I can not discern what exactly they mean when they say "perch." I figured that this meant "hover," but they go on to say that hovering would require too much battery power for the length of time they are talking about. So they actually want something that will plop itself down somewhere in hostile territory? That doesn't sound very smart to me.

I think it was the National Geographic Channel that had a program about DARPA not too long ago, and on the program they were showing these backpack recon drones, but they hovered. They were neat nonetheless, and were controlled remotely with video recording capabilities, as well as the ability to mount different units. They showed the thermal unit that was mounted, and it was used to detect buried IED's, by utilizing the difference in ground temperature and the temperature of the explosive itself.

This is a pretty cool competition. In my spare time I design stealth aircraft skins, in an amateurish way mind you, so I may take a crack at this. However, designing the entire system would be a difficult challenge that I am not sure I am up to.

I suppose hovering would be allowed while the vehicle is en-route to its location. Does anyone know for sure? If not, a person's options will be limited greatly. Is anyone going to give this an honest try? I am thinking I don't have the necessary skill set, at least to design all of the systems that would be necessary.