As of: February 22, 2024, 9:00 a.m
By: Tobias Gmach
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Off-road vehicles that transport relief goods into dangerous regions without a human crew are part of a DLR project with the “World Food Program”.
© DLR
The DLR, based in Oberpfaffenhofen, has renewed its alliance with the United Nations World Food Program.
Technology is used to combat famines and other disasters.
Oberpfaffenhofen - Predicting famines, providing crisis information and closing supply gaps: The German Aerospace Center (DLR), based in Oberpfaffenhofen, is pursuing these goals using modern technology - especially alongside the United Nations World Food Program. WFP), the largest humanitarian organization in the world.
The partners have now renewed their alliance: Prof. Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, CEO of DLR, and Bernhard Kowatsch, head of the “WFP Innovation Accelerator”, signed a cooperation agreement in Munich for another five years.
According to the DLR press office, the aim is to further develop and use cutting-edge technologies for humanitarian aid.
The signing took place as part of the “WFP Innovation Pitch Event”, a side event of the Munich Security Conference with 200 tech experts and guests of honor from politics and business.
At the innovation exhibition, DLR presented the main activities of its “Technologies for Humanitarian Aid” initiative.
This includes the FamPred project.
Behind this are methods based on artistic intelligence (AI) for predicting trends in food security - they are applied to vulnerable regions worldwide.
“Initial studies show that good predictions are possible for a period of 60 days and that this can be further extended with an improved database and optimized AI processes.
For this purpose, FamPred is also working with Google,” the statement said.
Alliance renewed: DLR Chairwoman Prof. Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla and Bernhard Kowatsch, head of the “WFP Innovation Accelerator”.
© WFP
Another example is the Data4Human project.
It uses AI-based damage detection to help provide timely and accurate satellite and drone information about affected areas after a disaster.
“Within a very short period of time, rescue teams have up-to-date damage maps to identify cut-off regions, estimate the number of people affected and plan the delivery of relief supplies,” explains DLR.
With the help of “Sherp off-road vehicles,” the WFP has already delivered a variety of food items to people in need around the world.
The transport route is often dangerous for the drivers.
In the Ahead project, semi-autonomous “Sherps” are made operational in order to cope with the “critical last kilometers in extreme situations”.
From the perspective of DLR CEO Kaysser-Pyzalla, “Ahead” is one of the highlights of the cooperation with the WFP.
In general, she says: “Since the beginning of our collaboration in 2019, we have dedicated ourselves intensively to the topics of fleet management and autonomous vehicles, drones, geoinformation as well as hunger prevention and forecasting.
The mutual transfer of knowledge and technology was always the focus.”