Tag: DroneUp

Winners named for AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards

AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards winners. (Image: AUVSI)

The Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) has named the winners of the sixth annual AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards.

The awards recognize the accomplishments of companies, organizations and individuals across the uncrewed systems community. The winners were recognized during an awards ceremony at XPONENTIAL 2023 which is being held this week at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado. This year’s 50th anniversary event is co-hosted by Messe Düsseldorf North America.

AUVSI’s XCELLENCE Awards honor innovators with a demonstrated commitment to advancing autonomy, leading and promoting safe adoption of uncrewed systems and developing programs that use these technologies to save lives and improve the human condition.

These are the finalists in those categories:

XCELLENCE in Academic Research

First Place: University of Colorado Boulder, 20 Years of UAS Research XCELLENCE
Second Place: Virginia Tech’s Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, Robert Briggs
Third Place: Ocean Alliance, Tagging Whales with Drones

XCELLENCE in Innovation

First Place: Skydio, Skydio Dock, Automated Inspections of Sites with Autonomous, Remote Drone Operations
Second Place: Plus, PlusDrive, An Industry-defining Driver-in, Highly Automated Driving (HAD) Solution
Third Place: Sentera, Eliminating Stitching with the Sentera DGR System

XCELLENCE IN OPERATIONS – Enterprise Application

Advanced Navigation’s Cloud Ground Control featured at XPONENTIAL 2023.

First Place: JobsOhio and the Ohio Department of Transportation, Propelling AAM in Ohio
Second Place: Advanced Navigation, Cloud Ground Control
Third Place: City of Pendleton, Pendleton UAS Range

XCELLENCE IN TECHNOLOGY

Enabling Components & Peripherals
First Place: infiniDome, infiniDome’s GPSdome2
Second Place: Elsight, Elsight Halo
Third Place: MatrixSpace, MatrixSpace Networked Radar

Hardware & Systems Design
First Place: D-Fend Solutions, EnforceAir
Second Place: Advanced Navigation, Hydrus
Third Place: Connect Tech, Anvil Embedded System with NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin

Software Design and Coding
First Place: BlueSpace.ai, Scalable and Explainable AI for Autonomy, powered by 4D Predictive Perception
Second Place: Skydio, Skydio Scout, Situational Awareness for Moving Convoys
Third Place: AlarisPro, Inc., AlarisPro Safety Ecosystem (ASE) – Advancing UAS Reliability Through Shared Data Across UAS Operators and Manufacturers

The infiniDome booth at XPONENTIAL 2023 showcased their XCELLENCE award.

XCELLENCE in Workforce Development

First Place: Laurel Ridge Community College, Laurels Take Flight
Second Place: DroneUp, with partner, Richard Bland College, Established the First Commercial Drone Workforce Training Program for College Credit
Third Place: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide and Warren College, Better Together: Producing Effective Educational Opportunities for the UAS Workforce

The recipients of the 2023 AUVSI XCELLENCE Humanitarian and Public Safety Awards have established themselves as leaders in the application of uncrewed technology to provide solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Each awards category recognizes organizations that have made a significant impact using uncrewed systems to serve in humanitarian or public safety efforts. The six organizations will equally divide a $6,000 prize for their humanitarian and public safety efforts.

This year’s recipients are:

XCELLENCE in Mission

Humanitarian Project/Program
First Place: ArroTech, Dr. Stephen Dunnivant
First Place: MissionGO, Inc., Operation Healing Eagle Feather
First Place: The David McAntony Gibson Foundation (GlobalMedic), GlobalMedic RescUAV Response to La Soufrière Volcano in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Public Safety

First Place: DRONERESPONDERS, DRONERESPONDERS Public Safety Alliance
First Place: Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Department of Public Safety
First Place: United States Forest Service, Testing and Scaling New Technologies for Operations and Safer Mixed Airspace Ops

May 12, 2023
Walmart launches UAV for deliveries in Utah

Image: Walmart

Two Walmart locations in Utah, one in Lindon and one in Herriman, are now providing UAV delivery for customers nearby. Walmart has UAV deliveries operated by DroneUp, Flytrex and Zipline at 36 stores in the United States.

For a $3.99 fee, customers within a mile of the stores can receive their groceries via UAVs. The two Walmart locations in Utah can deliver more than 120 times per day and each UAV can carry up to 10 pounds. The hubs for deliveries are in the parking lots of each Walmart location and are operated by Federal Aviation Administration-certified pilots.

