UAE Drones for Good Award Names Top 20 Contenders from 1K-Plus Entries
The organizing committee of the UAE Drones for Good Award has announced 20 contestants who have qualified to the semifinals stage of the national and international competitions.
The UAE Drones for Good Award offers a total of 4.67 million United Arab Emirates (UAE) dirhams (approximately $1 million) for the international competition and 1 million dirhams (approximately $272,000) for the national competition.
Saif Al Aleeli, CEO of the Dubai Museum of the Future Foundation and coordinator general of the UAE Drones for Good Award, says the projects were selected from 1,017 entries from 165 countries.
Stressing the importance of exchanging knowledge between national and international teams, Al Aleeli has invited the public to the semifinals and finals competitions, which will be held in Dubai Internet City on Feb. 4-6.
The largest number of entries is in the environment category, with four semifinalists, followed by the health and humanitarian aid sectors, with three each. The transport and construction sectors have two semifinalists each, and the economy, civil defense, education and logistics sectors have one each. Two semifinal entries have been received in the “other” category.
The international semifinalists are as follows:
- U.S.: PrecisionHawk’s drone technology identifies Red Palm Weevil infestations in date palm trees;
- Austria: The ROMEO drone can release sterile male mosquitoes to check for dangerous disease vectors and control epidemics;
- U.S.: The Loon Copter multi-rotor drone can fly, swim and dive for survey and rescue missions;
- U.S.: The Guide Drone project is designed to support blind athletes by eliminating the need for sighted guides;
- Philippines: Kwago drones can safely fly at night and accomplish multiple tasks, such as search and rescue and wildlife conservation and research;
- Ethiopia: A drone can accurately release tsetse sterile male flies in selected target areas as part of tsetse fly eradication projects;
- Canada: Smartphone-driven SwarmNet drones enhance emergency-response missions;
- U.K.: Imitec’s Advanced Airborne Radiation Mapping drones are capable of mapping nuclear radiation; and
- Canada: 4Front Robotics’ drones can locate and rescue persons from buildings on fire, collapsed buildings, mines or other urban and industrial entrapments.
More on the international semifinalists, as well as the list of UAE national semifinalists, can be found here.
