Airbus Group and Local Motors Challenge You to Help Design the Drones of the Future
I admit that I laughed when I first heard, a couple of years ago, that drones were expected to soon become commonplace. I laughed and was a little bit creeped out, as I typically associated drones with top secret military applications and slightly shady government operations. Now, of course, drones are everywhere, and while I’m amazed at how quickly they’ve arrived in the mainstream, I’ve become a big fan of them. The little flying robots have proven themselves to be extremely useful for individuals, corporations and government agencies alike: we’ve seen them used for everything from art to package delivery to firefighting. Another thing about drones is that you don’t necessarily need to be a professional engineer to design or build one. You don’t need thousands of dollars, either – 3D printing in particular has proven itself to be an extremely effective and inexpensive method for crafting working drones.
Lately, major organizations have been taking notice of the ability of individuals to create ingenious technology, and are more frequently reaching out to the public for help in designing the next groundbreaking device. When NASA starts utilizing crowdsourcing, you know that there are some major changes happening in the way new technology is developed. Now Airbus Group and Local Motors have teamed up to issue a design challenge to the public: help create a drone that will enable the delivery of urgent medical and other emergency supplies to remote, hard-to-reach areas.
We’ve covered both of these companies quite frequently, as they’ve been consistently at the forefront of new manufacturing technologies, in particular 3D printing: Local Motors with their 3D printed cars, and Airbus with their 3D printed aircraft components. Now they’re setting their focus on drones with the Airbus Cargo Drone Challenge. It’s a “co-creation” challenge, in which designers will work closely with Airbus Group and Local Motors to develop their ideas. The Cargo Drone Challenge is just the beginning of what the two companies intend to be a long collaborative process involving “a series of co-creation activities, online competitions, open-source projects and hackathons all focused on designing a next-generation commercial drone solution.”
“As Local Motors and Airbus Group progress in this challenge, we expect our co-creation community to deliver the kind of amazing ideas that helped us build the world’s first co-created vehicle and 3D-printed car,” said Local Motors CEO Jay Rogers. “As we harness the power of the crowd, Airbus will have the ability to iterate on commercial drones faster than ever before. This will be a much-needed shot in the arm for civil drone development.”
Entries are being accepted until May 22. From June 5-15 a rigorous voting process will take place among Airbus Group executives, cargo industry experts and community members. Prizes range from a first-place $50,000 award, plus a trip to the Farnborough Airshow in England, to community-selected awards of $10,000, $3,000 and $2,000. A few design guidelines are as follows:
- Drones must be capable of vertical takeoffs and landings
- Weight of less than 25 kg
- Fixed-wing forward flight; minimum of 1 pusher motor
- Capacity for a 5 kg payload for a minimum of 60 km, or a 3 kg payload for a minimum of 100 km
Full requirements can be found here. While the first stage of the co-creation initiative is targeted towards cargo drones, designs should be versatile enough to serve other purposes, such as agricultural monitoring and infrastructure inspection, for example. Later this year will come the second stage of the project, a hackathon to further develop electronics and applications.
“The Challenge initiative is really exciting and we are eager to see how the power of co-creation can accelerate new, innovative thinking around commercial drones,” said Jana Rosenmann, Head of Unmanned Aerial Systems within the Airbus Group.
Praxis Aerospace Concepts International Inc. will also be assisting Airbus and Local Motors with the challenge. You can learn more about the competition here, and check out the video below. Discuss in the Drone Challenge forum over at 3DPB.com.
https://youtu.be/4iznBFghD4o
Subscribe to Our Email Newsletter
Stay up-to-date on all the latest news from the 3D printing industry and receive information and offers from third party vendors.
Print Services
Upload your 3D Models and get them printed quickly and efficiently.
You May Also Like
3D Printing Financials: Velo3D Looks to Bounce Back with Defense Deals
Velo3D (OTCQX: VLDX) is working hard to get back on track. The metal 3D printing company brought in $9.3 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2025, slightly below...
Formlabs CEO Says Company Is Caught in US-China Trade Fight
Max Lobovsky, the CEO and co-founder of Formlabs, raised concerns about the challenges his company faces due to ongoing global trade tensions, particularly between the United States and China, in...
University of Illinois Launches AM Research Center with $8M DoD Backing
The Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded $8.15 million to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to support the establishment of an additive manufacturing (AM) research center at the Grainger College...
3D Printing News Briefs, May 3, 2025: Executives, Awards, & a 3D Printing Factory
We’re focusing on additive manufacturing business news today, as both Velo3D and PostProcess Technologies announced changes to their Boards of Directors. Sandvik Metal Powder has a new president, and Klas...