Leonardo’s Drone Contest 2024 is set to take place at Dronitaly, an event for civil drones for professional use organized by BolognaFiere Water&Energy (BFWE), scheduled to take place from 9 – 11 October 2024 in Bologna.
The event will feature an award ceremony for the competition winner on October 10, followed by a special gathering with all seven participating universities on October 11.
The Drone Contest
Leonardo’s Drone Contest, conceived and developed in collaboration with seven Italian universities, is a project created to promote innovation in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) applied to unmanned systems.
Now in its fifth edition, the main objective of the contest is to encourage the creation of an ecosystem that fuels innovation and which involves the synergistic participation of large companies, universities, SMEs, spin-offs, and start-ups.
During the competition, teams from the seven universities will each have twenty minutes to showcase their developments. Participating universities include:
- Polytechnic University of Turin
- Polytechnic University of Milan
- Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna
- Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa
- Tor Vergata University of Rome
- Federico II University of Naples
- Polytechnic University of Bari
The seven participants will showcase their collaborative systems, which include drones and ground robots, in a scenario that simulates an urban environment. The robots will perform specific tasks that support and accelerate the human decision making process.
The aim of the contest is to direct technological development towards concrete solutions that can be applied in complex contexts such as the inspection of areas where natural disasters have occurred, inspection of sites that are difficult to access, and monitoring of areas at risk.
Dronitaly Event
The focus of the next edition of Dronitaly is innovation and research to develop new technological solutions for the transport of people and goods, as well as for all activities that are carried out with the use of drones. This includes site inspections, monitoring, research, rescue operations, and environmental monitoring.
This year, following the major technological and regulatory developments underway, BFWE has decided to launch a new dissemination format – the ConventionHUB, a special 400 m2 area open on four sides designed by the famous architect Giancarlo Zema, Guest Designer and Art Director of Dronitaly.
This area will accommodate the conference hall, the area for B2B meetings with stakeholders, and an exhibition area where the best current projects will be put on display.
Dronitaly will take place in conjunction with another three events:
- Fueling Tomorrow – deals with the transformation of fuels and new energy carriers in the transport and industrial sectors, within the ecological transition framework.
- SAIE – operates in the construction sector.
- Asphaltica – operates in the road construction
- sector.
These events potentially involve audiences that could be interested in the use of remotely piloted vehicles for their activities. The combined events will reportedly host over 600 exhibitors and some 40,000 visitors.
Salvatore Scervo, Senior Vice President Innovation Labs & Intellectual Property at Leonardo, commented, “The Drone Contest is not just about a technical challenge for students but it is about a very close collaboration between Leonardo and the Universities which offers the opportunity to train and develop young talents.
“Some participants of past editions now work for the Innovation Leonardo Labs, Leonardo’s laboratories dedicated to leading-edge technological research and development. In these laboratories, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and all the digital technologies for solutions in the areas of autonomy, materials, energy and quantum, play a pivotal role in the development of the Group’s solutions.”
Paolo Angelini, CEO of BFWE, BolognaFiere Water&Energy, commented, “We are proud that Leonardo has chosen Dronitaly for the next Drone Contest. Indeed, one of our objectives is to create a hub that brings together leading companies, research entities and advanced training institutions, SMEs and start-ups in order to be able to grow together in the field of Artificial Intelligence applied to mobility and autonomous transport.”
Learn more about Dronitaly, scheduled to take place from 9 – 11 October 2024 in Bologna >>
