{"id":10761,"date":"2016-03-10T12:39:46","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T19:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=10761"},"modified":"2016-03-10T12:39:46","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T19:39:46","slug":"the-search-for-outback-joe-and-flying-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/the-search-for-outback-joe-and-flying-dogs\/","title":{"rendered":"The Search for Outback Joe – And Flying Dogs?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Glassock, a long-time contributor to the blog, is from Australia, and has lived and worked in Hungary for the last few years.\u00a0 He\u2019s known to blog readers for his work in autonomous aircraft, very large sailplanes<\/a>, and hybrid propulsion design<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He shares news this week about \u201csome excellent work by an Australian researcher I have known for a while. In one way or another, he is actualizing many of the ideas\/dreams I had 20 years ago.\u201d\u00a0 The craft isVTOL (vertical takeoff and landing), fixed wing, capable of automated flight, and is almost a hybrid (depending on definition).<\/p>\n

\"Outback

Outback Joe, awaiting an autonomous aircraft to pick up his blood sample<\/p><\/div>\n

It was developed for the Outback Challenge, originally a chance for aircraft designers to show how their craft could autonomously search for and find Outback Joe, a mannequin layabout who would otherwise become dingo bait.\u00a0 \u00a0The 2014 event \u201cwas themed around an outback rescue mission.\u201d\u00a0 2016 sees Joe \u201cstuck in a clearing in the Australian Outback, surrounded by floodwaters, but needs to send an urgent blood sample to his doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Large-scale

Large-scale model of Pilatus Porter with 35cc engine, four electric motors for vertical takeoff and landing, high-speed forward flight<\/p><\/div>\n

Although teams have Joe\u2019s GPS coordinates, the area will be surrounded by obstacles, which each team will have to work around, land, and retrieve the blood sample before returning quickly to home base.\u00a0 The Challenge is put together by Richard’s alma mater, the Queensland University of Technology <\/a>and CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization), <\/a>a government-based technology incubator that works to implement and commercialize Australian inventions.<\/p>\n

With a 20-kilometer out-and-return flight required<\/a> for the blood sample retrieval, and assorted obstacles strewn about to make the task hard, \u201cCSIRO engineers say that it is unlikely that traditional fixed-wing unmanned aircraft or small multi-rotor vehicles will be able to meet the challenge, so competitors will need to use hybrid flying robots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard\u2019s friend Andrew Tridgell (Tridge to his friends) has met many of the requirements of the Challenge by retrofitting a Pilatus Porter model with a quadrotor-type vertical lift system<\/a>.\u00a0 He explains the design, construction, and destruction of a truly adventurous large model aircraft, combining quadrotor lift and high forward speed from its 35 cc petrol engine.\u00a0 Initial flight and stable-appearing flybys held no foreshadowing of a later calamity.\u00a0 See the very successful flight tests leading to that below.<\/p>\n