Competition Rules

2019-2020
AERSP “403” (497-2)

Version: 10/11/2019 2:03 PM

[image spacehabs.com]
 Mars Transport Landing System
• Your company has bid to build the autonomy elements of
the new Mars Transport spacecraft
• As part of the selection process, your company and three
others have received contracts to build, test, and
demonstrate their systems in the final landing phase
– Each company develops their own autonomous vehicle that
performs precision landing in the same matter as intended for
Mars surface
– Final competition event on April TBD, 2020, starting at TBD
– Winner of competition based on a combination of design
attributes and achieved flight performance at the event
• Your group has been chosen by your company to win the
competition
 Rules on the Autonomy
• No GPS, no air data, and no magnetometer
• No equipment required for the autonomy
can be on the ground (except next items) to April Tag
allow for failures of equipment at Mars base
– Landing pad at Mars base can be given a specific visual pattern (e.g.
the April tag shown) and made of any material; but can have no lights
and must be flat / fit within a 1m square
– Operator control station(s) allowed for initiation, monitoring, and for a
pilot to take over if there is a problem; but no operator interaction is
allowed after initiation of an approach for it to be considered
autonomous
• Inertial sensors, cameras, laser scanners allowed
• It can be assumed that the immediate area is obstacle free
and the ground is flat between start of approach landing pad
• It can be assumed that the landing approach will begin with
the landing pad within line-of-sight of the lander
 Rules on the Demonstrator
• Vehicle surrogate will be a quad-rotor operating at
low speed indoors
• Maximum weight is 800g
• Must pass Flight Readiness Review (FRR)
• Any lasers must be eye safe (Class 1)
• Comply with PSU Policy SY45
 Rules on the Competition
• All teams will fly on the same day in the same place
• Teams bring their own landing pad
• A composite score across five flight attempts will determine
the winner – with exact formula
Score = W*sumover_flights(F*A*R)+P
– Weight of aircraft: W=minimum(800g / weight,1.6)
– Fully automatic from beginning of approach to landing and rotors
stopped: F=1 auto, F=0 reverted to manual or did not fly; per flight
– Accuracy and touchdown velocity: A=maximum(1 - “horizontal distance
from center of landing pad to center of aircraft after rotor stop in
meters”,0) + 0.5*(“judge determines touchdown speed had negligible
horizontal component and vertical component was less than 5 cm/sec”);
per flight
– Radius: R=1+minimum(“horizontal distance in meters from start of
approach to center of landing pad”/4,1.5); per flight
– Report/presentation documenting system and results: P=0 to 1
 Competition Logistics 1/2
• Any lack of compliance with rules or safety issue can
result in penalty and/or disqualification of team at
discretion of instructor
• The competition venue will be hangar H-2 at University
Park airport (indoors)
– Teams will have the TBD opportunity to visit and perform test
flights prior to competition day
• The competition “volume” will consist of marks on the
floor creating a rectangle – and a specified maximum
altitude of TBD meters
– Anticipate approximately 10-meter square on the floor and max
altitude of 6 meters – this is subject to some adjustment
– If an aircraft doing an autonomous flight leaves this volume, then
the attempt is over/fail; and vehicle should be landed by
whatever means is appropriate (e.g. manual takeover)
 Competition Logistics 2/2
• Teams will take turns, with order in reverse order of FRR score (FRR
described separately), i.e. lowest score first
• When it is your team’s turn:
– You have 10 minutes to set up (including landing pad), take off, and have a flight
attempt start
– Attempts start when flight is autonomous, and team has indicated approach has
begun by a designated team member clearly saying “start!” to judge
• If run has not started within allotted time, then this counts as a failed attempt
– After an attempt ends (with landing, no longer autonomous, being late, or choice by
the team), the team can either:
• Go Again: Have up to 5 minutes to set up for another autonomous run start; note that it is not
necessary to land if already in the air after prior attempt
• Relinquish: Pass to the next team; with 5 minutes to leave the field
(if all five attempts have been used up, then relinquish is the required choice)
• When it is not your team’s turn, then all systems must be unpowered,
including laptops and aircraft – the one exception is charging batteries
• Notes:
– If you relinquish, then you will likely have quite a bit of time before next run to
charge batteries and fix hardware; However, late in the competition when other
teams are out of attempts – this length of time could be much lower
– The same team member designated to give the “start!” signal will also indicate Go
Again / Relinquish decisions to the judge; and that choice cannot be altered
– There will be no provisions for spectators, but video recording is encouraged