Iprosurv secures Extended Visual line of sight permissions from the CAA
Iprosurv, the UK’s leading drone survey, inspection and mapping provider and ARPAS-UK Member, has secured Extended Visual Line of Sight permissions from the Civil Aviation Authority for its network of remote pilots.
Standard aviation regulations insist that drones remain within the pilot’s sight at all times during flight which has historically limited flight distances to around 500m.
However, Iprosurv’s new permissions allow its remote pilots to fly drones up to 2km from the launch site, with no direct line of sight required by the remote pilot.
The special permissions, issued by the CAA have so far been granted to less than 1% of the nation’s commercial drone operators, means that Iprosurv pilots can not only fly closer to the target site but can also fly further and for longer periods of time providing clients with a complete and instant overview of an area or building.
This is not the first time that Iprosurv has received exemptions to current flight restrictions having secured reduced site control distances in 2018.
“We are delighted that the CAA has once again recognised the high level of training, safety and monitoring that takes place across our network of remote pilots and has seen fit to provide us with these new permissions,” said Iprosurv co-founder and CEO, Rebecca Jones.
“What may seem like a technicality is actually a huge leap forward in the capabilities of drones, particularly in the early assessment of disaster areas, assisting the emergency services and in the survey of inaccessible buildings.
“These exemptions will allow us to stream footage and data direct to the client’s desktop even before a site has been physically visited.”
Currently, when faced with a large survey area, pilots often have to stop a flight once the limits of line of site have been reached, drive to the next launch site and start the process again. Iprosurv’s new level of functionality will allow insurers, property managers and the emergency services to view the entire area and assess and triage the situation in real time.
“Drones have always had the potential to completely change the way we respond to disasters or large-scale surveys but having the ability to remain in the air for longer, going further distances and relaying real time data back to the client is a huge step forward,” said Jones.
“In granting these permissions, the CAA has shown a welcome willingness to help unlock the commercial and societal benefits of drones and we look forward to introducing our new capabilities to all of our clients.”
Iprosurv currently has a core of pilots trained and ready to use the new permissions and will have the full network trained by Q4 this year.
24th August 2020
iprosurv.com
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Notts Police Drone finds Missing Boy
A missing child was located by a police drone on Thursday night, the latest missing person to be found using this new aerial tool.
A vulnerable 10-year-old boy was reported missing in Bull Farm, Mansfield on Thursday evening after a family arguement, and had fled his house without any shoes on. Officers on the ground were unable to locate him, so a drone was launched to search from the skies.
Aided by a clear description of what the boy was wearing, the drone pilot was able to locate him using the zoom capability. By using this feature the pilot was able to see a vast area and spot him that he was only wearing socks and was appearing to hide in a street.
The boy was unharmed and was later returned home.
Nottinghamshire Police’s Drones Unit was launched in January and is made up of three high-tech drones and 15 police officers who – in addition to their other duties – have been trained to fly them.
Based at Hucknall Police station, the team are on duty 24/7 and can be called to assist in any incident across the county.
PC Vince Saunders, Nottinghamshire Police’s chief drone pilot, said: “Our drones are particularly useful for finding missing people because they can search a very large area in a relatively short space of time.
“They can also use their thermal imaging cameras to find people hidden by trees or by darkness. Results like this really show the value of our drones and also serve as a timely reminded why we’ve invested such a lot of time and money to get them off the ground.
“It was a fairly quick end to the incident which could have continued for a significant period of time, which prevented an unnecessary callout to the police helicopter.”
Since it was launched in January the drones team has helped in 44 arrests and also helped to locate 10 high risk missing people.
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Building Trust in Drones
PwC have launched their updated reported on the impact drones will have on the UK’s economy, productivity, jobs and quality of life. The original report was published in 2018.
Drones offer public and private organisations an opportunity to carry out tasks faster, safer, cheaper and with less impact on the environment than traditional methods. This report focuses on these types of drone operations, which PwC refers to as “Commercial Drones”, excluding drones used by hobbyists, drones used to transport passengers and counter-drone solutions.
Drones could contribute up to £45bn to the UK economy
More than 900,000 drones could operate in the UK’s skies
£22bn in net cost savings may be realised
Carbon emissions could be reduced by 2.4M tons
650,000 jobs could be associated with an economy that fully adopts drones
Research project to open pathway to commercial drone operations the UK
A ground-breaking new project announced today (30th July) will build and then demonstrate how Open-Access UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) capability can support drone operations below 400ft.
The Connected Places Catapult is bringing together a national and international consortium to develop a world leading Open-Access UTM framework for drones. The project, commissioned by the Department for Transport, will continue laying the groundwork for a safe flying environment for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operations in the UK, enabling efficient sharing of airspace with manned aircraft and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations of drones.
