Leonardo Drone Contest
The Leonardo Drone Contest is an Open Innovation challenge designed and launched by Leonardo in collaboration with six Italian universities, to encourage the development of Artificial Intelligence applied to Unmanned Systems.
The aim of the project is to encourage the creation of an "ecosystem" that involves and brings together the capabilities of large companies, universities, small and medium enterprises, and national spin-offs and start-ups.
In particular, Leonardo is supporting the activities of six PhD students (one per university) of the Politecnico of Turin and Milan and of the Universities of Bologna, Sant’Anna of Pisa, Roma Tor Vergata and Federico II of Naples who, for three years, will be engaged in the development of an autonomous drone driving system, sharing university and business resources and knowledge.
Each year the doctoral students, each with their own team, will confront each other in a scientific symposium, as well as an annual competition of their drones.
The Leonardo Drone Contest officially started on November 12, 2019 and will end in 2022. The first race was held on 18 September 2020 at the Leonardo Aircraft Division’ site in Turin. On this occasion, the first results and potential of the respective projects were analyzed.
The Polytechnic of Milan won the first edition of the Leonardo Drone Contest. The University of Bologna, with Ph.D. student Lorenzo Gentilini and Professor Lorenzo Marconi, was awarded the "Special Jury Prize".
The announcement of the winning team, represented by the Ph.D. student Gabriele Roggi and Professor Marco Lovera, took place in live streaming on 23 September 2020.
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Watch the video of the event