ARPAS-UK Member uAvionix produce a range of Electronic Conspicuity devices including the SkyEcho and ping1090i, which are both eligible for the DfT & CAA £250 rebate – see below for details.
This offer is valid until 28 February 2021.
Further information:
SkyEcho link on UAVionix website
pink1090i link on UAVionix website
As a partner to the Drone Pathfinder Catalyst Programme of Catapult, ARPAS-UK engaged widely across UK sector verticals to drive the safe adoption of drones via awareness and education. This included running CPD seminar sessions, hosting presentations at large trade shows, and releasing a series of educational ‘case studies’ about how drones can be used to improve safety, productivity and decisions-making in different applications.
Drones are transforming the way that buildings and infrastructure assets are inspected. Owners of place and property portfolios can harness drone services to drive safety, productivity and efficiency whilst also improving resident and service user satisfaction.
Snowdonia Aerospace is pleased to announce that we have received a grant award from UK Research & Innovation for an 18-month drone development programme in partnership with Swiftflight Avionics as part of the UK Future Flight Challenge, a £33.5m element of the Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.
The primary objective of our Project “Gold Dragon” is to accelerate development and testing of an active detect-and-avoid solution for light drones, typically less than 150kg take-off weight, enabling their safe and full integration into the UK aviation system. Our aim is to achieve approval for regular and routine beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations in non-segregated airspace by the end of the project so we can start to deliver commercial drone services in Wales and beyond.
We have already built a successful relationship with the Welsh Ambulance Service via our recent proof-of-concept demonstration for delivery of a mini-defibrillator by drone to a remote rural location and will continue to prioritise health services in remote and rural communities as part of this project along with the wider NHS Wales network.
Snowdonia Aerospace has already completed proof-of-concept demonstration for delivery of a mini-defibrillator by drone to a remote rural location
The UK survival rate for an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is only 8.6%. Resuscitation Council guidelines recognise that survival rates of 50 to 70% could be achieved with defibrillation within 3 to 5 minutes of OHCA, but each minute of delay reduces the probability of survival by 10%, and in the UK fewer than 2% of victims have a defibrillator deployed before the ambulance arrives. The situation is most acute in remote and rural locations.
Flight testing in the unique operational environment provided at Snowdonia Aerospace Centre will also allow us to involve other potential emergency response stakeholders such as the Police, Fire, Coastguard, and Mountain Rescue, and we have already begun engagements to capture their key requirements.
Lee Paul, CEO of Snowdonia Aerospace said:
“We are delighted to be awarded funding through the Future Flight Challenge programme. The grant will enable us to continue the development of our proposed drone service provision in support of the NHS and other emergency services initially across Wales. Our earlier work demonstrated the advantages of using drones to support remote and rural areas with the drone covering 4.5km in under 3 minutes compared to an equivalent road journey of 20 minutes. The time saving being critical in cases where early defribilation is required.
As the UKs leading aerospace R&D test centre, the airfields environment, facilities and infrastructure will also support a range of other companies looking to develop their own Future Flight programmes in a safe operating environment and we look forward to working with them also.”
Dr. Phil Geoghegan, MD of Swiftflight Avionics said:
“This project is an exciting application of UAV active sensor technology, with the aim of routine point-to-point BVLOS UAV flight. We see this as a game-changer for UAV operation. We are delighted to be working with the test and evaluation specialists at Snowdonia Aerospace Centre and the Welsh Ambulance Service.”
Councillor Gareth Thomas, Cabinet Member for Economy and Community, Gwynedd Council, said:
“We are delighted to see that the drone technology trialled earlier in the year from Llanbedr to transport medical defibrillators to remote communities will now be further tested for other responses by the emergency services. We also look forward to linking this work to the STEM Gogledd programme, which supports and promotes STEM education across north west Wales”
Dr. Nigel Rees, Head of Research and Innovation for the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust, said:
“The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust is looking forward to continuing this exciting development which has the potential to improve the care we provide and save lives.”
