Knight HS "Spirit of Niles" Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Teams Return Home With Awards

Traveling from Palmdale, CA, 6 students from Knight High School participated in the UAV Challenge in Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia from 22-24 September 2014.  The first-ever non- Australian high school to compete in the event, three young women and three young men formed two teams in the Airborne Delivery Challenge.  After presenting their technical report, strategy, and goals on the first day, as well as undergoing static and flying scrutineering by local judges, the "Spirit of Niles II" team (young men flying a DJI Evo 800 hexcopter) was in 9th place, and the "Spirit of Niles I" team (young women flying a Phanton quadcopter) was in 12th place out of 16 teams [the teams are named in memory of Niles Nilo, a Lockheed Martin engineer mentor who originally suggested having an Antelope Valley team participate in the Northrop Grumman sponsored event].  Unfortunately, during its scrutineering flight, the Spirit of Niles II remotely-piloted aircraft suffered a hard landing and flipped, breaking 4 of its propeller blades (this, after its battery charger also burned out the night before).  Students and advisors from other teams immediately jumped in to help, providing a battery charger, and calling around Australia to try and find replacement parts (the closest being a 4-hour drive away back in Brisbane).  When time looked to be an issue, a teacher and a community member brought out their MakerBots, took measurements, and began to fabricate new propeller blades.

Mike Nicholls works on UAV prop blade with MakerBot

Unfortunately, with time being short, insufficient numbers of the blades could be completed in time, so the students converted the hexcopter into a quadcopter and underwent scrutineering again, receiving approval to compete.  Due to an additional issue with the remote, the Spirit of Niles II was unable to deliver the Mars bars to Outback Joe, finishing with a score of 44.7 points, enough for an 11th place finish.

Spirit of Niles II readies for second flight attempt

The Spirit of Niles I had successful runs in the Airborne Delivery Challenge, dropping 3 Mars bars to Outback Joe, one within 0-2 meters (hitting his hat), one within 2-4 meters, and one within 4-6 meters.  They finished in 3rd place, with a score of 87.7 points, behind MUROC (Mueller [College] Radio Operated Craft - with a nod to the Antelope Valley!) Hexfactor, and the winner, MUROC DareDivas - another all-female team.

           

Spirit of Niles I team members have 3 successful drops on the course

Spirit of Niles II decided then to participate in the Search and Rescue event, which requires the UAV team to identify and report 8 symbols in a directional pattern to the judges; results are based on accuracy and speed.  Their performance resulted in a 3rd place finish in that event.

L-R:  Will Curzi, Nathan, Jesus, Ethan, Gabby, Astrid, Natalie, Bridget Howitt

The open/college event took place after the completion of the high school competition.  US team "Robota," with members from Texas and Minnesota, came in 2nd place behind Canberra UAV.  Robota, and Team SFWA from Melbourne were the first two teams in the 7-year history of the event to successfully locate and drop their survival package to Outback Joe in the 2-nm course, then safely return to the Kingaroy Aerodrome.  This accomplishment qualifies them to share a $50,000 first prize.

For more coverage of the event, see Facebook UAV Challenge or UAV Challenge on Twitter .