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US NIST First Responder Challenge Competition Awards Intelligent Energy Second Place for its Hydrogen Fuel Cell UAV Power

intelligent energy fuel cell uav

US NIST First Responder Challenge competition awards Intelligent Energy second place for its hydrogen fuel cell UAV power.

Intelligent Energy, the manufacturer of the world’s lightest and most power dense solution for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), has achieved second place out of more than 40 global entrants in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards of Technology (NIST) First Responder Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Endurance Challenge.

The UK fuel cell company entered a Gryphon hexacopter fitted with the IE-SoarTM 2.4kW fuel cell power module. Fuel cells offer significantly longer flight times for UAVs when compared with traditional battery power so are an ideal solution for commercial operators.

The challenge was scored against a series of criteria including safety, endurance, performance in flight, set up time and cost.

Intelligent Energy’s UAV achieved a flight time of 102 minutes (with 10% fuel remaining for emergency reserves) while carrying a 10lb payload to imitate a wireless signal transmitter that first responders would activate in a disaster situation should cell towers be out of action.

Jonathan Douglas-Smith, Aerospace Specialist at Intelligent Energy, said:

We know what our IE-SoarTM modules can achieve and taking part in this challenge is a great way for us to show industries like first responder and disaster recovery just how they can be applied to support rescue missions at times when endurance of the UAV would be critical.

“It has been a great project to work on and importantly showcases the capability of fuel cells.”

Dereck Orr, chief of NIST’s Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) division, which managed the challenge.

Our grant programs and prize challenges help us make great leaps forward in solving public safety concerns by initiating collaboration with industry, academia and the public safety community.

“We had over 40 entries, all of an extremely high calibre, and it has been encouraging to see potential solutions for our research.”

“The challenge has helped advance our mission and UAS technology with the winning team surpassing 112 minutes of flight time for FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) Part 107 drone flights, which are systems weighing less than 55 pounds flown by certified drone pilots.”

Judges on the NIST panel included UAS subject matter experts, public safety agencies and members from the FAA.

Intelligent Energy can offer the same UAV used in the challenge to customers via a number of integration partners. The company is exhibiting its UAV products at AUVSI Xponential 2021 in Atlanta and can be found on the show floor in meeting room 5.

U.S. NIST First Responder Challenge competition awards Intelligent Energy second place for its fuel cell UAV power, Loughborough, UK, August 19, 2021

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