General Rules

1. Each team must have an academic advisor from their institutes.
2. Each educational institution may submit at most two (2) team entries. Elimination will take place right after the final report submission regarding the final report score and proof-of-flight video status. It should be noted that the technical committee has the right to increase the number of accepted teams from a single university in case of 3 or more outstanding applications.
3. At least 3/4 of the team members must consist of undergraduate students.
4. Official language of the competition is English. Thus, all the submissions (proposal and final design report) should be in English.
5. The aircraft must takeoff and land vertically.
6. Minimum flight altitude should not be less than 20 m AGL. This limit only applies to forward flight phase. That is, the aircraft can descend below 20 m during vertical flight phases (e.g. payload droq, QR code recognition). The technical committee has the right to increase and/or decrease this safety limit depending on the competing aircrafts' flight performance.
7. The aircraft may be solely propeller lifted and propeller driven. Aircraft must lift-off vertically, transit to forward flight, and use aerodynamic surfaces to generate lift with sufficient wing area. During flight, teams must demonstrate that the lift is mainly due to wings, and total propulsive force acts dominantly along the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. That means, the aircraft may not be in a multi-rotor drone or a helicopter configuration.
8. No form of externally assisted take-off (hand launched, catapults, etc.) is allowed. All the necessary energy for take-off, mission flight, and landing must come from the on-board propulsion battery pack(s).
9. Once a mission has a successful scoring flight it may be repeated to try to improve the score.
10. Aircraft must be designed to be capable of performing all required missions.
11. All missions must be flown autonomously.
12. Before the flight, each aircraft must have been registered through the Turkish Civil Aviation Authority database via website.
13. Propulsion system of the aircraft must be through brushless electric motors, electronic speed controllers (ESCs), and batteries.
14. Ready-to-fly kits are strictly forbidden. Teams having ready-to-fly kits will be disqualified without any excuse.
15. The takeoff weight of the aerial vehicle (including the payload) must be less than 20 kg. The vehicle will be weighed before takeoff.
16. The aircraft must takeoff and land within the designated takeoff and landing area.
17. Each team’s flight order will be determined from their report score. The highest report score goes first during the competition.
18. Each team may takeoff several times for each task. If more than one successful flight is carried out, the one with the highest score will be considered.
19. The pilot must be a registered RPV (remotely piloted vehicle) pilot of the Turkish Civil Aviation Authority. Teams may use a pilot who is not affiliated by their university, if desired. Organizing committee will provide qualified pilots at the contest on an as-available basis to assist teams who are unable to have their pilot attend. Teams should inform the organizing committee beforehand if such a pilot is required.
20. The aircraft may be damaged during a flight. If the aircraft is declared "repairable", the flight will be considered as successful. “Repairable" aircraft are those which can be repaired and operated within 5 minutes. The repair will take place in the repair area.
21. After each successful flight, teams must submit their flight logs to the referee at the technical inspection and preparation area.
22. Missions must be flown in order. A new mission cannot be flown until the team has obtained a successful score for the preceding mission.
23. Two or more universities may form a single team to submit a single entry.
24. Aircraft must complete a successful landing at the end of each mission for the mission to receive a score.
25. The aircraft must takeoff in all missions within 10 minutes after the start is given by the referee.
26. The pilot cannot leave the takeoff station during the flight.
27. During the flight, aircraft must stay in the safety zone. Otherwise, the flight will be declared as invalid, and the team will lose the flight opportunity.
28. Flight pattern will be a rounded rectangle with dimensions of 300 x 100 meters.
29. Scoring measurement units are kg and seconds.
30. Each team will be given up to 50,000.00 TRY to manufacture their aircraft. Their expenses up to the mentioned amount will be reimbursed in return for valid invoices (Invoice Information: ODTÜ Geliştirme Vakfı, Üniversiteler Mahallesi, Küme Evler, No:152, Ankara. Doğanbey V.D.: 6340009161). For this purpose, the teams must attend the competition and give their invoices to the organizing committee during the competition.
31. Travel expenses of those teams attending to the competition will also be covered separately. Sufficient accommodation will be reserved for the teams as well.
32. Each team is expected to adopt the aircraft to all missions. Teams may make modular changes in aircraft structural and/or propulsion systems (that includes the wing, tail, and propellers), except the battery size. Battery capacities should be identical in all missions. It can be charged or replaced with an unused one as long as it has the same energy capacity. Teams should demonstrate that these changes can be conducted within 15 minutes.

