Washington: The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) next week will kick off its inaugural Lift Challenge, a weeklong competition that aims to “revolutionise heavy vertical-lift aviation” by finding a drone capable of lifting and transporting a payload four times its own weight. The agency will award $6.5 million in prizes to the winners.
Phillip “Donna” Smith, the Lift Challenge programme manager and a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, said that multirotor drones are limited in their usability because of their low payload-to-weight ratios, meaning they can only transport a payload equal to or less than their own weight.
“This means as payload requirements increase, so does the size and the cost of the drone,” he said. “With the Lift Challenge, our goal is to dramatically increase the useful load, which will then drive down the cost per pound of transported cargo.”
He described heavy vertical flight as the “next great technological inflection point that is economical for widespread adoption,” comparing its potential impact to the assembly line for automobiles and reusable rockets for spaceflight. He added that it could revolutionise industries like agriculture, logistics, construction, and more.
The competition aligns with the Defence Department’s Drone Dominance initiative, which aims to accelerate drone technology and reduce costs. While Drone Dominance challenges a company’s ability to scale production, DARPA is open to anyone who can build a drone that meets the minimum standards.
The Lift Challenge has attracted more than 100 competitors for drones, ranging from drone manufacturers to engineers to academics to hobbyists. One participant, YouTuber Hoarder Sam, who documents his DIY drone projects, said the challenge appealed to him because of its ambitious goal. Sam recalled watching DARPA’s self-driving car challenge years before autonomous vehicles became commercially viable and said the Lift Challenge struck him in much the same way.
