Did you know that a key enabler for drones is Galileo? Galileo is Europe’s own global navigation satellite system (or GNSS); it ensures safety of navigation and provides increased reliability for both consumer and commercial applications. Whether used for guiding drones automatically back to the operator, building inspection or just maintaining geo-awareness to avoid obstacles, GNSS is crucial for drone operators, and Galileo is already present in more than 30% of the receivers models used for drone applications.
Last year, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) launched its biggest ever drone competition, #MyGalileoDrone, challenging contestants to design, develop, test and deliver drone-based applications for commercial launch using Galileo-enabled receivers. Out of 470 applicants, the #MyGalileoDrone competition has now selected the top 10 finalists, all innovating in areas such as parcel delivery, emergency and crisis management, infrastructure inspection, and leisure.
Having made it this far, these top startups will now pitch live online during the virtual EU Space Entrepreneurship Day on Tuesday 2 March, alongside the participants of the #MyGalileoSolution competition. You can register now to discover some of the most groundbreaking/novel/inspiring drone startups and find out which #MyGalileoDrone startup is awarded the grand prize of €100K.
Get a taster of what to expect during this free, open event – meet the top 10 #MyGalileoDrone startups below:
Raytrack (Spain) – Founded in 2020, this Spanish startup works in the inspection and maintenance sphere. Thanks to their expertise on active and passive remote radiofrequency sensing, they can produce actionable information for several applications, such as buried pipelines detection, antipersonnel landmine detection, critical antenna diagnostics, cellular antenna diagnostics, and others.
RigiTech (Switzerland) – Founded in 2018, this startup works in the medical delivery services sphere. Their mission? To re-define last-mile inter-city logistics using a large-payload, sustainable drone-based delivery system. Skipping traffic jams and winding roads, they allow businesses to always reach their customers on time.
NAUTILUS (Italy) – ABZero have created NAUTILUS (NAvigation systems for Unique Tracking of Intelligent Life-saving capsUle for autonomouS delivery of medical goods). This solution aims at integrating their Smart Capsule (an autonomous system to transfer blood, organs, tissues, etc.) with a unique navigation GALILEO system, for improved tracking.
Rock the U-Space (Germany) – This German startup works in the communication and navigation sphere. They created the D2X-ination system to enable high precision cooperative awareness and other communication services on every drone using a small and light-weight add-on device, the D2X Unit, with support for the most popular open-source flight stacks.
ThunderFly (Czech Republic) – This team works in the weather monitoring sphere. They have created TF-ATMON, a system for performing in-situ atmospheric measurements regardless of the weather conditions. Using Galileo technology, a drone operator is assisted to adjust the flight trajectory, overall improving the quality and effectiveness of the whole measurement process.
Drone Interactive (France) – Founded in 2018, this team uses drones in the leisure sector. They created ‘SOARER’, an augmented ‘Drone Racing’ attraction, allowing non-experts to safely fly drones on tracks, including geofencing, anticollision and an automatic battery swapping system. Drone positioning is achieved thanks to Galileo enabled receivers embedded on drones and track checkpoints.
piXam (Malta) – Created in 2020, the piXbrush system is able to use both drones and unmanned ground vehicles to assess and maintain road surface markings. piXbrush scans existing street/road surface markings, and logs each marking’s precise position on a geographical information system, saving them as pixels, and highlighting which areas need repainting.
Spectalight.io (Poland) –The SpectaDrone ecosystem consists of drones with implemented LED light source and patent-pending noiseless fireworks emitter, as well as drone swarm controlling software . The company is providing a solution that is a green alternative to classic and loud fireworks.
PortDrone (Lithuania) – This startup works in port operations. Harbor Pilots normally travel to the ship to guide ships into the sea port, which puts them at great danger (due to rough seas and COVID-19). PortDrone has developed a UAV system capable of delivering of special navigation and communication equipment to the ship without physical travel of a person.
SmartSAR (Denmark) – This startup works in emergency management. Team SmartSAR is developing a drone based solution to locate survivors in maritime disasters faster, while at the same time reducing the workload of search and rescue (SAR) ship crews.
To attend the Entrepreneurship Day online on 2 March, and e-meet these budding startups and many more taking part in the #MyGalileoDrone and #MyGalileoSolution competitions, register here today.
