
The United Arab Emirates “Drones for Good” Award - dronehire
http://dronesforgood.ae/?p=en
======
bri3d
There's no mention anywhere on the page, as far as I can tell, of what happens
to your IP.

The second stage of the contest requires showing extremely detailed plans to a
"panel of judges from around the world."

Even though the goal of the project is indeed noble, I don't see anyone but
students entering without an explanation of how the IP works. A working setup
for a drone with globally applicable humanitarian mission is worth a lot more
than a million dollars.

~~~
nraford
Hi, my name is Dr. Noah Raford and I am part of the competition's organising
committee (proof: [http://ae.linkedin.com/pub/dr-noah-
raford/1/a68/4a0](http://ae.linkedin.com/pub/dr-noah-raford/1/a68/4a0) More
proof:
[http://noahraford.com/?page_id=370](http://noahraford.com/?page_id=370)).

This is a really important point. Thanks so much for bringing it up.

All contestants in the competition will retain their IP for their submission.
The government retains no right to the ideas submitted, nor does any other
third party. If someone submits an idea using public or Creative Commons
licensed IP, that IP will stay with its original owner. We'll be clarifying
that on the website shortly.

We really appreciate your interest. We are working to make this award as
useful as possible for stimulating conversation and innovation in this area.
Thanks again.

~~~
azinman2
What is the motivation for this by the UAE then?

~~~
nraford
Short answer from the website: "The first of its kind and scale, the Award is
dedicated to transforming these exciting technologies into practical solutions
for improving people’s lives today."

Slightly longer answer: Most of these technologies have been used for military
and security applications to date. Those are important, but things are
developing so rapidly and become so much less expensive (Moore's Law) that
incredible new uses are becoming possible every day. The Award is about
stimulating creative thinking about how to apply their potential for positive
social application.

TL;DR: There is a important conversation to be had around adapting these
applications to the public good. This requires imagination, leadership, and
public support. That is what this award is about. Hope that answers your
question.

------
gorydetails
As sea levels rise due to the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet[0], we could
fly drones to survey the flooding of cities and coastal areas. That would be a
fantastic use of oil wealth.

[0] [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/13/science/earth/collapse-
of-...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/13/science/earth/collapse-of-parts-of-
west-antarctica-ice-sheet-has-begun-scientists-say.html)

~~~
Theodores
The satellites we have been using for the last few decades can accurately
measure sea surface temperature and create nice visible wavelength pictures.

The old ones did 1Km resolution looking straight down from their polar orbits,
ample resolution when you have something the size of Greenland, and I am sure
the resolution has improved considerably since then. You also get several
passes a day over a given location, day or night.

I dare say that this application is pretty well covered and the batteries of
that drone in Antarctica (or Greenland) would have a hard job keeping up.

There is also the problem of registering whatever data you get to align with a
map. Imagery from a normal plane is not that easy, given the flight
characteristics of a drone I suspect that it is quite hard to get the imagery
to line up even if you can fly from A to B in a straight line with GPS.

------
dang
We changed the url from [http://www.dronehire.org/blog/uae-government-
announce-one-mi...](http://www.dronehire.org/blog/uae-government-announce-one-
million-dollar-drone-prize), which was lifted from this one.

Submitters: HN prefers original sources. When there's an obvious one, please
post it instead.

~~~
dfc
I imagine that it is a pain to add these addendums whenever you change the
title. For what it is worth I am extremely grateful of the effort. It takes
some of the confusion out of things and most importantly it gets everything
out in the open.

~~~
dang
Thanks! It's a pain, but I think we can eventually (semi-)automate it.

~~~
dfc
It would be neat to see if the frequency of changes diminishes over time. I
would be willing to bet that the notifications of link change provide some
form of user education and exposes potential link submitters to the rules.

~~~
dang
I've wondered about that too.

