2016 UAV Challenge¶
The 2016 UAV Challenge (Medical Express) was the 3rd time CanberraUAV had entered the competition.
We came 1st place, successfully landing 40.6m from Outback Joe and returning safely to the base. Unfortunately the comms relay UAV crashed partway through the mission.
A total of 10 teams made it to Dalby, with 3 teams finding Joe and only CanberraUAV performing a successful landing next to Joe.
- For more information about the event:
- The official competition web site https://uavchallenge.org/medical-express/
- CanberraUAV mission statement: http://canberrauav.org.au/about
- OBC Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAV_Outback_Challenge
- BBC “Click” Documentary http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0817f4m
Hardware/Software used¶
Airframe1: VQ Porter (2.7m wingspan. 14kg takeoff weight) with DLE35 engine
Airframe2: Gaui GX9 (2m rotorspan)
Flight Controller: Pixhawk running APM:Plane (Porter) and APM:Copter (GX9)
Datalink1: RFD900’s with 3dBi patch antennas of the aircraft and 6dBi Yagi antenna of the ground
Datalink2: 3G modems using the Telstra and Optus networks
Camera: PointGrey Chameleon
Image Processing: Odroid XU board running Linux and the cuav imaging software
Ground Station: 2 networked laptops running the MAVProxy GCS software.
Procedures and Reference¶
We also created the following documents for our own use at the competition (and practice flights):
The rules:
Deliverables:
After the Challenge¶
- There is a review by Tridge on the Ardupilot forums:
- Tridge’s technical review - http://discuss.ardupilot.org/t/canberrauav-outback-challenge-2016-debrief/12162