Drones for Good Competition: Transporting vital organs, locating landmines and more

The drone gets a bad rap. Mostly because it has been used to eradicate the bad guys. This is gradually changing with companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook getting into the idea of using drones as delivery vehicles in remote locations and German courier DHL being able to reach remote islands with their flying machine.

Drones for Good Competition

There is now an aptly named Drones for Good competition which has reached the semi final stage. The winner will be announced in February. Rather than just taking a drone and strapping on a GoPro for some neat aerial photography, the inventors are coming up with far more interesting ideas with these little drones now.

The international drone competition at Drones for Good is no small deal because a tempting $1 million dollar prize is up for grabs to the most innovative drone. The competition was first promoted at the Government Summit 2014 which is hosted in the Middle East over in the United Arab Emirates. Interest in the competition has been strong from technologists who always like the idea of an interesting challenge with a prize attached for the winner.

Excellent and Varied Drone Ideas from Competition Entrants

The ideas went way beyond dealing with personal deliveries to remote areas. One invention can task a drone with the ability to locate landmines in war-zones which can protect soldiers from harm. Fire fighting is also something that can be handled on a limited basis with a directed water drop right on target. The power grid can also be monitored at specific locations rather than only centrally at the power station. Tree planting is possible too with the strategic dropping of seedlings.

A drone is now able to do a bit of window washing on that skyscraper that even the most intrepid human window washer swallows hard before undertaking that cleaning mission. Another drone has been designed to map out a disaster area across the affected area to track down survivors and capture information about what infrastructure like bridges, tunnels and roads still look to be operational which can help first responders greatly. Even fog can be handled by one drone that can act to dissipate it.

Search and Rescue with Flyability

Flyability is a very useful drone and a stand out at the competition. The flying robot is able to handle collisions and stay operational. It is designed to help SAR (Search and rescue) operations in the field. A video below shows how the Flyability drone can be of assistance:

There are 19 semi-finalists who have made it through to the penultimate deciding round. The Government Summit 2015 will be the location where the final winner will be announced as it is being decided presently. There were originally 800 entrants so there were no shortage of interesting entrants.