John Whalley, CEO of Aerospace Wales, said:
“Aerospace Wales is working closely with Welsh Government on the strategy for Future Flight in Wales and we are delighted that Aerospace Wales member, Snowdonia Aerospace, has been successful in its bid to the UK’s Future Flight Challenge phase 2 competition. The “Golden Dragon” project, in partnership with Swiftflight Avionics, builds on the highly successful BVLOS emergency medical response drone trial carried out earlier this year. This continuing development places Snowdonia’s airfield at Llanbedr right at the heart of BVLOS development in the UK.”
Snowdonia Aerospace is an ARPAS-UK Member
11th November 2020
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 an 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 datapoints, 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)
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!
https://dronecloud.io/
More information
For press: press@dronecloud.io
For customers and partners: hello@dronecloud.io
Call Dave Bush for further information: +44(0)7868738159
About Project Rise:
“Unlocking the future of drone operations through integration.”
Project Rise is a UK consortium setting out to solve a global problem: how do we safely and reliably integrate unmanned aircraft into the same airspace as manned aircraft over some of the world’s busiest and densest urban conurbations? Project Rise aims to do that through creating a system can communicate between drones and manned aircraft simultaneously.
Member organisations:
Dronecloud (ADJsoft Limited) – Project Lead
Sky-Drones Technologies – Drone Hardware and Software
Sky-Drones’ Kirill Shilov (Founder & CEO): “Our main goal is to accelerate the development and adoption of unmanned aerial vehicles for enterprise by building connected hardware and software products for drone manufacturers and commercial drone service providers. We always strive to improve the safety and efficiency of drone operations and this collaboration will help to bring this to the next level.”
About Sky-Drones Technologies: https://sky-drones.com/
LinkedIn: Sky-Drones
Twitter: @skydronescom
Cranfield University – Academic research partner (Systems Integration, Target Operating Model & Legal)
Dr Saba Al-Rubaye, Senior Lecturer in Autonomous and Connected Systems at Cranfield University said: “The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent social distancing measures has expedited the need for the fast and efficient delivery of goods – autonomous drones are an ideal solution for this. We’re delighted to be part of the Project Rise team, working to address the challenge of establishing reliable data and communication
systems for unmanned aerial operations and their safe integration with manned aircraft in the
same airspace.”
About Cranfield University: www.cranfield.ac.uk/aerospace
Skyports Ltd – Drone Delivery Service Provider (inc. Regulatory approval consultancy)
James Bircumshaw MRICS Infrastructure Manager at Skyports said:
“The integration of manned and unmanned aircraft in unsegregated airspace is key to creation of a drone delivery service that can be scaled for permanent commercial operations. We are excited to be part of Project Rise that will develop the solutions to help unlock the economic and social potential of drone technology operated beyond visual line of sight”.
About Skyports: https://skyports.net/
About UK Research and Innovation
UK Research and Innovation is a new body which works in partnership with universities, research organisations, businesses, charities, and government to create the best possible environment for research and innovation to flourish. We aim to maximise the contribution of
each of our component parts, working individually and collectively. We work with our many partners to benefit everyone through knowledge, talent and ideas. For more information visit: https://www.ukri.org
Dronecloud, Cranfield University and Skyports are all ARPAS-UK Members
10th November 2020
Sky-Futures, one of the world’s leading drone inspection and survey service providers, has appointed connected insurance provider, Flock, as its drone insurance partner.
The partnership will enable Sky-Futures to seamlessly scale its drone insurance in line with its global expansion plans. The company has now conducted hundreds of large scale projects in over 33 countries, with further plans for expansion for 2021.
Sky-Futures will also be able to harness insights generated by Flock’s risk intelligence engine to further optimise safety standards, allowing them to continue reducing risk and thereby unlock additional insurance savings.
