REINVENTING THE DREAM OF FLIGHT
Ten teams qualify for autonomous drone race
In February 2024, 14 teams started into the first stage of the SPRIND Funke “Fully Autonomous Flight”. The aim of the competition is to develop a system that can master various challenging obstacles and tasks completely autonomously. Other autonomous systems, e.g. on the ground, can be used as support.
Technological progress in this area would have an enormous impact on a broad spectrum of application areas: from logistics and the maintenance of industrial plants, search and rescue operations to the mobile revolution. In the first stage, SPRIND supported the teams with up to EUR 70,000.
On April 10th and 11th, 2024, the participating teams from Germany and all over Europe met at the air base in Erding/Bavaria in order to exchange and demonstrate their technological advances being made over the past 2.5 months.
Technological progress in this area would have an enormous impact on a broad spectrum of application areas: from logistics and the maintenance of industrial plants, search and rescue operations to the mobile revolution. In the first stage, SPRIND supported the teams with up to EUR 70,000.
On April 10th and 11th, 2024, the participating teams from Germany and all over Europe met at the air base in Erding/Bavaria in order to exchange and demonstrate their technological advances being made over the past 2.5 months.
The participants presented their achieved milestones and goals for the second stage of the competition in a short pitch, followed by an insight into their practical skills: The demo flights - some of them were carried out as a small fully autonomous mission - thrilled the jury and the other competitors equally. Before, in between and after, there was a lot of time for networking, exchanging ideas and practical know-how. The 14 competing teams grew together as a community that pursued a common goal: reinventing the dream of flight.
For the first time in the history of the SPRIND Challenges and Funken interested teams had the opportunity to qualify via a so-called non-funding tack. Participants in the non-funding track do not receive any funding from SPRIND, but are closely involved in all accompanying measures of the Funke and benefit from the SPRIND network. A team from the non-funding track eventually joined a funded team and thereby perfectly reflected the cooperative spirit of the entire event.
For the first time in the history of the SPRIND Challenges and Funken interested teams had the opportunity to qualify via a so-called non-funding tack. Participants in the non-funding track do not receive any funding from SPRIND, but are closely involved in all accompanying measures of the Funke and benefit from the SPRIND network. A team from the non-funding track eventually joined a funded team and thereby perfectly reflected the cooperative spirit of the entire event.
At the end of two very intense days, the jury member – representatives from academia and business - chose 10 teams, that are now proceeding to stage 2 of the Funke and get the unique opportunity join the spectacular drone race in September 2024 at Erding air base where they will perform in front of industry experts and potential investors. For the second stage of the Funke SPRIND provides the teams with up to EUR 80,000.
Further information about this SPRIND Funke and the participating teams can be found here.
Further information about this SPRIND Funke and the participating teams can be found here.
The Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovations is responsible for organizing the Funke. The Bundeswehr Research Institute for Materials, Fuels and Lubricants (WIWeB), represented by the Soldier Innovation Lab Erding, will provide the venue and the necessary infrastructure at Erding Air Base as well as experts for the technological evaluation of the solutions proposed by the participants.