
DJI and Ford partner to launch drones from moving vehicles
The creators of the hugely popular Phantom drones – DJI and Ford have launched a challenge to help the UN (United Nations) with their search and rescue missions. Their mission is to provide first responders with drones capable of being launched from moving vehicles.
The two companies have teamed up for this year’s DJI Developers Challenge which challenges developers with creating an app to allow DJI mavic drones to take off and land from a moving Ford F-150 truck.
Further to the feat of landing the craft on a moving target the app must all collect an array of data including videos and maps to the responders’ vehicle. It’s hoped that the challenge will help create a system which will allow UN survey teams to respond to incidents caused by natural disasters such as tsunamis or earthquakes more quickly.
The challenge is open to anybody but the partners will only choose 15 teams to advance to the second round. Participant will get a DJI Matrice 100, an experimental drone with collision avoidance system in order to test their applications.
The final round will require the remaining 10 teams to perform a mock search-and-rescue operation with the chance to win cash prizes up to $100,000. If you think you’ve got what it takes the head on over to the official website and register your interest from January 10th to March 10th, 2016.
Good luck!