Donegal start-up DroneSAR has won the European Commission prize at the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) in Tallinn, Estonia.
The company was recognised for its software which transforms off-the-shelf drone and mobile device pairings into search and rescue data transmission devices.
The European Commission Prize – the Copernicus Masters Services Challenge – is one of a range of challenges and prizes on offer to the 321 finalists in the ESNC competition and is awarded for innovative uses of the European Commission-operated Copernicus programme products.
The Copernicus Programme aims to develop European information services based on satellite observation data and implemented in partnership with member states, the European Space Agency (ESA) and other European organisations.
DroneSAR was also named Ireland region winner, which has been organised and sponsored by the National Space Centre since 2012.
“Each member of the DroneSAR team has contributed to realise a software product that will play a major part in ensuring that emergency response time-frames, incident coordination, decisions and successful outcomes will be realised across all sectors of the emergency response and humanitarian relief environment,” said DroneSAR CEO Oisin McGrath.
To deliver the service, DroneSAR partnered with outdoor pursuit software providers Viewranger, maritime distress software company SafeTRX, and medical distress location software, Medimee – all of which will allow victim position data to be sent to DroneSAR software for automatic flight to the location.
Rory Fitzpatrick, CEO National Space Centre, said: “This is worthy recognition for an outstanding product that has both commercial and lifesaving potential. We are incredibly proud to see this young Irish company perform so strongly on the international stage.”
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