Outback Challenge 2012

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“The 2012 event was held at Kingaroy October 1–3 and followed a similar format to the 2010 competition with both a Search and Rescue and Airborne Delivery Challenge. 2012 saw the introduction of the Search Phase as part of the Airborne Delivery Challenge competitions.”

2012 UAV Challenge Organizers

– Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation (ARCAA) (a five-year-long partnership between CSIRO and Queensland University of Technology)

– AUVS-Australia

– Aviation Development Australia Limited

2012 UAV Challenge Sponsors

– Insitu Pacific

– CASA

– Boeing

– Lockheed Martin

– Mathworks

– Aviation Australia

– Stanwell Corporation Limited

– DTSO

2012 UAV Challenge Supporters

– The Queensland State Government

– South Burnett Regional Council

– UAS Pacific

– The U.S. Office of Naval Research Global

– The Asian Office of Aerospace Research and Development

– Australian Defence Magazine

2012 UAV Challenge Assistance Personnel

– Raytheon

– Royal Australian Navy

– Victoria Police Airwing

2012 Search and Rescue Challenge

“The 2012 Search and Rescue competition actually began in 2011 when the competition was lengthened to 18 months in duration.

Sixty-eight teams registered for the Search and Rescue Challenge, with 53 passing the first checkpoint. Over the subsequent 18 months the field was reduced to just five, the rest having either failed to pass certain milestones or withdrawing due to technical difficulties such as crashes. At the event in Kingaroy, four teams launched their aircraft into the range. The main task was not completed by any of the teams. However, two teams did manage to complete a significant portion of their search phase and successfully returned their aircraft to the airport. Team Canberra UAV achieved automatic detection of Outback Joe – the first team to do so in the history of the event.They did not manage to drop the bottle of water due to an in-flight incident prior to the Outback Joe detection when it appeared that the water bottle became loose from the aircraft and fell off.”

2012 Airborne Delivery Challenge

“Thirteen teams competed in the Airborne Delivery Challenge with a winner declared for its Search Phase.”

2012 Airborne Delivery Search Phase Challenge

2012 Insitu Pacific Airmanship Award

“The Airmanship Award was sponsored by Insitu Pacific and was awarded to Nina Clark for her outstanding team leadership.”

2012 UAV Challenge Results

Challenge	Grand prize	Winners	Encouragement awards
Search and Rescue Challenge (Rod Walker Trophy)	A$50,000.00	(not completed)	First Place: Canberra UAV (A$10,000 and the Rod Walker Trophy), Runners-up in order: OpenUAS (A$5,000), Forward Robotics (A$1,000) and CompassUAV (A$1,000)
Airborne Delivery Challenge	A$8,000.00	MUROC Hawks	–
Airborne Delivery Search Phase	A$2,000.00	MUROC Raiders	–
Insitu Pacific Airmanship Award	Trophy	Nina Clark (Team Captain of Aviation High Thunderbirds)	–

News articles relating to the 2012 UAV Outback Challenge

sUASnews.com:

UAV Outback Challenge 2012 Deliverable 2 videos

The Outback Challenge D1 Stage

2012-03-29 Outback Challenge D2 deadline and rules update

2012-02-08 Outback Challenge High School Competition 2012 rules released

2012-02-06 UAV Challenge Outback Search and Rescue event 2011 2012 Deliverables and Points System

2012-01-22 Rescuing Joe

2012-03-16 New format for international UAV Outback Challenge to boost competition

The Sydney Morning Herald:

Drone finds dummy ‘bushwalker’ in world-first

CSIRO:

Plane and simple: Joe needs rescuing

UAV finds (and nearly saves) Outback Joe – Podcast

CSIROnow: Pushing the right buttons

2XX Radio:

Dickson College UAV 2XX radio interview

SouthBurnett.com.au:

Joe Found (But Not Saved …)

Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

Rise of the drones raises privacy issues

Scope Ten:

CompassUAV on Scope Ten

Channel Ten:

Documentary on the 2012 UAV Challenge

Archive


Deliverable 1: Flight Safety Review	At the latest: 27 July 2011 at 5pm AEST
Deliverable 2: Flight Readiness Review	At the latest: 4 April 2012 at 5pm AEST (extended to 18 April 2012 at 5pm AEST)
Deliverable 3: Autonomous Flight Record	At the latest: 15 Aug 2012 at 5pm AEST
Final “Go/No-Go” Announcement of Teams	22 Aug 2012
Search and Rescue Challenge	1 – 4 Oct 2012

From Australia:

UAVS (QLD)
7 Aerospace (QLD)
TGIF (QLD)
Team RARG (QLD)
Team AWESOME (QLD)
Team RHINO (QLD)
CompassUAV (QLD)
Wild Hogs (QLD)
Privateers (QLD)
IntuInstinct (QLD)
IRUAV Team Electric (QLD)
Virtuality (QLD)
G.R.A.S.E (QLD)
QUT SRUAV (QLD)
Highview (QLD)
Monash UAS (VIC)
uavdev.com (VIC)
Flying Fox (VIC)
Phyction (VIC)
Latitude 38 UAV (VIC)