Images: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/18T7hClnUvBsffnaEqZa9_ffrLoSz39RQ
In the past 10 years, Sky-Futures has risen to prominence as one of the largest drone-based inspection and survey organisations globally. The company conducts a range of services across sectors including oil and gas, telecommunications, utilities, renewables, engineering, maritime and survey. Sky-Futures was acquired by private equity-backed, asset integrity management business, ICR Integrity in May 2019.
Chris Blackford, CEO of Sky-Futures said: “Safety is key for Sky-Futures and our customers, and we needed an insurance partner that shared this focus in everything they do. Flock goes above and beyond, helping to drive safety standards across the drone industry and accelerating the adoption of emerging technology worldwide.
“As we’ve continued to expand globally, we needed to ensure that our insurance partner had the capability to keep up with our complex needs and rapid rate of growth. We are adding new drones, pilots, and locations to our policy almost every week, it was therefore important that we engaged a data-driven insurtech like Flock could keep up with our quickly changing requirements.”
Ed Leon Klinger, CEO of Flock said: “At Flock, we take pride in supporting some of the world’s largest drone fleets with fair, flexible and transparent insurance. Sky-Futures has been an industry pioneer for many years, and we’re delighted to bring them on board.
“In an increasingly connected and autonomous world, it’s essential that insurance companies leverage the vast amounts of real-time data available to provide fair, accurate pricing for their customers. But we can go further – at Flock, we’re helping our customers understand their own exposure to complex risks, how this impacts their policy price, and how to reduce it over time”.
Established in 2016, Flock has analysed over a million drone flights and insures thousands of commercial drone operators, from micro-SMEs to global fleets. The insurtech’s risk intelligence engine ingests realtime, third party and proprietary data to calculate risk on a per-flight basis. This analysis takes into account a wide variety of datasets, from hyper-local weather and traffic flows to the operating temperature and wind resistance of the drones themselves.
Flock uses the data generated by its risk intelligence engine to create in-depth risk profiles of every operator it insures. These risk profiles allow Flock to provide customers with exposure-based insurance policies and reports detailing the major factors impacting risk. By making operational changes based on these risk reports, companies can improve safety standards and, as a result, unlock additional insurance savings.
The London-based insurtech is now working with insurers to scale globally and apply its technology to additional industries, all as part of its goal of becoming the go-to insurer for a connected and autonomous world.
About Flock
Flock, a London-based insurtech on a mission to make the world a smarter, safer place. We’re reinventing commercial insurance from the ground up by using cutting edge technology to price, insure, and mitigate fleet risks.
Having soared to dominance in the commercial drone industry, we’ve now set our sights on becoming the go-to insurer for the connected and autonomous world. We believe the insurer of the future will be actively helping customers reduce incidents instead of just being there when something goes wrong.
Flock’s roots are in academia and data science, arising from research papers at Imperial College London and Cambridge University. We launched Europe’s first ‘pay-as-you-fly‘ drone insurance product in 2018, and have skyrocketed since then.
Flock’s digital underwriting platform has enabled a range of data-driven insurance and risk management products in the drone industry, from on-demand insurance for individual operators to an conneted exposure based product for the world’s largest drone fleets including Sky-Futures, Terra Drone and Lorenz Technologies. We now work with leading underwriters, aviation authorities and major manufacturers to help thousands of customers to fly safer and smarter every single day.
About Sky-Futures
Since 2009, Sky-Futures has established itself as the world’s leading provider of drone-based inspection services to the global industrial markets. This expertise, operational knowledge and experience have been employed to develop ground-breaking software, sensor and technology solutions for the drone-based industrial inspection market. Our leading technology is being used today by clients looking to harness the power of drone-driven data collection and analysis.
Sky-Futures enables Enterprise to perform safe and cost-effective drone inspections of a variety of vertical infrastructures, including but not limited to the following industries: Oil and Gas; Renewables; Utilities; Telecoms; Bridges; and Engineering.
Both Flock and Sky-Futures are ARPAS-UK Members and we are delighted to see Members working together.
