Finalists announced for AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards

The Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI) has announced the finalists for its sixth annual XCELLENCE Awards. The winners will be announced during an awards ceremony at AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2023 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.

The AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards honor innovators who demonstrate commitment to advancing technology, leading and promoting safe operations and developing programs that use unmanned systems to improve the human conditions.

“XCELLENCE IN ACADEMIC RESEARCH”

• Neural10, Autonomous Navigation in GPS-Denied Zones
• Ocean Alliance, Tagging Whales with Drones
• University of Colorado Boulder, 20 Years of UAS Research XCELLENCE
• University of Michigan, Alireza Mohammadi
• Virginia Tech’s Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, Robert Briggs

“XCELLENCE IN INNOVATION”

• Austal USA, Austal MCS
• Plus, PlusDrive, An Industry-defining Driver-in, Highly Automated Driving (HAD) Solution
• Sentera, Eliminating Stitching with the Sentera DGR System
• Skydio, Skydio Dock, Automated Inspections of Sites with Autonomous, Remote Drone Operations
• UPS Flight Forward, Inc., Safety Management System First in the Industry Accepted by the FAA

“XCELLENCE IN OPERATIONS”

Enterprise Application

• Advanced Navigation, Cloud Ground Control
• City of Pendleton, Pendleton UAS Range
• JobsOhio and the Ohio Department of Transportation, Propelling AAM in Ohio

“XCELLENCE IN TECHNOLOGY”

Enabling Components & Peripherals

• Elsight, Elsight Halo
• infiniDome, infiniDome’s GPSdome2
• LEMO Corporation, LEMO M Series High Power
• MatrixSpace, MatrixSpace Networked Radar
• SBG Systems, Quanta Micro

Hardware & Systems Design

• Advanced Navigation, Hydrus
• Connect Tech, Anvil Embedded System with NVIDIA® Jetson AGX Orin™
• D-Fend Solutions, EnforceAir
• ModalAI, Inc., VOXL 2: 16g Blue UAS Framework 2.0 Autopilot
• TOPODRONE, TOPODRONE AQUAMAPPER

Software Design and Coding

• Advanced Navigation, Cloud Ground Control
• AlarisPro, Inc., AlarisPro Safety Ecosystem (ASE) – Advancing UAS Reliability Through Shared Data Across UAS Operators and Manufacturers
• BlueSpace.ai, Scalable and Explainable AI for Autonomy, powered by 4D Predictive Perception
• Skydio, Skydio Scout, Situational Awareness for Moving Convoys
• VOTIX, VOTIX

“XCELLENCE IN WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT”

• DroneUp, with partner, Richard Bland College, Established the First Commercial Drone Workforce Training Program for College Credit
• Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide and Warren College, Better Together: Producing Effective Educational Opportunities for the UAS Workforce
• Fullerton College, Fullerton Drone Lab, Drone Piloting Registered Apprenticeship
• Laurel Ridge Community College, Laurels Take Flight
• National Robotics Education Foundation NREF, National Robotics Education Foundation (NREF)

“XCELLENCE IN MISSION”

Humanitarian Project or Program

• ArroTech, Rapid and Accurate Autonomous UXO Detection
• MissionGO, Inc., Operation Healing Eagle Feather
• Near Earth Autonomy, Autonomous Aerial Blood & Medical Supply Delivery to the Wounded
• The David McAntony Gibson Foundation (GlobalMedic), GlobalMedic RescUAV Response to La Soufrière Volcano in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• UCAL Fuel Systems Limited, Drone Based Disaster Relief

Public Safety

• Brookhaven GA Police Department, Brookhaven Police sUAS Team
• DRONERESPONDERS, DRONERESPONDERS Public Safety Alliance
• Hidden Level, Inc., Airspace Monitoring Service (AMS)
• Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Department of Public Safety
• United States Forest Service, Testing and Scaling New Technologies for Operations and Safer Mixed Airspace Ops