------
primitivesuave
Maybe a drone that can deliver caviar to the Sheikh's 180 meter yacht when he
runs out of caviar?

~~~
PavlovsCat
In the words of the great visionary Bill Hicks:

" _See, everyone got boners over the technology, and it was pretty incredible.
Watching missiles fly down air vents, pretty unbelievable. But couldn’t we
feasibly use that same technology to shoot food at hungry people? Know what I
mean? Fly over Ethiopia, ‘There’s a guy that needs a banana!’ SHOOP. The
Stealth Banana. Smart fruit!_ "

------
Theodores
"All semi-finalists of the International competition will receive $5,000 USD
to develop and improve their prototype."

Realistically, that means a consumer grade drone. _(So no grand ideas for re-
purposing one of those drones that can fly from an island in the Indian Ocean,
loiter for a few hours and then, under the guidance of some teenager in
Florida, send a missile into some wedding party in the tribal areas of
Pakistan.)_

What is the range of a ~$5K drone? Payload? Battery life? Knowing these
approximate parameters would be quite useful for putting one's thinking cap
on. If anyone has a good idea, with payload and without payload, that could be
helpful.

~~~
dronehire
>What is the range of a ~$5K drone? Payload? Battery life? Knowing these
approximate parameters would be quite useful for putting one's thinking cap
on. If anyone has a good idea, with payload and without payload, that could be
helpful.

The answers to your questions depend firstly on the type of drone: multicopter
or fixed-wing. With a multicopter you are looking at a maximum flight time of
around 30 minutes, give or take depending upon numerous variables such as the
payload and specific application (for example, hovering in one place uses less
power than moving around). The payload capacity of a ~$5K multicopter would be
in the order of 10 - 15kg, although carrying anywhere near this weight would
severely limit the flight time.

A similarly-priced fixed-wing drone could stay aloft a lot longer and also
have a greater payload capacity - the downside is the inability to hover or do
vertical take-off and landing.

There are of course hybrid designs, usually tilt-rotors, that attempt to get
the best of both worlds.

------
melvinmt
"The international category has a prize pool of $1,000,000 USD and the
national category has a $1,000,000 AED reward."

------
nymph
How'bout a drone to enforce the death penalty for the open practice of
homosexuality (UAE being one of 10 countries in the world to do so):

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_United_Arab_Emi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_United_Arab_Emirates)

[http://www.arablawsworld.com/uae-laws-in-
english.php](http://www.arablawsworld.com/uae-laws-in-english.php)

Or to assist with the forced deportation of Shi'ites:

[http://abna.co/data.asp?lang=3&id=390575](http://abna.co/data.asp?lang=3&id=390575)

Or torture drones for jails (torture being a "systematic practice" in UAE
state security facilities, according to HRW):

[http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/06/27/uae-reports-systematic-
to...](http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/06/27/uae-reports-systematic-torture-
jails)

Or a drone to help husbands "chastise" their wives (or children) -- being as
"the UAE penal code, sanctions beating and other forms of punishment or
coercion providing the violence leaves no physical marks" \-- as determined in
2010 by the UAE's highest court:

[https://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/10/19/uae-spousal-abuse-
nev...](https://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/10/19/uae-spousal-abuse-never-right)

[http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/10/19/uae.court.ruling/i...](http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/10/19/uae.court.ruling/index.html)

[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/UAE-
cou...](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/UAE-court-says-
okay-to-wife-beating/articleshow/6771422.cms)

Or my personal favorite, the Sheik Issa Mark V -- a drone that can run over a
man while driving a Mercedes SUV; rub salt into his wounds; and set his
genitals afire with lighter fluid -- all while instructing a camereman
(filming everything for the world to see), "Get closer. Get closer. Get
closer. Let his suffering show":

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issa_bin_Zayed_Al_Nahyan#Trial...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issa_bin_Zayed_Al_Nahyan#Trial_and_verdict)

The possibilities are endless.

~~~
mahyarm
So lets shit on NSF grants that fund research for various things because the
USA does evil shit too.

~~~
nymph
Not a bad analogy (despite the fecal reference). Arguably the U.S. should also
have been sanctioned by the world community for the abuses at Abu Ghraib,
Guantanamo, Bagram and elsewhere. Not to mention for the conditions endured by
prisoners in solitary confinement in its own domestic system.

But what you need to understand is that the UAE is perfectly aware of its
horrendous human rights record, and so undertakes "feel good" campaigns like
this "good drones" program (and its partnership with NYU... and all the
scholarships, and funding for the arts) specifically to distract your
attention, and to burnish its image.

