Drones from the Greater Zurich Area make it onto the podium

Drones developed by the research group led by Davide Scaramuzza are among the fastest autonomous drones in the world. The team headed up by the Professor and Director of the Robotics and Perception Group at the University of Zurich (UZH) secured a second-place finish with its drones at the AlphaPilot Innovation Challenge international drone race. Overall, 400 teams from across the world applied to take part in the competition, with nine teams earning a starting spot for the final, as revealed in a press release issued by UZH. The team from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands eventually won the race, crossing the finish line three seconds ahead of their pursuers from Zurich. The drone from Zurich was one of only two aircraft to finish the final course without crashing.

Taking part in the race was an invaluable experience for the research group, Scaramuzza explains in the press release: “It led us to program our algorithms so well that they also worked outside of the research lab”.

The AlphaPilot drone race was originally organized by Lockheed Martin. The participating teams compete in four races during which they are challenged to help a drone fly autonomously around a race course as fast as possible while at the same time keeping any errors to a minimum.