Cheeky Mongoz (top) and Calamvale Predators (bottom) – Joint winners

For the first time ever, we have joint winners of the high-school UAV Challenge competition – the Queensland Government Airborne Delivery Challenge. The joint winners are Cheeky Mangoz, a team from Toowoomba Christian College and the Calamvale Predators, a team from Calamvale Community College both from Queensland. The teams will share the combined first and second prize money and will receive $3,500 each. The Cheeky Mangoz was the highest place rookie team and so they also win the Rookie Award and an additional $2,000.

The final scores of the 2017 Queensland Government Airborne Delivery Challenge

Both teams performed exceptionally well and in the end scored exactly the same number of points! They both managed very accurate drops that were gentle on the medical package being delivered to Outback Joe.

In third place was Air Iris from Mueller College from Rothwell, Queensland. They won $1,000. They were also the first team in Airborne Delivery Challenge history to use a winch to lower the medical package to Outback Joe.

The Insitu Pacific Airmanship Award was given to the Calamvale Predators for their professionalism and great team attitude.

Team photos will be posted in the coming weeks. The organisers would like to thank the teams for the great spirit in which they competed and the event sponsors for their continued support.

This year our Gold Sponsors were the Queensland Government, Boeing, Insitu Pacific, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Defence Science and Technology Group, and our Bronze Sponsor was The Mathworks.

The event was co-organised by Queensland University of Technology (The Australian Centre for Robotic Vision) and CSIRO’s Data61.

We could not run these events without this generous support and also the volunteer support of many others who commit many hours of their time to the UAV Challenge. Remember that the 2018 Medical Express Challenge takes place in Dalby in September 2018, along with the next Airborne Delivery Challenge. Follow all the action here!