Drone Olympics a big draw

Bengaluru: The first ever Drone Olympics held by the ministry of defence to encourage the UAV industry to connect with  potential buyers and business partners in the country, concluded on Thursday with Sagar Defence, Drovengers Quad, Team Daksha, Thanos Technologies and the UAS Delhi Technical University walking away with the awards.

The applicants were judged on the basis of challenges , which included formation flying, surveillance and supply drop. The other highlight of the awards ceremony was the launch of  the ATL drone module, Get Set Fly, by the Atal Tinkering Lab under the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) of  NITI Aayog.

One of the participants, Anuj Duggal, innovation programme manager at Intel, said the competition was just the beginning and drone makers were bound to capitalise on it.

“Drones can be used in solving local issues. For example in the Andaman and Nicobar islands they could be used in rescue missions. And the payload drops could be used in disaster management," he explained.

In fact, in 2018, Intel flew more than 2,000 drones, he revealed. "The applications of the drone are advanced. We have developed a module to capture data and transfer it in modulus. It is a life saving device," he added.

The response to the competition was overwhelming with 120 applicants clamouring to participate. But only  57 were found to be suitable. The preliminary round of the olympics was held on February 18 and 19 at the Jakkur Aerodrome. Besides taking home cash prizes, the winners of the competition will attend  Lockheed Martin's Alpha Pilot Race in the USA later this year.