UAV

‘Giant Step for Urban Drone Environments’

The Hera Drone Hub has announced Altitude Angel, UTM (unifi ed traffic management, or U-Space) technology provider, is to provide UTM through its GuardianUTM Enterprise platform to the world’s first urban test centre in a CTR.

Spanish city of Zaragoza have become the first European city to authorise drone testing and drone pilot training in the Control Zone (CTR) of an airport region within an urban airspace. The test environment, which will allow operators and pilots to train with drones of up to 500kg in weight, is made up of two TSAs within the Zaragoza CTR which are approx. 2.5 kilometers (1.55 miles) apart. The River Ebro, which cuts through the city, provides a natural corridor over which drones can operate between the two TSAs.

GuardianUTM Enterprise is an intuitive, cost-effective U-Space platform which was initially developed to support regional and local airports manage drone operations within their managed airspace. Its deployment at the Hera Drone Hub will be its first in a city environment. www.altitudeangel.com

Pegasus Imagery, Kongsberg Geospatial Sign MOU

Kongsberg Geospatial, and Pegasus Imagery Ltd. have recently signed an MOU to work together to advance the development of safe, autonomous Unmanned Aircraft.

Pegasus designs, manufactures and operates autonomous Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) to deliver Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (ISR) solutions at scale for industry and government. It will be implementing Kongsberg Geospatial’s IRIS UxS airspace situational awareness system as a navigational system for their Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight flight operations, and as part of their PV- 02 Eos autonomous aircraft system. https://kongsberggeospatial.com

Drone deliveries of medical supplies in Telengana

Flipkart, India’s homegrown e-commerce marketplace, has announced its partnership with the Telangana government to lead a consortium tasked with the development and execution of the drone deliveries of medical supplies to remote areas under the ‘Medicines from the Sky’ project.

These efforts will be complemented with technologies such as geo mapping, routing of shipments and track and trace of location etc., developed by Flipkart over the years. A combination of these technologies will then be used to conduct Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) deliveries in remote areas of the state where the road infrastructure is not conducive for fast delivery of vaccines. https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/flipkart-partners-telangana-govt-drone- deliveries-medical-supplies-150550

Delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to remote areas by drones in India

The government of India has invited bids for the use of drones to deliver COVID-19 vaccines and drugs to remote and diffi cult- to-reach areas to ensure last-mile coverage in select locations of the country.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) conducted a successful feasibility study in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur and has developed a standard protocol for the delivery of vaccines using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), according to the bid document.

On behalf of the ICMR, the HLL Infra Tech Services Limited (Procurement Support Agency) has invited expression of interest (EOI) through the Central Public Procurement Portal from experienced Indian agencies for the delivery of medical supplies (vaccines/drugs) by UAVs.

According to the tender criteria, the ICMR shall engage UAV operators who are able to conduct beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations in fi xed pre- defi ned fl ight paths, deliver medical supplies payload at select locations in India and return to the command station.

According to the specifi cations, UAVs should be able to cover a minimum aerial distance of 35 km, able to take off vertically and carry a minimum payload of 4 kg and should be capable of returning to command station after delivering the payload. www.thehindu.com

Airpeak S1 professional drone

Sony Electronics Inc. has announced their first-ever professional drone, the “Airpeak S1”i. It is the world’s smallestii drone that can be equipped with a fullsize mirrorless interchangeable-lens Alpha camera, opening up a new world of creative possibilities. The new drone utilizes a proprietary motor, propeller, control system and sensing technology, allowing it to fly at extremely high speeds with very stable wind resistance. It also features an advanced remote controller that can support the production of highquality aerial images and freely control the aircraft. It also includes obstacle detection, automatic flight control via sensing and increased safety via cloud management of the aircraft and flight information. https://electronics.sony.com

Intelligent Drone Deliveries in the US

Drone Express has partnered with FarEye, an Intelligent Delivery Management Platform, to power autonomous drone deliveries for leading retailers in the United States.

Drone Express operates as a logistics company, working with companies to strategically introduce drone package delivery into their supply chains and service offerings. FarEye provides Intelligent Delivery Orchestration solutions helping retail enterprises provide new delivery experiences. End-to-end visibility is achieved by optimizing routes resulting in a positive customer experience. https://droneexpress.ai

Intermap integrates NEXTView with IDRONECT UTM for Africa

Intermap Technologies has announced the successful integration of its NEXTView platform with Aviatize‘s IDRONECT UTM to support a medical delivery pilot project in Africa. Developed in partnership with Lufthansa Systems, this is the second strategic deployment for NEXTView in Africa. Aviatize’s IDRONECT UTM (Unmanned Traffi c Management system) will be the control hub for drones to fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) when delivering medicine to remote locations. www.intermap.com

ResponDrone adds 3D mapping abilities

The international ResponDrone project has integrated into its situation awareness system for emergency situations a near real-time 3D mapping solution to provide on-site emergency teams with tools that will help them to better evaluate their working environment. The upgraded ResponDrone System will provide accurate location information to fi rst responders, especially in relation to infrastructure, when called on to deal with a fire, flood or any other natural disaster. It has signed an agreement with Hivemapper to integrate its latest crowdsourced mapping technology. It can now fl y a mission over an area, process the collected data and turn it into an up-to-date 3D map. https://respondroneproject.com

Terra Drone conducts flare stack inspection

Terra Drone has successfully conducted visual inspection of fl are stacks for Chile’s state-owned energy company ENAP. In this project, three fl are stacks – each about 70m tall – were inspected in 45 minutes using drones. This proved to be signifi cantly more cost-effective and quicker, than the conventional method, of engaging the services of a professional photographer, in a manned helicopter. Terra Drone used a DJI M210 RTK drone mounted with 2 cameras – a Zenmuse Z30 (zoom camera) and a Zenmuse X5S (high-resolution camera) – for this activity. https://terra-drone.eu