirds).

( see outback uav challange winner details here )

Australia UAV Outback Challenge 2012

The UAV Challenge – Outback Rescue

The UAV Challenge - Outback Rescue has been developed to promote UAV's significance
to Australia. The UAV Challenge is a joint initiative between the Queensland
Government, the Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation (ARCAA,
a partnership between QUT and CSIRO) , Aviation Development Australia Limited
and AUVS-Australia - a prime example of government, industry and research organisations
working together.

The creation of the UAV Challenge - Outback Rescue is a direct outcome from
a workshop that Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation (ARCAA)
conducted in 2005. The workshop was called the “The Future of UAVs - Challenges
and Applications in the Asia Pacific Region”

At this workshop a group of aerospace industry leaders and UAV experts got
together to develop a plan which would allow growth in the Australian civil
UAV industry and raise awareness of the potential civilian applications.