Czech drone team succeeds in German SPRIND autonomous flight competition

A joint team from Fly4Future and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing at the Czech Technical University (FEL ČVUT) has achieved significant success in the German SPRIND Fully Autonomous Flight 2.0 competition. The team developed a drone system capable of receiving commands via natural human speech, converting them into flight plans, and executing missions entirely without GPS or manual pilot intervention.

During the final testing phase held at the Fliegerhorst Erding airbase in Bavaria, the Czech team outperformed other European finalists in the specific task of “search and assist an injured person.” While the Austrian team HERMES from the University of Klagenfurt was named the overall winner of the competition, the Czech team was noted by organizers for having the most versatile solution and the highest commercial potential.

The competition, organized by the German Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovations (SPRIND), had a total budget exceeding 5 million euros, with each finalist receiving a 500,000 euro grant for system development. Other finalists included Germany’s UBASWARM and Switzerland’s Avientus RadNav. The technology aims to reduce the need for specialized programmers by allowing users to simply describe a desired outcome, facilitating use in logistics, security, and rescue operations.