November 10 2020
Government announces the first wave of winners receiving government funding for ground-breaking aviation projects solving major global challenges
Innovative projects harnessing the latest technology to support the fight against COVID-19 and other challenges like climate change, while creating hundreds of jobs across the country, have been backed by government investment, Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi has announced today (9 November 2020).
The 20 winning ideas will receive a share of £7 million funding ranging from the development of drones capable of delivering COVID-19 medical supplies to remote areas, to technology to enable remote inspections of infrastructure and construction sites – removing the need for workers to potentially be put at risk.
The funding, backing the aviation technologies of the future, comes at a critical time for the industry, with winners demonstrating pioneering ways they are responding and adapting to the challenges posed by issues including climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.
The funding today forms part of a wider £33.5 million investment with an additional 28 potential projects also in the pipeline for government backing.
Business and Industry Minister, Nadhim Zahawi, said:
As the UK leads the way in the aviation revolution, these bold proposals showcase the pioneering spirit of the UK’s aerospace and aviation industries in solving global issues, and those facing us here in the UK.
Today we have announced over £7 million of funding for projects across the country which demonstrate how using the latest and most cutting-edge aviation technologies can step up our response to the coronavirus pandemic, help us build back better and cement our well-earned reputation for research and development excellence, while creating hundreds of new jobs.
Transport Minister Rachel Maclean said:
The UK is already a world-leader when it comes to innovation in aviation and this funding will allow us to carry on supporting the extraordinary work taking place right across the country.
Innovation delivers real change and our support for dynamic ideas in this exciting sector means we are now seeing real life solutions, like the drone delivery of COVID-19 medical supplies, for challenges such as public health and climate change.
The £33.5 million investment comes from the Future Flight Challenge, which aims to increase mobility, reduce reliance on road travel thereby improving road congestion, and increase UK manufacturing opportunities. Today the first wave of 20 winners have been announced, with more projects to be announced in the coming weeks.
Of these, 9 projects are focussed on developing technology to aid the response to the coronavirus pandemic. This includes the development of unmanned drones to deliver medication, reducing human contact and, consequently, transmission of the virus.
Advances in alternative, green energy sources to power aircraft, including hydrogen and electricity, are also a key feature of some of the winning proposals.
The projects include:
Today’s announcement is part of wider support for the aviation and aerospace industries. The UK has a world-leading aerospace sector generating well-paid jobs and suitable growth across the country, and the government is continuing to support the industry – and their aviation customers – with over £9.5 billion in R&D grants, loans and guarantees, and support for exports and exporters.
In total 34 projects are set to receive a share of £30 million, while an additional 14 projects, focused specifically on coronavirus response, will receive a share of a further £3.5 million.
Today 20 winners, receiving a total of £7.35 million, have been announced.
Of the winning proposals announced today, projects include:
Projects focused specifically on coronavirus include:
This investment is part of the government’s commitment to help advance the UK’s future transport system through its extensive R&D Roadmap and to increase R&D public spending to £22 billion per year by 2024/25.
The £7.35 million funding announced today represents the first wave of projects totalling £33.5 million funding through the Future Flight Challenge (FFC). Over the next few years, The FFC will distribute £125 million from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF). The FFC aims to accelerate the UK’s position as a world leader in revolutionising how people, goods and services fly. It focuses on the development and demonstration of a novel integrated aviation system that enables the safe operation of new classes of air vehicles. These include air taxis, drones and regional aircraft using electric or autonomous technologies. The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund aims to bring together researchers and businesses to tackle the big societal and industrial challenges of today.
Further quotes:
Future Flight Challenge Director at UK Research and Innovation, Gary Cutts, said:
At this very challenging time for the international aviation industry, it is a great testament to the UK’s drive and ambition that we have had such a strong response to the first funded Future Flight competition.
The breadth, quality and creativity of the bids has been exceptional and the economic and social benefits offered are very significant.
