Five organizations that flew drones on critical, life-saving missions are winners of the inaugural XCELLENCE Humanitarian Award by the Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI).
The award, which is sponsored by DJI, was presented at this week’s AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2018 conference in Denver.
These first recipients of the AUVSI XCELLENCE Humanitarian Award were recognized for using drones for disaster management, medical assistance, and search-and-rescue operations at locations around the world:
• Aeryon Labs Inc.: Aeryon SkyRanger UAS Provides Critical Aerial Intelligence to First Responders in Sint Maarten in the Wake of Hurricane Irma (Canada)
• DroneSAR: DroneSAR UAV Search & Rescue (SAR) Solution, Executing Autonomous Aerial Search and Delivering Live Drone Data to Augment First Response Efforts (Ireland)
• Nepal Flying Labs: Drone Hazard & Vulnerability Mapping in Nepal (Nepal)
• ONG DroneSAR Chile: Emergency Response Team and Humanitarian Aid Through the Use of Drones (Chile)
• Zipline International: Zipline’s Medical Drone Delivery Operation in Rwanda (Rwanda)
“We congratulate the winners and thank all those who have participated for sharing the innovative ways they use drones to support humanitarian and lifesaving efforts around the world. We hope this award will inspire more organizations and drone operators to accomplish great feats and help others in their community,” says Michael Perry, managing director of North America at DJI.
The five winning organizations will equally divide $25,000 for donations. Aeryon Labs, for example, plans to donate the award money to GlobalMedic to support its efforts saving lives in the wake of disasters.