There is a huge global opportunity for countries that can successfully accommodate commercial drone operations, it’s thought the sector could be worth £127bn globally. UTM is recognised as a key enabler to address the safe and efficient integration of unmanned vehicles into the airspace and Connected Places Catapult in collaboration with AiRXOS (part of GE Aviation), Altitude Angel, ANRA Technologies, Collins Aerospace and Wing will work towards the first set of the safe and regulated UTM capabilities this year.
This research and development project will create principal architectural features, communications interfaces and key services that will be evaluated through simulations before progressing to field-trials. The trial will build on existing platforms and standards to create a developmental system to explore UTM and drone operations, as well as identifying the next research steps and facilitating knowledge transfer to government and industry.
Dr. Ajay Modha, Principal Technologist at the Connected Places Catapult, said:
“This is an exciting opportunity to demonstrate a UK-specific UTM ecosystem and represents a key step in lowering the technology and operational barriers for UAS operations. A key objective is to demonstrate how this capability can support near term and future markets needs and ambitions. As Phase 2 of the Future Flight Challenge kicks-off, a key aim of this project is to provide greater insight and actionable data to the UAS community who may be tackling UTM for the first time”.
Ted Lester, Chief Technologist, AiRXOS said:
“After participating in the successful 2019-2020 effort with Connected Places Catapult to develop a framework for UTM in the UK, AiRXOS looks forward to demonstrating with peer UTM service providers safe, efficient, and economical UAS airspace integration to accelerate the beneficial use of UAS in the UK and around the world.”
On being chosen to take part in the Connected Places Catapult project, Richard Ellis, Altitude Angel, Chief Business Officer said:
“We are delighted to continue to work with CPC to continue validation of the Open UTM framework we pioneered in 2019. The live trials will benefit significantly from Altitude Angel’s existing extensive API’s and experience of providing production services across the world. We believe this will form a solid foundation for the UK to establish repeatable and scalable drone operations.”
Amit Ganjoo, CEO and Founder of ANRA Technologies UK Pvt Limited said
“The UK is rapidly becoming a global leader in advancing commercial drone technologies. We are honoured to have contributed to all Connected Places Catapult Open-Access UTM Research and Development Programmes and are excited to commence live-flight testing in pursuit of a safe, interoperable, and efficient traffic management system,”
Sean Camilleri, Principal Strategic Development Manager at Collins Aerospace said:
“This ground-breaking program gives us the opportunity to test out the most prominent emerging standards and theories of UAS traffic management and put them to the test in collaboration with our peers. Successful trials will enable us to move another step closer to unlocking the full social and economic benefits of beyond visual line of sight drone operations in the UK”.
James Ryan Burgess, CEO at Wing said:
“Drones and the services they provide present significant benefits to the United Kingdom, supporting emergency response, reducing emissions and air pollution and increasing access to food, medicine and other goods. We’re pleased to be joining the Catapult project to advance the safe and open use of the airspace and look forward to bringing our global experience to enable a scalable and low cost UTM architecture that can support the volume and diversity of unmanned aviation.”
Note to Editors
This project will build on the UTM and Government Drone Pathfinder activity that Connected Places Catapult has published previously:
Future Flight is one of several challenge areas set-out by the UK government’s Industrial Strategy which is a long-term plan to raise the productivity and earning power in the UK. The Future Flight programme is funded by £125 million from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund which is expected to be matched by up to £175 million from industry. The challenge will cover four areas of activity:
Control and regulations including air traffic management
New operating models
Ground infrastructure
Integrating new aircraft with a new aviation system
This challenge aims to revolutionise the way people, goods and services fly and position the UK as a world leader in aviation products and markets worth over $675 billion (£559bn) to 2050.
It will support the development, in the UK, of new technologies from freight-carrying drones
to urban air vehicles to hybrid-electric regional aircraft. These new modes of travel will
increase mobility, reduce road congestion, improve connectivity, increase UK manufacturing
opportunities and help aviation to reduce its environmental impact around the world.
Connected Places Catapult manages the Drones Pathfinder Programme in partnership with the Department of Transport (DfT) and supported by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). https://cp.catapult.org.uk/pathfinder/
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European Maritime & Safety Agency publishes a new Call for Tender
The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has published a new Call for Tender:
SurvSeaNet Web Application: Live Video Streaming and Sensor Data Geolocation for Mission Control of Remotely Piloted Aerial Systems (RPAS/UAV/UAS)
SurvSeaNet is a web-based service to follow in real-time the flight of a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS), during a mission of up to 24 hours, in the maritime domain. The SurvSeaNet also includes a set of tools to schedule RPAS missions and analyse the data collected during the flight: EO and IR video, AIS and Radar vessel detection, high-resolution images, gas measurements, etc.
For further details and the Tender Documentation please visit:
