Ford partners with DJI in small UAS challenge

 

Las Vegas – Ford and DJI are imagining a world in which vehicles and small UAS (drones) become more capable and efficient working together, and are announcing a challenge to develop the software to make that possible.

 

Working with professional-grade drone systems and software maker DJI, Ford invites innovators to participate in the DJI Developer Challenge to create drone-to-vehicle communications using Ford SYNCAppLink or OpenXC. The goal is a surveying system for the United Nations Development Program to inspect emergency zones inaccessible to even the most versatile vehicles.

 

The technology could allow United Nations first responders to earthquakes or tsunamis to quickly deploy drones able to survey and map hardest-hit areas – all from the cab of an F-150.

 

Ken Washington, Ford vice president, Research and Advanced Engineering, said, “Working with DJI and the United Nations, there is an opportunity to make a big difference with vehicles and drones working together for a common good.”

 

Applicants to the surveying system challenge can visit http://developer.dji.com/challenge2016. The challenge winner receives $100,000.

 

The mobility challenge is part of Ford Smart Mobility, the plan to take the company to the next level in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience, and data and analytics.

 

Developers are tasked with creating software that would allow an F-150 and a drone to communicate in real time. The United Nations’ rapidly deployable surveying system ideally would work like this:

 

Developers will be able to use vehicle data available through SYNC AppLink or the OpenXC platform to create a seamless drone-to-vehicle communications experience.

 

Though this challenge has a specific mission, the software eventually could allow drone-to-vehicle applications in agriculture, forestry, construction, bridge inspection, search and rescue, and many other work environments in which vehicles are space-, height- or terrain-limited.

 

The 2016 DJI SDK Challenge is an opportunity for talented people to collaborate with industry-leaders to create a search and rescue system for the future. Using DJI aerial systems and developer products like the Guidance and Manifold together with Ford vehicles, you design an unmanned rescue aircraft able to meet the tough requirements of search missions. Successful solutions will be able to quickly take off from and land on a moving vehicle after surveying the area, and recognize objects and create a map of the scene.

 

The aircraft must autonomously enter the disaster area and gather information on the location of the survivors, and transmit it back to the computing device in the vehicle. Having captured all necessary information, it must then automatically return and land on the moving vehicle.