DRONIADA 2023 - Orange-PJAIT coverage by Andrzej Zielinski of Orange Innovation

The 10th Droniada, of which Orange Polska was the Technology Partner and the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology was the Content Partner, has come to an end. It was a four-day event combining a scientific conference "AI in drones and robotics", practical drone competitions and the Droniada Expo & Kids exhibition and demonstrations.

During the conference, Prof. Konrad Wojciechowski, D.Sc., director of the Research and Development Center of the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Bytom, took part in a debate titled "AI. "What competencies do you need to master AI?" and Dr. Eng. Marcin Paszkuta of PJAIT in Bytom presented a paper titled. "Algorithm of emergency landing using AI".

Orange Innovation representative Andrzej Zielinski, together with Piotr Lubiejewski from Orange's ICT Marketing and Development team, gave a presentation on "How to use telecommunications data in aerial robotics - Safe BSP flights with Orange a trusted partner for operators, pilots and cities."

The main message of this speech was to point out Orange Poland's ability to prepare and offer:
- data on population density in a given area, which is an important input for risk assessment of drone operations (data created based on Orange customer activity),
- 3D maps of Orange mobile network availability in the airspace for planning flight corridors for drone missions.

On the following days of Droniada, it was time for the competitions, in which teams (from the AGH University of Science and Technology, Lodz University of Technology, Silesian University of Technology, Swietokrzyska University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, Wroclaw University of Technology, the Main School of Fire Service, and Open - Muxtor, Poldrone and zDRONowani) grappled with challenges in robotics, avionics, artificial intelligence, data communications and information processing. With camera images on a drone and their own AI algorithms to process them, the contestants successfully detected pipeline faults, the presence of an intruder in a supervised area, missing people or plant pathogens in an orchard.

Particularly challenging was a night flight over a distance of 16 kilometers with the dropping of luminous bicones that marked the evacuation path in a situation of limited orientation in the field. There, one of the teams spectacularly demonstrated the cooperation between a large drone - the base ship - and a group of small drones that detached from the base during the mission and autonomously carried out their tasks.

All the competitions were aimed at developing in the participants of the struggle engineering competence, organizational skills and innovation in their approach to problem solving - but it should also be noted that the demonstrated results can be an inspiration for the drone, robotics, avionics or telecommunications industries. Practice shows that the best participants in the competition often get job offers from companies and institutions observing the competition.

Both during the "AI in drones and robotics" conference and the demonstration part of the event there was a strengthening of the partnership between Orange and the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology, which has a strong drone team at the Research and Development Center PJAIT in Bytom. Of particular interest to both teams is the prospect of using 5G networks (low latency, wide bandwidth and a large number of devices in a unit of space) for communication for drone swarms - between drones in the air and with information processing systems on the ground.

On the last day of Droniada, the results of the competition were announced. The winner was the Academic Aviation Club of the Wrocław University of Technology and the next places were taken by the High Flyers from the Silesian University of Technology and the Raptors from the Lodz University of Technology. Congratulations to the winners and to all the teams that approached this challenging competition.