Translated with DeepL
The Canton of Zurich is home to an above-average number of players who are world leaders in the broad field of flying or ground-based autonomous systems. This prompted the Canton of Zurich's Office for Economic Affairs and Labour and SATW to organise a follow-up workshop to the successful "Autonomous Systems" kick-off event in September 2021.
The LINA consortium, which includes academic institutions, industrial practice partners and the regulatory authorities, operates the infrastructure for the development and testing of flying autonomous systems in the Canton of Zurich.
Drones that interact with surfaces such as trees, bridges, flames, rotor blades or water. What sounds like science fiction is already a reality in Prof Mirko Kovač's labs at Empa. One day, the drones should be able to carry out measurements or repairs autonomously and thus relieve people in dangerous situations on the one hand and increase the longevity of infrastructure on the other.
The innovation park on the site of Dübendorf Airport acts as the nucleus for this. On 40 hectares, space is being created for collaboration between science and business to fuel innovation. The innovation park benefits from its unique starting position with large areas and an airfield as a test site, which is to be converted for civilian use. In support of this, the FOCA is creating the first U-Space in Switzerland around Zurich Airport.
The newly launched Innovation Zurich platform provides important guidance in the corporate landscape. The thematic coverage currently includes four important topics for Zurich - and the trend is rising. The platform of the Office of Economy and Labour of the Canton of Zurich has set itself the goal of promoting innovation in Zurich; events, networking and visibility for innovative companies in the form of portraits are the most important building blocks.
The BRIDGE Lab at the University of Zurich endeavours to bridge the gap between increasingly complex problems and the human ability to understand them. The project addresses the challenge of integrating new technologies such as drones into society as a solution for urban air mobility. Over the next two years, the project will seek dialogue with the public and provide guidance in the complex technological world.
The SATW is aware of the importance of social acceptance of technologies, which is why it will dedicate a separate chapter to technology assessment for the first time in the Technology Outlook 2023, which will be published in late summer.
