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McMinnville's Northwest UAV Propulsion Systems has been chosen to manufacture up to 15 small unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV prototypes, based on winning designs submitted by teams from around the world.
So far, 134 teams consisting of 1,449 members from 145 countries have registered on a participant website, where a forum has been established for the exchange of ideas. The best designs submitted in the competition will be turned into working prototypes by Northwest UAV, which recently moved its operation from Bunn Village to the former Valley RV site at the extreme southern end of McMinnville.
The prototypes will be put through their paces in a mid-May fly-off being sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research and development arm of the U.S. Department of Defense, through its UAVforge program.
The team behind the top-performing prototype will receive a $100,000 prize, a manufacturing subcontract and an invitation to stage an exclusive operational demonstration for the U.S. military.
"Our goal is to facilitate the exchange of ideas among a loosely connected international community, united through common interests and inspired by innovation and creative thought," officials say on the UAVforge website, found at www.uavforge.net.
They are using a concept termed "crowd sourcing."
According to Wikipedia, the term was first coined by Jeff Howe in a 2006 edition of Wired magazine. The online encyclopedia terms that "the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community (crowd) through an open call."
The website outlines the challenge in these terms:
You are a member of a team and your mission is to outfit a fictional task force with an unmanned, remotely operated micro air vehicle system. The entire air vehicle system must fit within a rucksack and a single person traveling by foot must be able to carry and operate the vehicle without assistance.
The job of the task force is to conduct observations of suspicious activities occurring within the vicinity of two nondescript buildings in an urban area. Due to security in the region, all operations must be conducted beyond line of sight, so as not to compromise your presence. If the UAV system is detected, the mission will be jeopardized.
The total observation time may require up to three hours of pictures and/or video to document the facts. Once key observations have been made, the team must quickly retreat to (its) designated rendezvous location. It is possible the vehicle will be handed off to another member of the task force to ensure mission success.
Technical and scoring details are listed on the site, which includes a forum for participants.
By Molly Walker of the News-Register
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