Drones have made it possible for us gravity-bound humans to see the world from a new perspective. We’ve seen how drones can be used to clean up our beaches, rapidly install communication networks to track the spread of viruses and even monitor migration patterns of endangered species. The positive impact drones can make on society is enormous. HoverGames Challenges brings the positive impact of drones to the forefront.
Tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and extreme weather continue to make headlines all over the world. Whether man-made or natural, disasters are difficult to predict or control. Fires pose an extraordinary problem. Both urban and wildfires caused billions in damage, destroyed entire towns and forests and put countless lives in danger.
In every case, our first responders were put on the front lines.
Sounds serious? It is.
The objective of this HoverGames “Fight Fires with Flyers” challenge is to build a solution that would enable your HoverGames drone to assist fire fighters in their duties – in any way you can imagine, from wildfires to urban fires.
Submissions are open from now until October 31. See official rules for details.
Imagine building a drone system that cleans polluted beaches or streets. Or it can fly a precise pattern to report on flood monitoring poles. It could even deliver medical supplies where no car can reach. With HoverGames, your coding and hardware development efforts address similar real-world societal challenges.
Participants use the HoverGames drone development kit. The hardware and software of the developer kit is open, flexible, and modular and includes professional, automotive, and industrial-grade components enabled by the PX4 flight stack. PX4 is the largest commercially deployed open source flight stack and supports contemporary airframe architectures including VTOL aircraft, multicopter, and rover profile. With some challenges, additional hardware may be required (you may either need to purchase or qualify for to receive a coupon or no cost).
Some challenges are as simple as “getting started”, where you learn to build, fly and become familiar with the development environment. The level of complexity goes up with other challenges, from machine learning to designing a new communications interface that connects to sensors and measures power ... the list is endless!
Typical challenges are virtual and run several weeks or months.
Since each challenge is different, it has its own rules and judging criteria. Be sure to read the rules.