29/10/2016 Click - Short Edition

But now on BBC News, it's time for Click.

From a drone that can deliver blood, to a drone that can balance a stick

and throw you a ball, there does seem to be no end

But for as long as we've covered drones, there's always been one

But all that could be about to change if researchers

at Imperial College, in London, have their way.

This drone isn't flying very high and it really isn't going to go very

far, but it is still very impressive because it has

It's getting its power wirelessly from the power

So there's no battery and so I can stick that underneath just to prove

That is wireless charging, or wireless power transfer.

The breakthrough the team here have made is being able to transfer

the power wirelessly over much larger distances than that used in

One of the things that we targeted straightaway was the fact

that we wanted to get large distance.

So we weren't just trying to do toothbrush charging or phone

charging, where you are in contact with the charging pad.

And fundamentally, to do that, you need to operate the system

But to get this system to be efficient, you have to go up

in frequency by a factor of ten or 100, which is a challenge.

While you wouldn't really want a drone that doesn't have a battery,

being able to recharge one wirelessly on remote charging

stations could mean a lot more flying time.

But in the near future, Paul can see these drones being used

by the military for surveillance, recharging from base stations

or even in the air, by other larger drones.

That is, as long as they can actually stay airborne.

And actually it turns out that there is already a use

for autonomous drones that can fly steady distances.

To explain more, we have to go to Australia.

A couple of years ago we met Outback Joe.

He desperately needed a drink of water to save his life and drones

Just outside Dalby, in Queensland, the world's toughest drone

Ten teams are competing for the $50,000 grand prize and this

year the challenge is much more complicated.

The drones must take off, locate Joe, land, collect a blood

sample for his doctor to analyse, and return safely to base.

All autonomously, all in under an hour.

Our reporter on the ground is Nick Kwek.

Here he is, Joe, the man himself, standing tall and he's supposed

to be standing because he's meant to be someone capable of placing

a blood sample into a drone and arming it for take-off.

Because he's standing, he's that much more difficult to see

And that's just one of the many complex aspects

The big difference between this challenge and other drone challenges

around the world is the great distances involved.

So the teams are flying about 23 kilometres to get to this site.

It's then very challenging because it's a very cluttered environment.

Joe is deliberately in a rough area, there are big trees around,

So that makes it extremely difficult, and then they've got

to fly another 23 kilometres to get back.

To be in with a fighting chance, teams have come up with all shapes

So, as the race begins, let's cross to Nick.

NICK: First up is Canadian couple Forward Robotics,

who hoped to fly to victory with their custom drone duo.

It seems to be drifting on the wind...

But there hope is short-lived, as one of their drones

So from this point on it's about returning to base.

So it's in the truck and off to track down the wayward plane

We are going to recover our aircraft.

This year, teams are allowed to enter not only one

but a secondary communications relay aircraft too.

Great for maintaining a data signal back to base,

but the rules stipulate that if one goes down the other must

With the circulating plane safely landed,

the judges call in auxiliary aerial support to locate

We're just going to have a bit of a look, see if we can

It's in a nice, big, green field, so to have an eye in the sky should

It's hard to tell what would be significant and what wouldn't.

But even from the sky the drone was impossible to spot.

Back at base, Thai team ISAAC Lab prepped their custom chopper

for take-off, and it soon blasts off for Joe.

Using a video games controller, the team scans the screen

They've found Joe, but then disaster strikes.

We found Joe, but we tried to get the precise location of him,

but smoke was coming out first and it crashed.

One of the differences between this challenge and other drone challenges

We've chosen a place where it really does flood,

we've chosen a realistic farm, we've chosen a totally realistic

terrain and there are tall trees, there's uneven ground

and the distances are about the same sorts of distances that

you would get between a cut-off area in a flood and the town.

And being cut off from healthcare is a real-world problem.

The drone tech developed here could one day be life-saving.

As part of the challenge, teams have also had to invent novel

blood-carrying compartments, with detailed instructions on how

Again, slide it in and there's a click mechanism inside.

Now, they say necessity is the mother of invention.

Well, for these guys, that meant creating this beauty -

This can take off and land vertically, but upon reaching

altitude this bad boy transforms and can propel itself forward

Its especially designed rotor can continuously control pitch

The team also built custom auto pilot software and took things

to a whole new level using an elevated platform to get

Its special downward facing 200-degree cameras mean that

when flying horizontally it can still see the ground and having two

Like an invincible phoenix, their fixed wing flew and then...

OK, the judges say to terminate, you're in a tree.

They set the parameter for 20 metres high, but the tree

Bad luck, then, for MAVLab and the losing streak only worsened.

It's back to Nick for more on the ground and in

With so many crashes, a storm is brewing.

It really is such a difficult task, with so many criteria to be met,

that even a little wind can make all the difference between success

So, what of reigning champions, CanberraUAV?

They won the last challenge and have returned with a souped up version

They've added virtual take-off and landing,

with eight independent props ensuring it stays airborne if one

And a chopper to beam signal back to base.

Team captain Andrew Tridgell developed the autopilot software

that most of the teams are using, mentoring the many keen

The search pattern is actually a complex butterfly type pattern,

And that's why we approach Joe from every angle,

to remove the systematic errors in the position estimation.

On board, Tridge has developed a special Joe detection system,

which analyses photos for any unusual objects.

These are then highlighted and Tridge does a visual

Vial on board, it's now a race against time to get back.

In the end, Canberra's chopper didn't return home,

Everyone that got the aircraft flying was a winner.

It was a tough challenge and we didn't finish the mission,

but as a team I think we did very well and I think all the teams that

This event has been absolutely amazing, so thank you so much.

It's a great achievement, but there's still clearly a lot

of work to do before drones can autonomously perform

So, what will the next drone challenge hold?

Follow us on Twitter to read the week for all of the backstage fun

and photos. Thank you for watching. We will see you soon.