Walmart is using UAV delivery in seven states, including Florida, Arizona, Texas, Utah, Virginia, North Carolina and Arkansas. The most common products delivered include ice cream, lemons, rotisserie chicken, Red Bull and paper towels, according to Walmart.

Walmart drone deliveries launched in October 2019 in Arkansas. In 2022, Walmart completed more than 6,000 deliveries across all 36 participating locations.

February 14, 2023
DroneUp to provide Alaska with public drone services
DroneUp LLC and the State of Alaska have signed a Participating Addendum for the NASPO ValuePoint contract for unmanned aerial vehicle services.

The contract begins the offering for the purchase of complete drone solutions to all state agencies, commissions, political subdivisions, institutions and local public bodies allowed by law.

DroneUp is an end-to-end drone pilot service provider for aerial data collection. In August 2019, the company was awarded the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Services Master Agreement #E194-79435 by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The services under this latest award (Contract Number #2020DRONE0002) are available for use by all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories of the United States through the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) ValuePoint Cooperative Purchasing Organization.

The State of Alaska is now able to use the award for the benefit of state departments, institutions, agencies, political subdivisions, and other eligible entities.

DroneUp’s award includes but is not limited to service categories for
- Emergency Support Services,
- Law Enforcement Support,
- Aerial Inspection or Mapping Data Services,
- Agricultural and Gaming, and
- Agency Media Relations and Marketing.
Primary users are expected to be
- Agriculture & Game Management,
- Emergency Management,
- Transportation,
- Forestry,
- Mines,
- Minerals and Energy, and
- Public Universities and Community Colleges.
“We appreciate the efforts to streamline public sector access to leading-edge UAS services through the contract with the State of Alaska, and we look forward to supporting our hardworking state and local agencies,” said Tom Walker, DroneUp’s CEO.
January 14, 2020
DroneUp launches program for UAV pilot training, certification
DroneUp is collaborating with industry leaders and government officials to promote the desired outcomes of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), public safety personnel, and the unmanned systems community by announcing the Responsible Community Pilot (RCP) program.

DroneUp is a drone pilot community focused on safer skies through continuous education and sense of purpose. The announcement was made at the AUVSI Xponential show being held this week in Denver.

The mass proliferation of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), specifically those operated by non-commercial pilots, has created nearly unparalleled policy, safety and legislative issues.

To remove confusion and help increase resources available to all pilots, DroneUp is partnering with the International Association of Community Drone Pilots (IACDP) to provide tools and resources to meet the real objectives of improving airspace safety.

By providing free access to a community-based set of guidelines and programming, the RCP program engages drone pilots through training, certification, idea-sharing and community.

DroneUp provides the means and connections with the community to help pilots operate in the national airspace. Some of those free tools include:
- Continually updated online courses and exams that improve regulation awareness
- Mission-driven experiential exercises that improve piloting skills
- An online community for questions and discussion
- Mobile apps that verify where it is safe to fly and active advisories nearby
- Comprehensive Standards of Conduct
- Detailed Safety Guidelines
- Advocacy on behalf of the community
“Our efforts to build this community through training and a sense of purpose are having dramatic positive effects on ensuring air safety,” said Tom Walker, Founder and CEO, DroneUp. “We are dedicated to not only continuing our efforts, but to sharing collected data that will prove invaluable to officials as they draft future policies.”

In advocating for both commercial and non-commercial use of small unmanned aircraft systems, IACDP represents commercial, recreational, military and public safety pilots.

“IACDP is motivated by a desire to make a positive impact on the industry,” said IACDP President John Evans. “We are still growing and expanding our training, certification, and advocacy resources. We see organizations like DroneUp as valuable strategic partners for our mission.”

To date, more than 20,000 non-commercial sUAS pilots are active members of DroneUp’s RCP community. Through affiliations with its non-profit partners, this number is expected to increase to more than 100,000 sUAS pilots over the next six months.

Membership in DroneUp’s RCP program requires successful annual completion of the RCP training and examination online.

Upon completion of the certification, RCP participants will receive a certificate with a unique ID number, an RCP badge in DroneUp’s mobile app; they also may request a personalized RCP ID Badge.
April 30, 2018