Organized in Finland, this innovation competition seeks to boost the utilization of drone technology for the first time including both 5G and satellite technology
Launched in July, this international innovation tournament will assemble in late October, when the finals are organized in connection with the massive Assembly Summer ‘21 Fall Edition- event in Helsinki. The key objective of the tournament is to solve essential challenges regarding the utilization of drones, a.k.a. unmanned aerial minicopters. These challenges are especially related to equipment landing and precision flight in various demanding and changing environments.
The contestants have an unprecedentedly wide spectrum of navigation- and sensor technology to utilize.
The competition consists of several challenges. Responsible for the execution of each challenge is Ultrahack and Robots Expert Finland, who are promoting the use of unmanned aerial vehicles. In addition, the competition has a wide range of partners who offer their technology for the benefit of thecompetitors.
Stara, the establishment of the city of Helsinki, offers a challenge for the competitors to solve, where the aim is to execute an urgent delivery in a simulated manner, by using Stara’s own system and subcontracting chain. The challenge includes all the steps between ordering and successfully delivering a product by drone to a construction site in an urban environment.
Stara extensively offers everything that belongs to a well-functioning city. In the Last Mile Logistics-challenge we are now looking for a model, where a critical component can be delivered to a building site without any delay. In the best case scenario, a solution like this could be utilized even broader in the service production for the city of Helsinki. Stara wishes to serve as a development platform for corporate service development, as we seek solutions for the everyday needs of our production, statesSami Aherva, Head of Logistics at Stara.
In the other series of the tournament, competitors perform navigating- and landing tasks that require precision. These take place at a challenging performance site that will be built in connection with the final event at Messukeskus in Helsinki, utilizing satellite technology. 5G technology, on the other hand, will be used to enable navigation and to allow video footage to be conveyed in the challenge, wherefast-paced flight missions are performed without a direct line of sight to the drone.
“We have been involved in researching the development of safe drone transport in Finland for two years. This competition offers an excellent showcase for what drones are in fact capable of today” says Arttu Rantala, Development Manager at Telia.
Rantala is particularly excited about utilizing the 5G network in the use of drones.
“This is a great place to test out short delay utilization in a very demanding environment. I believe we will be able to take a big step towards safe and secure drone transport in October”, Rantala rejoices. U-blox, Spirent and Septentrio all offer satellite technology for the participants in the event.
The winners will receive monetary prizes and the possibility of negotiating commercial agreements for further development of the solutions.
Additional information and more detailed description of the challenges:https://www.dronetournament.org