Mission 1 - Ferry Flight

1. The objective of mission 1 is to complete the maximum number of lapses within a 5 minutes flight duration.
2. 5 minute flight duration starts when the aircraft passes over “Checkpoint A”.
3. In this mission, no payload will be carried by the aircraft.
4. A lap is completed when the full flight pattern (see below figure) is flown and the aircraft passes over “Checkpoint A”.
5. Lap counts will be represented with integers. Thus, half laps will not be counted.
6. Each lap will be counted if the green flag is raised by the referee. Returns before the designated turn around point (checkpoints) will not be counted.
7. Mission score will be computed according to the following relation:
   where N_lap is the number of laps completed by the team, N_lap,max is the maximum number of laps completed amongst all the teams, N_lap,est is the estimated number of laps by the team in the final design report. OEW₁ is the operating empty weight measured right at the beginning of the mission flight.

Mission 2 - Heavy Load Delivery

1. In this mission, the aircraft will carry the payload in an internal cargo bay. The aircraft will enter the inspection area with the payload uninstalled.
2. The payload flown is a 4-kg steel ballast, having dimensions of 160x80x40 mm³. The payload will be provided to the teams.
3. Dimensions of the internal cargo bay, in which the 4-kg payload will be carried, must be at least 160x80x80 mm³. In addition, the cargo bay must have two 8-mm-diameter bolts to ensure that the payload is fixed into the cargo bay securely. See the following figure:

4. The teams must demonstrate that payload is fixed securely into the cargo bay in tech inspection.
5. The team will have a total of 5 minutes to load and fix the payload and checkout the aircraft with systems fully functional.
6. The payload will not be released during this mission.
7. The aircraft will start its flight after a successful vertical takeoff. Teams will get higher scores for the longer flight durations.
8. The aircraft must land to a designated landing area after the endurance flight. The designated landing area will be marked by a 3m x 3m QR code and landing precision will be rated by the variable, K_prec, in the flight score. QR code is as given below. Vectorial format of the QR code can also be downloaded from here



9. Time for the flight is the time elapsed between first pass over Checkpoint A and touch-down of aircraft.
10. Mission score will be computed according to the following relation:
    
    where K_prec is the precision landing parameter. K_prec is 1 if all the points of aircraft contacted to the ground are within the 3x3 m² QR code area, otherwise K_prec is 0. OEW₂ is the operating empty weight measured right at the beginning of the mission flight. Similarly, T_flight is the flight duration. Subscripts 'min', 'max', 'est' work the same as the other parameter definitions.

Mission 3 - Light-Slung Payload Drop

1. In this mission, the aircraft will carry the payload as a slung load attached to the end of a 1-meter-long tope. The aircraft will enter the inspection area with the payload uninstalled.
2. A unit payload will be a water bottle of 500 ml.
3. Number of water bottles to be carried will be determined by the team. Higher number of payload will get a higher score
4. In this mission the teams will be shorten the aircraft's wingspan by an amount. The amount of change of wingspan will be counted in scoring as the fraction of wingspans in mission 2 and mission 3. Therefore, it is expected from teams to design the wing as reconfigurable.
5. The aircraft will fly 3 laps with the payload.
6. After 3 complete laps, the payload will be released to the target area. Teams may release all water bottles payloads at the same time, or may release them one by one.
7. All water bottles will be dropped to the same target. Dropping sensitivity factor K_avg will be the average of the individual sensitivity factor of each payload.
8. Mission score will be computed according to the following relation:
   where b₃ and b₂ are the wingspans of aircraft flown in mission 3 and mission 2, respectively. W_p is the payload weight to be flown. Subscripts 'min', 'max', 'est' work the same as the other parameter definitions. OEW₃ is the operating empty weight measured right at the beginning of the mission flight #3. K_avg is the averaged dropping sensitivity factor.
9. Target at which the payloads will be dropped is given as (with R1=0.3 m, R2=0.6 m, R3=1.0 m, R4=1.5 m, R5=2.5 m)
   

   

Final Score