Competition Overview

Coming Soon: Full documentation of the Game Rules will be available in the “Resources” – “Documentation”

Student teams will design, build, test, and fly custom made drones to complete a series of objectives. Each student team will submit complete Engineering Documentation and give an Oral Presentation of their designs to a panel of teacher and industry experts.

Two (2) missions will be flown. The 1st mission will be a Line-Of-Sight mission consisting of three (3) objectives to complete in a single flight. The 2nd mission will be a semi-autonomous flight involving the safe delivery of several fragile items to a specified target. The total flight distance will be between 1 mile and 1.5 miles. A successful flight involves accurate safe delivery of the payload and a safe return to launch of the drone.

Points will be awarded for completion of the multiple objectives during each of the missions.

Awards will be presented to the team who accumulates the most points for each mission (“Line-Of-Sight“, “Semi-Autonomous“), the most complete “Engineering Notebook“, and “Innovation, Design, Teamwork, & Process“. An overall winner will be the team who scores the highest in all four (4) award categories.

Drone Design Constraints

  1. Drones may be traditional quad-copter or VTOL
  2. No more than four (4) motors used for for propulsion / thrust
  3. Dimensions:
    • Diagonal distance between motor centers must be 600mm or less
    • Weight must be within FAA guidelines
  4. Performance:
    • Sufficient power to sustain flight operations for 5 to 10 minutes depending on mission objectives
    • No restrictions on battery type or capacity
  5. Flight Controller must be compatible with PX4 or Ardupilot firmware

Payload Design Constraints

  1. No restrictions on the design
  2. Payload must be carried by the drone
  3. Payload system can be operated by either the pilot or a payload specialist
  4. Actuators such as servos are allowed
  5. Remote operation can either be from a separate RC remote,  microcontroller, or other computing device operated by the pilot or payload specialist

Mission Objectives

Mission 1: Indoor

Mission 1 will have three (3) objectives to complete within a single flight.

  1. Ball Drop
  2. Simulated Fire Suppression
  3. Object Retrieval

Objective 1: Ball Drop

Delivery 20 golf ball sized objects to a specified target. Each golf ball is a plastic 42mm “Whiffle Ball”. The drone can carry a maximum of 20 balls for delivery to the target.

Scoring is dependent on accuracy and number of balls successfully dropped on target.

Equipment to be used:

  1. 42mm plastic golf balls
  2. 5 gallon bucket
  3. 63″ diameter wading pool

Objective 2: Simulated Fire Suppression

A set of 5 small soccer cones are placed inside a 15″ x 15″ square area. The drone must deliver an opaque “blanket” to entirely cover the cones. The cones will not be fixed to the ground and may move due to propeller downdraft.

Points are awarded for each completely covered cone as seen from the top.

Equipment to be used:

  1. Five (5) 7″ Soccer cones arranged within a 15″ x 15″ area

Objective 3: Object Retrieval

A set of 20 small stainless steel ball bearings are gathered in a small baking pan. Pick up and bring back as many balls from the pan as possible.

Scoring will be dependent on the number of ball bearings successfully brought back to the landing zone.

Equipment to be used:

  1. 10mm ball bearings
  2. 18″ x 13″ baking sheet with lip

Mission 2: Outdoor

Mission 2 will be a semi-autonomous mission that will test the endurance of your drone.

The field in which the drones will operate will be in a soccer field or football field. Drones will be required to fly to several way points at specified altitudes. At the mid point, the drone will delivery three (3) large raw chicken eggs. The delivery and package design will be up to each student team.

Expected total distance will be 1 to 1.5 miles to complete the objective. At the halfway point will be the target.

Student teams will have 30 minutes to complete the mission from the time way points are provided to the team to final landing to end the mission.

A successful mission will be a total time of 30 minutes or less, all eggs delivered on target, all eggs unbroken, including the potential for breakage by tournament judges during unpacking, and  the successful drone return to the landing zone.