The team is proud to present our Medical Express White Paper which outlines our approach to the 2016 UAV Outback Challenge.

We had a lot of fun competing in the 2014 UAV Outback Challenge. Working together with like-minded people to solve the difficult challenges of this project was very satisfying, and more than justified the countless hours we have all put in, and heartache when we crashed. We learnt a great deal from this experience about a fascinating new field of technology, and had a lot of fun getting out and flying planes.

Mike and Geoff with the UAV from the 2014 Challenge
Mike and Geoff with the UAV from the 2014 Challenge

We’ve decided that we want to do it all again. The 2016 UAV Outback Challenge – Medical Express promises new and exciting challenges.

We have put together a White Paper. This outlines our understanding of what’s involved in the challenge, what we’ve learnt from our past experiences, the different options we have considered, and our current approach that we would adopt. The purpose of this document is to prompt discussion on what thing we might need to think about, and what might be the best approach. It is also meant to give an overview of our plan so that people can decide if they want to get involved.

Our approach is to use two aircraft – a support aircraft and a retrieval aircraft. The support aircraft will be essentially the same UAV that was used in the 2014 Outback Challenge without the bottle drop function. It will fly out to locate Joe, identify a suitable landing location, and then loiter in the area to provide a comms relay for the retrieval aircraft. The retrieval aircraft will be a small UAV capable of transitioning between forward-flight and hover so that it can cover the long distance to Joe, and then take-off and land vertically to retrieve the blood sample.

Our UAV from the 2014 Challenge
Our UAV from the 2014 Challenge

firefly6
The FireFly6 is an example hybrid fixed-wing and multicopter platform that can be used for the retrieval aircraft

Please take a look, and let us know your thoughts! H2Joe Medical Express White Paper – May 2015