DUBAI // Twenty teams have reached the semi finals of the second UAE Drones for Good Award competition.
Out of 1,017 teams from the UAE and around the world, only 20 have qualified for the semi-finals stage of the award’s National and International competitions, the Organising Committee of the UAE Drones for Good Award said on Wednesday.
The semi-finalists include Kenneth Wong and Abdulrahman Alserkal from the UAE who have come up with a humanitarian aid drone called Flare 2.0, that takes inspiration from flare guns used by explorers in emergencies.
“We have developed an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that can be useful to professionals and enthusiasts operating in outdoor environments away from mobile phone coverage. The hardware and software we have developed integrate flight control systems with GPS and GSM connectivity to navigate the UAV to the nearest zone of coverage and transmit information to emergency services teams for technical or medical assistance,” said Mr Wong.
Teams are be competing to win Dh4.67 million (US$1 million for International Competition and AED 1 million for National Competition). Entries in the fields of environment, education, logistics, transport, construction and infrastructure, health, civil defence, tourism, social services, economic development, and humanitarian aid came from for the UAE and Canada, Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Ethiopia, Greece, and the Philippines.
“The qualification of these innovative projects to the semi-finals stage highlighted their advanced approach to addressing the challenges faced in different sectors, especially since they were selected from 165 countries from around the world,” said Saif Al Aleeli, Coordinator General of the UAE Drones for Good Award.
A team from American University of Sharjah has developed a hydrogen fuel cell-powered drone capable of constant unmanned monitoring which can be useful for industries such as power utility and oil and gas as well as serve sectors such as national defence, civil defence, public services, logistics and telecommunications services.
From the international semi finalists, a team from USA developed a Guide Drone designed to support blind athletes by eliminating the need for sighted guides. The project is controlled using a smartphone.
The Imitec team from the UK submitted an Advanced Airborne Radiation Mapping drones to map the distribution, intensity and energy of radiation in the event of a nuclear disaster, without putting humans in danger. It can be used for routine civil nuclear applications as well.
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