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The world’s first autonomous UAV racing event – MAAXX Europe – saw university research teams, companies and enthusiasts competing to get systems flying on their own around a course at the Exhibition Centre at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol (writes Nick Flaherty). Four out of the six teams completed the course, highlighting the challenges of image recognition algorithms, lighting conditions and autonomous control systems. One competitor, software engineer Mike Isted, developed a unique drone that flies a few centimetres from the floor using a laser-ranging sensor to maintain its height, and a Raspberry Pi 3 as the controller and to handle the input from a camera. His GroundHog UAV weighs 3 kg and is designed for endurance with a flight time of more than 35 minutes. The ten rotors are powered by two Multistar High Capacity 4S 8000 mAh lithium-polymer battery packs. As well as the Raspberry Pi 3, it uses the Pixhawk flight controller running ArduCopter v3.4 software. GroundHog came fourth in the competition. The team from UWE won the Speed & Endurance award while the Kudos prize from an audience vote went to the team from the University of Bristol. The next MAAXX Europe event takes place on March 24 and 25, 2018. GroundHog’s day at races Airborne craft Mike Isted and his GroundHog UAV at the MAAXX Europe event