SPADE, CHAMELEON and ICAERUS at MDPI’s “Drones for Rural Development II” Webinar Thumbnail

SPADE, CHAMELEON and ICAERUS at MDPI’s “Drones for Rural Development II” Webinar

On September 19th, the SPADE EU project, Chameleon HorizonEU, and ICAERUS EU successfully shared insights during a webinar co-organized with MDPI. The event highlighted the pivotal role of drones in rural development, addressing key areas like precision agriculture, land management, and environmental protection.

On behalf of SPADE, Dr. Costas Davarakis presented on Monitoring Open Field Grazing, emphasizing the use of Multi-purpose UAVs, Direct Sensing Telemetry, and Edge Computing for Cloud-Based Digital Twinning.

This webinar presented the three referent European projects, associated with the development of rural areas, and used drones as the main thread. The scope of drone utilization in rural regions is extensive, spanning sectors such as agriculture, forestry, livestock, other industrial domains, environmental monitoring, and the assessment of water quality in rivers and lakes. Drones also play a vital role in firefighting efforts and provide assistance to the population, particularly elderly individuals.

The event brought together researchers, policymakers, drone enthusiasts, and industry experts to discuss real-world use cases, share project developments, and explore future opportunities for drone technology in rural and environmental applications.

Last year, the projects already shared their work at the previous “Drones for Rural Development” Webinar available here: https://lnkd.in/gWc-RgMn.

Know more about the agenda of this year’s event on the MDPI page: https://lnkd.in/dGSYz27B.

SPADE is a project funded by the European Union within the Horizon Europe program, with 21 partners from 10 European countries. For more information, kindly visit https://spade-horizon.eu/;

ICAERUS is an EU-funded project that aspires to advance the use of drones in agricultural production, forestry and rural communities. For more information, kindly visit https://icaerus.eu/;

CHAMELEON is a Horizon Europe Project that aims to optimize production and identify potential problems in agriculture, livestock, forestry and rural areas. For more information, kindly visit https://chameleon-heu.eu;

MDPI is a pioneer of academic open access publishing, which have been serving the scientific community since 1996. They focus on promoting collaboration, transparency, and innovation across various scientific fields, aiming to advance science by making high-quality research freely accessible to the public.

SPADE, CHAMELEON and ICAERUS at MDPI’s “Drones for Rural Development II” Webinar
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SPADE at the Thessaloniki International Fair

From September 7th to 15th, the SPADE team participated in the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) held in Greece. This event provided an excellent platform for SPADE to present its mission, latest achievements, and ongoing projects to a diverse audience, highlighting its contributions to key sectors and the technological landscape.

This year’s Thessaloniki International Fair focused on addressing modern challenges facing Greece’s economy, with particular emphasis on technological advancements, innovation, and sustainability. The event’s thematic areas included academia, technology research, energy, circular economy, and more, attracting participation from various industries and international stakeholders.

During the fair, SPADE presented its vision for sustainable technological development and showcased key results that align with the broader themes of the event, such as innovation and research. The fair’s focus on new tools and sustainable solutions across critical sectors resonated with SPADE’s goals, creating an ideal setting for networking and collaboration.

The Thessaloniki International Fair continues to be a central hub for the convergence of academia, industry, and policy discussions on cutting-edge technologies and their role in addressing national and global challenges.

For more information on the event, participants, and agenda, visit the official website: https://t.ly/CMGi-

SPADE at Thessaloniki International Fair
SPADE EU Project News 1st Joint Newsletter with ICAERUS & CHAMELEON

The SPADE Participation in Joint Newsletter with ICAERUS and CHAMELEON

SPADE project is pleased to announce its participation in a collaborative newsletter initiative with sister projects ICAERUS and CHAMELEON. The joint newsletter will serve as a platform to introduce the three projects, fostering knowledge exchange and strengthening ties within the scientific community.

SPADE, ICAERUS, and CHAMELEON, while distinct in their specific areas of focus, share a common goal of integrating drones as a multi-purpose solution for agricultural, forestry and livestock use cases. This joint newsletter initiative presents a valuable opportunity to leverage the collective expertise and progress achieved by each project, ultimately accelerating progress in the specific fields.

