Waterproof drone bags million dirham prize
dubai — They invested only a few thousand dirhams and lots of hours into building their drones, now they are walking away with millions in cash.
A total of four winners were announced at the AI/Robotics for Good Award and the UAE Drones for Good Award, where the two national teams won Dh1 million each and the international teams bagged $1 million each.
This was the third annual com- petition at Dubai Internet City, which encourages tech fans to build drones or robots that can help humanity in some way.
The winning projects included a drone that can fly and land on water to save a person from drowning, a drone that save people in disaster-hit areas, a robot that can detect gas leaks and a robotic limb.
The team from Sanad Academy in Dubai won Dh1 million in the national category for drones, with their invention called the ‘Smart Ring’.
Mohammad Aziz from Sanad Academy said: “The aim is to save lives that are being lost in beaches because of drowning. The Smart Ring is inspired by the traditional live-saving ring but it’s infused with drone technology.
The lifeguards can simply use the smart ring app and deploy it to rescue victims.
“The best part is you don’t really need a lot of skills to use it, you can use it through a mobile app. The drone can fly, but it can also go to the victim in the water and save them. You can also have multiple rings sending signals to each other.
“Another key feature of this project, it’s 3D printed, which helps a lot in the water proof. The entire drone is printed out in only two to three parts, meaning that it can be built in larger quantities.
“With the million dirhams, we plan on improvising our project, even though we think our product is ready for the market. We want to reinvest it so we can build a drone that swim under water, a smarter ring that can go beneath the ocean.”
The Nokia team won $1 million in the international category. One of the team members, Thomas Eder, explained that the invention ‘Nokia Saving Lives’ was created to help people who are stuck in disaster-hit areas. The team intends to use the money so they can build partnerships around the world and send help to wider areas.
Eder said: “Nokia Saving Life is a non-profit initiative, where we used Nokia’s LTE technology to connect the drones with a ground station. That solution is specifically designed for disaster scenarios with NGOs, such as the United Nations or Red Crescent.
“We want to make rescue operations more efficient. We want to make sure rescues can be faster in the future. We really believe that with the LTE technology, with our drones and our video analytics we can really make the difference in the future.”