The European GNSS Agency’s (GSA) #MyGalileoDrone competition has kept the drone and GNSS community on their toes long enough, it is time to reveal the names of the most innovative projects that made it through the first selection.
30 shortlisted projects were selected based on their level of innovation, market potential, technical feasibility and the extent to which they leverage Galileo.
With 190 submissions, 346 registered teams and 470 registered applicants the first evaluation phase of the #MyGalileoDrone competition has proved to be an interesting journey into Europe’s creativity and innovation capital, as well as a testimony of the potential of this market for EU economy. The 30 shortlisted projects were selected based on their level of innovation, market potential, technical feasibility and the extent to which they leverage Galileo. The projects are targeting applications in all market segments, and integrate Galileo in all the service components, from the drone flying platform itself, to other payload as well as enabler for U-Space services.
To discover the 30 projects, click on the following 4 priority areas:
- Drones for European Green Deal
- Drones for European Digital Strategy
- Drones for Resilience and European Recovery
- Drones to Promote our European way of Life
Galileo igniting UAV innovation in Europe
The drone market is flourishing and it is expected to outstrip any other user base in the aviation market. According to estimations, revenues from drone-based services are expected to exceed 150 million euros by 20231 . The European GNSS is a key enabling technology for drones, robust positioning and precise timing and synchronization capabilities offered by Galileo and EGNOS are real added values that facilitate the integration of drones into non-segregated airspace and the U-space. The #MyGalileoDrone competition is a vehicle for boosting GNSS-based innovative applications, create new business opportunities for EU industry, with focus on SMEs and start-ups, t and ensuring Galileo uptake in the UAV market contributes to the achievement of the European Commission’s priorities in terms of growth, innovation and sustainability.
“The volume and quality of the applications received has made our task arduous but exciting”, said Fiammetta Diani, GSA Head of Market Development, “the competition brought together a community of drone manufacturers, operators and service providers, which looks at EU Space as an enabler of solutions for current and future challenges”, she continued “I hope that even the projects that did not pass this phase, will find other resources to make their project take off. The GSA is working together with the European Commission to enable a series of targeted actions to scale up start-ups and easy the access to finance in a new initiative to support space entrepreneurship”.
Read this: White Paper on EGNSS for drones now available.
What’s next
The 30 selected projects will now have two months to work on the development of their application and service, and send a demo version to show the progress and Galileo use. A maximum of 10 teams will proceed to the next stage of the competition.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all teams and applicants for their enthusiasm and creativity and wish them best of luck in their future endeavors.
To discover what’s next for the drone market and applications, join the next online EUSpace User Consultation Platform, 1-2 December 2020, where there will be a dedicated session addressing the needs and requirements of the drone and aviation community.
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1. European Global Navigation Satellite Systems (EGNSS) for drones operations, white paper ( 2019)