The Outback Challenge Archive

: Outback Joe

Well Joe has another year to sit back and relax the event will now take place in 2012. Read more

The UAV Challenge – Outback Rescue, often referred to as simply the UAV Outback Challenge, began in 2007 and has been held every year since. The event is aimed at promoting the civilian use of unmanned aerial vehicles and the development of low-cost systems that could be used for search and rescue missions.The event is a cooperative effort between the Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation (a partnership between CSIRO and Queensland University of Technology) and the Queensland State Government. From 2007 to 2009 the event was also co-organised with Boeing Defence Australia. There is a thorough scoring system with a clear emphasis on safety, capability and technical excellence.

The event is one of the largest robotics challenges in the world and one of the highest stakes UAV challenges, with $50,000 on offer to the winner of the Search and Rescue segment of the Challenge. The Challenge takes place in Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia at the airport.

2012 UAV Outback Challenge

The 2012 event is actually also the 2011 event. The organisers decided to give the teams an extra year to prepare for the challenge.

Here you can find a summary of the deliverables and points system for the 2011/2012 event.

53 teams have made it through the D1 process for 2012, I will try and find bits about them here.

Here you can find a post with the teams’ D2 video submissions.

Previous Challenges

2010

2009

Melbourne UAV