Northrop Grumman sponsors Australian UAV Challenge

Northrop Grumman Corporation is sponsoring the 2013 and 2014 UAV Challenge – Outback Rescue, a competition in which students develop unmanned airborne vehicles (UAVs) that locate and deliver an emergency package to a fictitious lost hiker.

The competition is aimed at encouraging growth in the Australian civil UAV industry and raising awareness of the potential civilian applications.

The UAV Challenge – Outback Rescue includes two flying categories: the Airborne Delivery Challenge and the Search and Rescue Challenge.

Both competitions give students a hands-on opportunity to explore their interests, whether in project management, engineering, mathematics or technology.

This year's Airborne Delivery Challenge took place September 24-25 at Gratton Field in Calvert, Queensland, with 11 teams of Australian high school students participating.

Each team was given an emergency package to be delivered to the lost bushwalker, a mannequin called "Outback Joe."

Teams used UAVs they built to carry and drop the package as close to Outback Joe as possible.

The delivery of the package was controlled by either a human operator or automatically by the systems on the aircraft.

This year's Airborne Delivery Challenge was won by the Calamvale Raptors II team from Queensland.

"The competition experience increased the students' interest in science and technology and encourages them to think about pursuing careers in the aerospace industry," Jonathan Roberts, co-chair of the UAV Challenge Steering Committee and head judge said.

An optional Search Phase, in which teams used their aircraft to read symbols left by Outback Joe, was completed for additional points.

Each team submitted a technical report on its UAV and gave an oral presentation.

The UAV Challenge – Outback Rescue, which began in 2007, is a joint initiative between the Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation (a Queensland University of Technology research centre) and CSIRO (Australia's national science agency).

It is supported by the Queensland Government, Aviation Development Australia Limited and the Australian Association of Unmanned Systems.

Northrop Grumman's involvement started in July 2013 when the company sponsored Dickson College UAV, a team from Dickson College in Canberra.