Winners Named for AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards

May 9, 2023 | AUVSI News

 The Association for Uncrewed Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI) today named the winners for the sixth annual AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards. The awards recognize the accomplishments of companies, organizations and individuals across the uncrewed systems community. The winners were recognized during an awards ceremony at XPONENTIAL 2023 which is being held this week at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO. This year’s 50 anniversary event is co-hosted by Messe Düsseldorf North America. 

“This year, XPONENTIAL is all about designing a shared plan for the future of autonomy,” Keely Griffith, Vice President of Strategic Programs at AUVSI. “There’s no better place to announce the 2023 XCELLENCE award finalists. Together, they are redefining what’s possible with uncrewed and robotic technology.”

AUVSI’s XCELLENCE Awards honor innovators with a demonstrated commitment to advancing autonomy, leading and promoting safe adoption of uncrewed systems and developing programs that use these technologies to save lives and improve the human condition. 

These are the finalists in those categories:

XCELLENCE in Academic ResearchFirst Place: University of Colorado Boulder, 20 Years of UAS Research XCELLENCESecond Place: Virginia Tech’s Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, Robert BriggsThird Place: Ocean Alliance, Tagging Whales with Drones

XCELLENCE in InnovationFirst Place: Skydio, Skydio Dock, Automated Inspections of Sites with Autonomous, Remote Drone OperationsSecond Place: Plus, PlusDrive, An Industry-defining Driver-in, Highly Automated Driving (HAD) SolutionThird Place: Sentera, Eliminating Stitching with the Sentera DGR System

XCELLENCE IN OPERATIONS – Enterprise Application

First Place: JobsOhio and the Ohio Department of Transportation, Propelling AAM in OhioSecond Place: Advanced Navigation, Cloud Ground ControlThird Place: City of Pendleton, Pendleton UAS Range

XCELLENCE IN TECHNOLOGY Enabling Components & PeripheralsFirst Place: infiniDome, infiniDome’s GPSdome2Second Place: Elsight, Elsight HaloThird Place: MatrixSpace, MatrixSpace Networked Radar

Hardware & Systems DesignFirst Place: D-Fend Solutions, EnforceAirSecond Place: Advanced Navigation, HydrusThird Place: Connect Tech, Anvil Embedded System with NVIDIA® Jetson AGX Orin™

Software Design and CodingFirst Place: BlueSpace.ai, Scalable and Explainable AI for Autonomy, powered by 4D Predictive PerceptionSecond Place: Skydio, Skydio Scout, Situational Awareness for Moving ConvoysThird Place: AlarisPro, Inc., AlarisPro Safety Ecosystem (ASE) – Advancing UAS Reliability Through Shared Data Across UAS Operators and Manufacturers

XCELLENCE in Workforce DevelopmentFirst Place: Laurel Ridge Community College, Laurels Take FlightSecond Place: DroneUp, with partner, Richard Bland College, Established the First Commercial Drone Workforce Training Program for College Credit Third Place: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide and Warren College, Better Together: Producing Effective Educational Opportunities for the UAS Workforce

The recipients of the 2023 AUVSI XCELLENCE Humanitarian and Public Safety Awards have established themselves as leaders in the application of uncrewed technology to provide solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Each awards category recognizes organizations that have made a significant impact using uncrewed systems to serve in humanitarian or public safety efforts. The six organizations will equally divide a $6,000 prize for their ground-breaking humanitarian and public safety efforts.

This year’s recipients are:

XCELLENCE in Mission

Humanitarian Project/ProgramArroTech, Rapid and Accurate Autonomous UXO DetectionMissionGO, Inc., Operation Healing Eagle FeatherThe David McAntony Gibson Foundation (GlobalMedic), GlobalMedic RescUAV Response to La Soufrière Volcano in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Public SafetyDRONERESPONDERS, DRONERESPONDERS Public Safety AllianceTexas Department of Public Safety, Texas Department of Public SafetyUnited States Forest Service, Testing and Scaling New Technologies for Operations and Safer Mixed Airspace Ops