Ardupilot drone code wins innovation prize at The Drone World Conference, Shenzhen

Jani Hirvinen, JDrones CEO received a 2017 Global UAV Innovation Award at the Drone World Conference, Shenzhen China last week on behalf of the Ardupilot project.

Shenzhen is the heart of drone manufacture in China and this show the largest commercial drone show in China.

Speaking to me via Skype this morning Jani called the trophy,  “A beautiful big heavy award and written on it, a global UAV contribution award, in recognition of outstanding contributions to the global UAV industry, Drone World Congress June 2017 Shenzhen China.”

I ask Jani why he thought Ardupilot received the award, he replied.

“They know that Ardupilot is one of the main reasons why Shenzhen is what it is nowadays. When I started to go there, there were no companies making any kind of drones. Ardupilot, APM is the founding base of the whole Shenzhen drone industry. Government officials announced at the conference that the drone industry will be one of the prime industries for Shenzhen. They are really pushing it hard.”

It is thought more than 1000 companies now use the opensource Ardupilot autopilot code in their drone offerings.

The code not only flies conventional helicopters, multirotors and aircraft but can command boats and rovers to boot. The community that has created the code has constructed the most versatile robot control software in the world.

Best of all, it is completely free to the end user.