Dronecloud leads UK research and innovation consortium to integrate software systems required for BVLOS drone flights. – sUAS News – The Business of Drones
Project Rise provides a crucial building-block for the systems needed to unite manned
and unmanned aircraft safely in the same airspace.
Project will culminate in field trials of an UAS delivery operation supporting Beyond
Visual Line of Sight drone flights at Cranfield University test facility
Project received grant of £500,000 from UK Research and Innovation fund as part of
Future Flight Challenge
Dronecloud, the Drone Management Software provider, has today announced it is leading a consortium to support Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Drone flights. The consortium has formed ‘Project Rise’, part of the Future Flight Challenge project1 funded by UK Research and Innovation, through the multi-billion-pound Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. It is composed of key industry partners, including Sky-drones, Cranfield University and Skyports.
The project aims to integrate evolving Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM), the drone
version of Air Traffic Control (ATM), with the control systems onboard drones. It will then
form part of a Centralised Command and Control Solution, based on the existing Dronecloud Software as a service (SaaS) platform. The project is part of an overall effort across the drone industry to integrate disparate systems at scale, to achieve safer, more reliable and auditable drone flights, even beyond the line of sight.
Dronecloud is a provider of Drone Management Software. Its technology is designed to
streamline the administration of enterprise drone operations safely. The company offers to significantly cut operating costs by combining business and technical tools. Ultimately, it supports its clients to be able to safely operate drones beyond visual line of sight.
Project Rise will develop an integrated software and hardware hub proof of concept. The
complete system will include Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) hardware, ground control
stations, flight commissioning and planning, flight control and telemetry, deconfliction
services, supplementary data feeds, airspace authorisations, flight noticeboard, Electronic ID, auditability, flight termination, accident and incident reporting, and digital flight logging. The project will culminate in field trials of a UAS delivery operation supporting BVLOS drone flights at the Cranfield University test facility. The system will work within the Open UTM framework to identify and create open system integrations that will be transferrable to the wider drone industry.
Speaking of the project, Dronecloud Co-founder and CEO, Jan Domaradzki, said: “Moving
beyond the hype to integrate drones into congested urban airspace remains a tough nut to crack, and that’s a good thing. It’s our job to create the behind the scenes systems that will ensure it can happen safety at scale, in order to win the trust of the public and regulators. It’s a great honour for the team at Dronecloud to gain the backing of the Future flight challenge to form this consortium. We’re looking forward to creating the infrastructure for the aerial highways of the future.”
In many industries, drone operations have evolved organically, with more and more tasks
being completed by drones as the benefits are better understood. As operations become more complex, Dronecloud and its partners ensure that they are both compliant, efficient and, above all, safe in how they operate. With dozens, if not hundreds of drone projects running, the traditional mosaic of multiple data points, spreadsheets, emails, is just not a sustainable way of managing operations.”
The global Beyond Visual Line of Sight – BVLOS drone market (revenue) is currently
estimated at approximately $19B, (CAGR) of nearly 6% and a projected market size of
$34B by 2029 Global. Europe is estimated to account for approximately 25% of the global drone market, with a projected BVLOS market worth $8.5B.
(Source: BVLOS Drone Market BIS Research 2019)
About Dronecloud
Dronecloud is a cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) solution targeted at enterprise level drone operations, built for drone operators by drone operators. Its platform and evolving ecosystem integrates complex drone fleets, team-based project management, real-time air space & ground hazard data into a risk assessed and auditable workflow built for mission-critical drone ops. Dronecloud has been helping some of the biggest UK and International drone users with operations currently supported by Civil Aviation regulation while paving the way for Beyond Visual Line of Sight and increased autonomy & automation. The future of drone operations, Today!