The 2018 FAI International Drones Conference and Expo finished on Sunday 2 September after a weekend of “intense, exciting and innovative discussion”.
Over three days Drone Sports, Safety and Innovation were the three subjects under discussion in the conference hall, where 35 speakers from across the world of drones and aviation spoke over three sessions.
Moritz Werffeli won the EPFL Drone Racing Cup 2018 at the EPFL Drone Days on Sunday 2 September, part of the FAI Drone Racing World Cup Series.
The pilot came out top on the final race after three days of competition. Fifty-eight pilots from seven countries took part.
Werffeli, 25, from Zurich, Switzerland competes under the nickname ‘Lazy’.
“It’s the first FAI race I have attended,” he said. “It was a cool race, cool people, good track. I enjoyed.”
From racing drones to helping to map the world, the real-time world of drones was on display all weekend at the EPFL Drone Days in Lausanne.
As part of a dedicated ‘drone weekend’ at EPFL, a leading technology university in Switzerland, the cutting-edge EPFL Robotics Showcase provided a platform for some of the hottest new ideas and applications in drones, while the EPFL Drone Racing Cup showed off drone racing at its finest.
Innovation was the theme of the FAI International Drones Conference on Saturday afternoon – and there was no shortage of it on display.
From drone wind-turbines that promise a never-ending supply of clean energy, to drone ‘guard dogs’ patrolling the perimeter of mansions in Beverly Hills, conference speakers showed there is no limit to how drones are set to affect our lives.
Safety was on the agenda at the FAI International Drones Conference and Expo in Lausanne today. Conference heard from eight speakers in a busy morning session which focused on the issues around organising airspace to ensure safe operation of drones wherever they fly.
Andre Borschberg gave the keynote address at the second FAI International Drones Conference and Expo in Switzerland, where he said that the world of drones would “open a new world” in aviation.
The pilot, who with Bertrand Piccard famously circumnavigated the world in a solar-powered plane in 2015/16, was talking about the increasing role of drones in the world of aviation in front an audience of drone industry professionals at the EPFL in Lausanne.
The second FAI International Drones Conference and Expo kicked off in Lausanne on Friday – with a session on the new world of Drones and Sport.
Speakers from across the world of drones converged on the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland to hear about the latest cutting-edge developments in the drone ecosystem.
“The magic of drone sports is firing imaginations around the world,” said FAI President Frits Brink as he welcomed delegates to the first day of the three-day conference.
A unique marathon event took place in Berlin on 26 August 2018 – not for runners, but drones.
Teams from across Europe came together to participate in the third DroneMasters Dronathon, the only marathon for industrial drones.
The pilots navigated the drones – which had to be built for applications in industry – around a horseracing track in Berlin-Karlshorst 30 times in order to achieve the classic marathon distance of 42.195km.
Officials from the FAI were present.