And BTW, speaking of shit:

 _MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - An American held in the United Arab Emirates for nine
months for his role in an online parody video about youth culture in Dubai
said Friday that he was scared at times and was kept in filthy conditions
where guards "shouted at everyone like dogs."_

...

 _Cassim said he stayed for about two months in the Dubai jail, where guards
"shouted at everyone like dogs" and conducted room searches in full riot gear.
The food was abysmal, and for a time Cassim ate just enough bread to keep
himself going._

 _He said the conditions were unsanitary. Blankets were shared without being
washed, and 130 people had to use a communal bathroom._

 _" The smell was horrendous," he said, adding that he thought the toilets
were made of clay until one detainee cleaned them - only to find they were
metal and had been covered with caked-on feces. When the communal sink was
cleaned with bleach, he said, black maggots crawled out from the tile._

[http://www.aol.com/article/2014/01/17/american-recounts-
expe...](http://www.aol.com/article/2014/01/17/american-recounts-experiences-
of-uae-prison/20810806/)

------
baddox
That's good to see. There's the potential for drone-friendly governments to
leave drone-unfriendly governments in the dust for what is certain to be a
major industry in the next decade.

------
ihsw
The article seems to contradict itself -- it offers $1M USD and then offers
$1M AED, even providing an estimated USD value after exchange rate.

On the official website[1] it's quite clear: there are two competitions, one
national with a $1M AED prize and one international with a $1M USD prize.

Regardless, this is fascinating and it exemplifies the value of drones in the
same way that smartphones are valuable -- cheap, ubiquitous computers. In this
case they can provide telemetry and transportation mechanisms instead of
providing a means of personal communication.

[1] [http://dronesforgood.ae/?p=en](http://dronesforgood.ae/?p=en)

~~~
dronehire
>The article seems to contradict itself -- it offers $1M USD and then offers
$1M AED, even providing an estimated USD value after exchange rate.

I guess you missed the second paragraph where it states "The award is
comprised of a national and international category."

The third and fourth paragraphs then provide detail about each of these
categories.

Sorry if this was unclear.

~~~
ihsw
Yes, it was a bit unclear. It should be made quite clear that there are two
prizes, and the title itself is misleading in that regard.

~~~
nraford
From the website:

"The UAE "Drones for Good" Award has two parts:

\- National competition \- International competition

The National competition carries an award of 1 million AED. It is dedicated to
rewarding the best, most practical ideas for using UAV technologies today for
civilian government services in the UAE. Submissions must be readily
deployable within 12 months, must function safely and effectively, and must
fulfil a real citizen need or government service.

The International competition carries an award of $1 million USD. It is
dedicated to exploring future prototypes of how UAVs might be used to improve
the lives of humanity in general, focusing on what may be possible in the next
1 to 3 years. It is designed to stimulate innovation and accelerate the
development of advanced prototypes, which could ultimately lead to practical
solutions for improving people’s lives around the world."

------
lionel_hutz
In other words:

An award to the person that ensures predator drones comb the skies over UAE,
armed with deadly hellfire missiles, permanently. Drones, for good.

------
tzs
Oculus Rift Drone Quidditch.

------
Justsignedup
"Wife hunter" it's a drone / iphone app that lets the drone scour the city for
another potential wife of the Sheikh. It will then stalk the girl, and send a
notification to the Sheikh which if he so choses will both tranquilize her and
dispatch his private attack fleet to airlift her to his 180 meter yacht where
they will both be served caviar and arranged marriage contracts.

~~~
dang
Please re-read the HN guidelines. Comments like this should not be posted
here.

~~~
zenbowman
Agreed, moreover the UAE is pretty forward-looking relative to the rest of its
region, and minority and womens rights are much better protected there than in
most countries in the Gulf. Propagating stereotypes about the behavior of the
royal family does nothing to help the cause.

------
climboid
Isn't this the same add from Amazon?

------
iwasphone
Except it's not one million USD. Also it's only open to citizens and residents
of UAE.

~~~
dronehire
>Except it's not one million USD. Also it's only open to citizens and
residents of UAE.

The one million USD prize is for the international category of the award, and
it is open to anyone. Check the official website:
[http://dronesforgood.ae/](http://dronesforgood.ae/)

