The European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) Overall Winner GUAPO has experienced comprehensive publicity and has been raising the awareness for its innovative system for early drone detection, classification and tracking. Just recently, GUAPO was live on air at BBC Breakfast, the renowned national British morning television news programme.
This TV appearance was a wonderful opportunity for the UK Challenge prize winner and the Overall Winner 2016 to showcase the unique business idea of Dr Carmine Clemente and his team from the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, Scotland).
Next to GUAPO, the regional organiser of the ESNC’s United Kingdom challenge 2016, Satellite Applications Catapult, was represented on BBC Breakfast with its innovative applications and its CEO and Executive Director, Stuart Martin, who gave an insightful interview. This segment of the show was dedicated to innovative space applications and how they benefit society and the economy. Thereby, the commercial use of civilian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) was one of the hot topics.
Civilian drones have been one of the most popular trends of 2016. At the same time, concerns regarding the safety of these devices are growing due to the rise in media reports of drones crashing or encroaching on security-critical spaces. In response, the Overall Winner of the ESNC 2016 is developing a unique satellite-based system capable of early drone detection and tracking.
GUAPO factors in the electromagnetic characteristics of drones to offer continuous coverage with low resource requirements. It thus provides a cost-effective, sensor-based solution for monitoring areas where security is paramount, such as in the protection zones around airports. In addition, GUAPO is well suited to security-related activities in connection with large events or drone deliveries in e-commerce.
Stay tuned for more news about the ESNC winners of the 2016 edition and get ready for the next round of Europe’s leading ideas competition based on GNSS. Pre-register now to receive free information on new prizes, partners and important dates of the ESNC 2017.
The ESNC 2016 partner network
This year’s competition was carried out in cooperation with the European GNSS Agency (GSA). Special topic-specific prizes were sponsored by the following partners: GSA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI), the Government of Galicia, and the Horizon 2020 project BELS. Prototypes were also accepted for the GNSS Living Lab Prize, and the University Challenge invited students and research assistants to participate. In addition, prizes were presented by 24 partner regions around the world: Andalusia, Asia, Austria, Baden-Württemberg, the Basque Country, Bavaria, Catalonia, the Czech Republic, Flanders, France, Galicia, Hesse, Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Madrid, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Valencia. http://www.esnc.eu/
AZO – an experienced organiser
AZO has been organising the ESNC in close cooperation with an international network of research, industry, and regional entities since 2004. By leveraging its extensive experience in building and maintaining global innovation networks and organising related contests, AZO supports product innovations and the creation of new companies all along the value chain, particularly in the field of commercial aerospace applications. https://space-of-innovation.com/