The special issue of the newsletter is out!
Enjoy Reading Here

MWC 2024 (2)

SPADE participated at Transport Research Arena (TRA) 2024 Conference

In a Transport Research Arena (TRA) 2024 event held at the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin, SPADE, on behalf of Anssi Rauhala from University of Oulu, presented an oral communication  titled “The Governance and Regulations of Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the European Union – A Comparative Framework,” captivating audiences with early insights from the SPADE project.

The SPADE project’s participation at TRA 2024 underscored its dedication to cutting-edge research and highlighted the vital importance of navigating the evolving realm of unmanned aerial technology within the EU’s regulatory framework. With an estimated participation of approximately 4000 attendees, TRA 2024 served as a beacon for fostering innovation and collaboration in the transportation sector, offering a platform for researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders to exchange ideas and insights. As the largest European research and technology conference on transport and mobility, TRA 2024 provided an unparalleled opportunity for the SPADE project to contribute to advancements in UAV governance and shape the future of transportation in Europe and beyond.

 

MWC 2024

SPADE at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024

SPADE at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024

MWC is the largest event for the connectivity ecosystem. 2024 edition brought together global mobile operators, device manufacturers, technology providers, vendors, content owners and enthusiasts in the future of technology.

SPADE, represented by María Elena Martínez Hernández and Alberto Sierra Bañon from SPLORO introduced our project during the event. Our presence at MWC Barcelona 2024 provided us with a valuable opportunity to showcase the SPADE project to a diverse and extensive audience. By actively promoting SPADE’s Open Call #1 during the event, we laid the groundwork to attract potential applicants.

 

SITE

SPADE’S FIRST OPEN CALL IS HERE!

The inaugural Open Call for the SPADE EU Project has begun. From 9 February to 10 April 2024, at a 17:00 CET, you can take part in SPADE’s first Open Call. All applications must be connected to the fields of forestry, livestock, and agriculture. There will be 6 funded projects related to the use case studies and additional overarching challenges that apply universally across all of SPADE’s pilot initiatives.

The total budget is 360,000 euros, and each winning project could win 60K. There will be two funded open calls, all related to the SPADE case studies:

The field of drone technology for agriculture can be shaped by these broad initiatives. An opportunity for the future of drone technology!

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SPADE’s drone testing at SDU in Odense, Denmark

While 2023 might be wrapping up that does not mean that activities within SPADE are closed for the year!

Our partners at SDU (University of South Denmark) are continuing their activities and have utilized a compact drone to conduct a maiden indoor test within their facilities, focusing on the SPADE swarm use case. This drone includes a NVIDIA Nano board which acts as an onboard computer for AI applications.

This initial trial mainly focused on validating the drone’s reliability and an approximate estimation of its flight time, accounting for the board and battery installed.

This landmark is very important as SPADE continues to bring forward innovative solutions to the forefront as 2024 approaches!

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Consortium Meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia

Bratislava was the home to SPADE’s latest consortium meeting, from November 2nd to November 3rd. BAVENIR, as one of the project partners, hosted this meeting.

During the first day, proceedings initially focused on presentations of the status of each Work Package and then attention shifted to the discussion groups on the afternoon. Multiple topics were discussed such as SPADE architecture, platform and digital twins.

The second and last day focused on the soon-to-be-launched SPADE open calls, reviewing topics with an aim to provide a final decision for their introduction. In the afternoon, open source was discussed, as well as the upcoming approaches for communication and dissemination of the project.

We would like to thank all the partners that made the trip to Slovakia and were connected online. This meeting was vital towards the future of SPADE’s success. A final thank you is also in order to BAVENIR and the 5 Stars Offices’ teams for the logistical preparation.

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BCO Network sessions: an opportunity for knowledge exchange

The European BCO Network is an EU funded project that connects national and regional public authorities responsible for broadband deployment across EU Member States. This initiative organizes regular closed online knowledge exchange and capacity-building sessions that delve into a variety of connectivity-related topics.

In the last session, on October 17th 2023, the BCO Network featured two presentations on Horizon-funded pilot projects focusing on smart farming. SPADE, on behalf of Aristotelis C. Tagarakis, showcased its versatile physical-cyber agri-forest drone ecosystem designed for governance and environmental observation. On the other hand, our sister project, Chameleon, presented its holistic approach to sustainable, digital EU agriculture, forestry, livestock, and rural development, utilizing reconfigurable aerial enablers and on-demand edge artificial intelligence systems. Together with the project presenters, the potential of 5G technology to further enhance these two groundbreaking projects was explored.