What is the RAD competition?
The Robotics Education and Competition Foundation Aerial Drones (RADC) Competition is a thrilling drone challenge in the form of a game. 4 drones made up of 2 Alliances fly around the field to score as many points as possible. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance. This helps future innovators (students) develop their teamwork, communication skills, critical thinking and project management.
350 teams joined the RAD Competition in its pilot season.
DownDraft 2 Game Description
REC Foundation Aerial Drone Competition (RADC), in partnership with For The Win Robotics, is presenting a new challenge for the RAD Competition 2021-2022 called RADC DownDraft 2, which is played on a 28’ x 28’ field. Teams will be able to compete in Qualification Matches, Elimination Matches and Programming Skills Matches.
Qualification Matches and Elimination Matches: Two (2) Alliances – one (1) “red” and one (1) “blue’’- composed of two (2) Teams each, compete in a Three (3:00) minute Match.
Skills Challenges: One (1) Drone attempts to score as many points as possible in a 1 (1:00) minute skills Match
The scoring objects in RADC DownDraft 2 are Large 55mm diameter Balls and Small 40mm diameter Balls. There are a total of 36 Small Balls and 5 Large Balls. The object of the game is to score as many points as possible with your alliance partner by scoring balls in corner goals, floor goals, and landing drones on landing pads or in neutral zones.
What Drone to use?
Teams must use the Parrot Mambo as their stock drone. Parrot Mambo is one of the most inexpensive miniature drones and considered one of the best drones for education in the market too. This mini quadcopter drone is perfect for beginners with its automatic stabilization system and easy-to-use controls (via the mobile app or with the included FlyPad controller). Parrot Mambo reviews
Modifications and attachments are permitted in the game but the Parrot Mambo is the only allowed source for the batteries, electronics and motors. No additional of those may be added to a drone.
Each drone may not use more or less than four (4) motors and the battery allowed is the one in an unmodified state.
Each team can have 1 spare drone in case catastrophic damage happens to their primary drone. It should be identical to the primary or stock drone including the attachments and modifications.
Parrot Mambo Fly price is $59 on Amazon. RADC is offering RAD bundles starting from single ($390) to 12 Pack ($5,400) RAD bundles.
Tournament Format
All teams must compete in a tournament format which consists of the Qualification matches (matches comprising alliances competing to earn win points), Alliance selection (alliance captains will select their alliance partner for elimination matches) and Elimination matches (a bracket format of matches used to determine the champion alliance.
If you are interested in participating, you may register your team here.
Other information: RECF brought its annual aerial drone competition to Southlake last year with Carroll High School as the host. The winners got the chance to compete in the VEX Robotics World Championship in April in Kentucky.
Reference:
https://www.roboticseducation.org/radc/
