Fly4Future Participating in the Finals of the SPRIND Funke Competition

Our team from Fly4Future and students from MRS Group at FEE-CTU Prague, which we invited to cooperate, have advanced to the final of the prestigious international competition SPRIND Funke in Germany at Erding Air Base, where they will compete with the best in the field of autonomous flight.

With their innovative approach and technical abilities, they aim to tackle tasks in 4 challenging disciplines, all within a GNSS-denied environment:

1️⃣ Urban flight
2️⃣ Open terrain navigation
3️⃣ Maneuvering through wooded areas
4️⃣ Precision package pick-up in a clearing

The final race will take place in the week of September 16-20, 2024.

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, joining their forces with exceptionally talented students of FEE CTU, namely Ing. Michal Werner, Ing. Tomáš Musil, Bc. David Čapek and Bc. Ondřej Franek.

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. And in fact 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.

The Fly4Future 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. 

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.