UAV Outback Challenge, Kingaroy, Australia

by Agata Rek [ http://melavio.meil.pw.edu.pl/en/author/agata-rek/ ]

October 12, 2014

MelAvio has returned back to Poland. UAV Outback Challenge competition has been a great test of our skills and a source of experience for each of us. As a team we have built highly optimized airframe – M-6 Barakuda, developed a redundant autopilot system as well as onboard computer vision system in just a year. Our effort paid out – all eyes were turned at in Kingaroy. We have won Insitu Pacific Airmanship Award – despite adversities at the moment of our start we did not break under pressure and carried out the mission according to good aviation practices, taking into account safety and fair competition. As one out of three teams, MelAvio has reached the search area and started searching fo Joe. Unfortunately due to datalink losses at the furthest points of our route, our autopilot took decision of returning back home which fulfilled the challenge rules. The datalinks that we used have been tested for the first time in Australia because of diffrence in legal radio bands between Poland and Australia. This stopped us from actually finding Outback Joe and placed us 10th out of 20 final teams in Kingaroy. We have gave in to teams that already took part in the previous editions of the UAV Outback Challenge. We are very happy of what we have achieved and are slowly getting ready for next challenges ahead of us. As the Outback Joe has been rescued for the first time in history, UAV Challenge will change its mission and in two years time there will be a new challenge waiting for MelAvio. Thank you all for supporting us.