DARPA and the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center want "everyone from scientists, engineers, citizen scientists and dreamers" to collaborate and build a small unmanned aircraft for its $100,000 UAVForge Challenge.
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DARPA said self-selected teams will participate in a series of peer-reviewed milestones where participant rating will identify the top ten teams that advance to the UAVForge Fly-Off Competition. During the competition, vehicles will be tested in a simulated high-stress surveillance mission.
The types of aircraft the challenge is looking for must fit in a rucksack that can be carried by one person. It must be able to take off vertically and fly for three hours - in winds up to 15 MPH. It should fly at least two miles from its starting point and must support real-time video.
The winning team will be awarded $100,000 and the opportunity to showcase its design in an overseas military exercise. Additionally, the winning team will work with a government-selected UAV manufacturer to produce a limited quantity of systems for future warfighter experimentation, DARPA stated.
This is the second crowdsourcing project DARPA has initiated this year. In Feb., DARPA issued a $10,000 challenge to the general public to design a next-generation military fighting vehicle. Specifically, DARPA's Experimental Crowd-derived Combat-support Vehicle (XC2V) Design Challenge, sponsored by advanced vehicle manufacturer, Local Motors calls for the general public to "conceptualize a vehicle body design for two different missions-Combat Reconnaissance and Combat Delivery & Evacuation."
DARPA is trying to reduce the current military vehicle development and processes from today's multi-year-long process. Crowdsourcing such development would also open the military to "greater ideas and design compilation with a reduction in time and the potential for a better performing vehicle."
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