The competition is organised by the German Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation SPRIND (Bundesagentur für Sprunginnovationen), which promotes innovation and breakthrough technologies in various sectors through competitions, project challenges, and other tools. This time, the focus is on fully autonomous flying robots, as is evident from its name, SPRIND Funke Fully Autonomous Flight. This area of research has great potential for future use in, for example, transport, security of objects or rescue operations. The Czech team is officially participating in the competition under the Fly4Future banner. This venture was established in 2017 as a spin-out of the MRS FEE CTU research group.
The research group will participate in the competition through the scientists Assoc. Prof. Martin Saska and Dr. Tomáš Bača, who work at FEE CTU and co-founded Fly4Future, and also through the students of FEE CTU who were invited to join the team. "The competition is exceptional in the fact that the state-of-the-art solutions require unique knowledge, which only a few research teams in the world possess. The key technology of autonomous drones is the research subject of three PhD students from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering CTU, and that is why Fly4Future invited them to cooperate and hired them to participate in the competition," explains Assoc. Prof. Saska why the students of FEE CTU, namely Ing. Michal Werner, Ing. Tomáš Musil, Bc. David Čapek and Bc. Ondřej Franek, got involved in the competition.
"The students will therefore significantly help to develop a successful solution and at the same time will have a unique opportunity to test their research under non-standard conditions. It is very difficult to get permission to fly fully autonomous AI-controlled robots without visual contact from the operator, but SPRIND has obtained an exemption for this competition at the Erding Air Base. This is thus crucial for the research results and its impact, and it will also help our students greatly in their publishing activities," adds Assoc. Prof. Saska, who is also the head of the MRS FEE CTU.
The competition scenario is motivated by a search and rescue task; the drone must reach the desired location completely autonomously, pick up a 20x20x20 cm object weighing 1.5 kg and move it to another location. The weight of the flying robot itself must also not exceed 25 kg. The drones will have to cope with the absence of a GPS signal and a challenging outdoor environment; they will move in urban and forested terrain as well as in open spaces. Thus, the ability to avoid obstacles and navigate by points at high speed and over longer distances will be important. Teams can also take part in the night challenge, which is all the more demanding due to the lack of daylight.
The team has been working on its solution since it was selected for the competition in early 2024. Then in April, the teams presented their results in the first round, also held at Erding Air Base, and nine finalists emerged. The meeting also allowed the researchers to network and share know-how. The teams will meet for the final in Bavaria during the week of 16th to 20th September, with the first three days devoted to testing and fine-tuning the software and the actual competition taking place on the last two days of the final. "Preparations are in full swing and the whole system seems to be working well and that it will be able to perform in the competition. However, the conditions of the competition are still a big challenge, so we are relatively nervous about how it will work. We are looking forward to networking with the other teams; we are really interested to see what solutions the other competitors come up with," says the team leader, Dr. Tomáš Báča. The thing is that the teams only know part of the brief in advance. The complete instructions are only given to them on the spot, so their flexibility and responsiveness are important.
Participation is financially supported by the organizing agency SPRIND. During the competition, the teams will share up to 70,000 euros between them in the first phase and up to 80,000 euros in the second phase. These funds are earmarked for research and development so that the emergence of innovative technologies does not fail due to the lack of funding. Thanks to their participation in the competition, scientists and developers from Fly4Future and MRS FEE CTU will also have the opportunity to gain new contacts and showcase their technology to potential investors as well as to the international academic community, who will be able to see the cutting-edge research carried out at FEE CTU. Although the winning team will not receive any explicit reward, the prize is the naturally increased investor interest in the winning solution. The Czech team has so far demonstrated the highest degree of autonomy of all participants, so the chances of winning are not slim. The winner will be announced on the last day of the finals, 20th September 2024.
Photo credits: Felix Adler