Chair of the Drone Industry Action Group, Ian Gray, said:
The Future Flight Challenge has been hugely successful in bringing together the different communities necessary to realise the economic and social benefits in the UK of autonomous air vehicles. I am delighted on behalf of the Drones Industry Action Group to see the range of successful grant awards including drone developers, service providers and Air Traffic Management solution providers.
The Drone Industry Action Group was established in 2016 as a collaborative forum for government.
Published 9 November 2020
From:Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, UK Research and Innovation, and Nadhim Zahawi MP
The WeF collates articles and reports on both commercial and military drones. These can be accessed for free via: www.weforum.org You will need to create an account. The drone area can be found here .
Drones can grant anyone access to airspace, with very low barriers to entry. These unmanned aircraft systems are creating value as they increase crop yields, lower chemical footprints, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and act as a lifeline for rural populations in hard-to-reach places.
Advances in battery development, sensor miniaturization, and computational power are making drones a common tool; Goldman Sachs estimates that the related market opportunity between 2016 and 2020 will amount to $100 billion.
Longer term, autonomously-piloted drone systems are being developed to transport people within cities. However, the prevalence of drones may be limited by flight time capability, regulatory hurdles, and public perception of risk and privacy.
Earlier in 2020, the TAS Hub was announced. In order to realise the industrial and societal benefits of Autonomous Systems, they must be trustworthy by design and default, judged both through objective processes of systematic assurance and certification, and via the more subjective lens of users, industry, and the public.
Today six new research projects have been launched by UKRI to tackle challenges to the development of autonomous systems:
To address the challenges of autonomous systems, UKRI is investing £33 million in the Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) programme. The programme is funded through the Strategic Priorities Fund and delivered by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
The projects, called nodes, are part of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) programme, and will undertake fundamental, creative and multidisciplinary research in various areas key to ensure autonomous systems can be built in a way society can trust and use.
4 November 2020
Plans to beam 5G signals to the public via drones that stay airborne for nine days at a time have been announced by two UK firms.
They want to use antenna-equipped aircraft powered by hydrogen to deliver high-speed connectivity to wide areas.
Stratospheric Platforms and Cambridge Consultants say they could cover the whole of the UK with about 60 drones.
But telecoms analysts question whether the economic case for this scheme is quite as simple as it sounds.https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.36.2/iframe.htmlmedia captionPilotless planes will fly at about 60,000ft up and provide a 5G signal to mobile devices
The Cambridge-based companies say they would run the service in partnership with existing mobile operators.
They are already backed by Deutsche Telekom, which hopes to trial the technology in rural southern Germany in 2024.
Cambridge Consultants designed the antenna for the Stratospheric Platforms aircraft, which is designed to fly at an altitude of 20,000m (65,617ft).
They say they have successfully tested beaming a lower-bandwidth signal from a plane flying at a lower height.
But so far, the drone required is still on the drawing board and would need to be tested with a emission-free hydrogen fuel cell and 5G antenna on board.
Google, with its Project Loon, is running a similar project to bring wireless broadband to remote places using solar-powered high-altitude balloons.
But the chief executive of Stratospheric Platforms says using hydrogen fuel cells is a superior solution.
“This is a very high-density energy source, which enables us to produce a huge amount of power for long periods of time,” explains Richard Deakin.
He adds that each drone would cover an area of 140km (87 miles) in diameter below.
And users would get download speeds of about 100Mbps – allowing them to download a typical four-gigabyte movie in under six minutes.
“Terrestrial masts are extremely expensive to install,” adds Mr Deakin.
“With our system, each aircraft will replace at least 200 masts.”
But industry watchers say safety issues need to be resolved.
“The skies are very heavily regulated,” says John Delaney from research firm IDC.
“Getting a network of constantly flying drones in the stratosphere within three or four years would be difficult.”
Mr Deakin is a former chief executive of Nats – the UK’s National Air Traffic Control Service – so is well aware of what is involved.
And he says the initiative is already talking to air traffic control services across Europe.
By 2024, UK mobile operators should have built much of their 5G networks.
“It is unrealistic to expect that existing infrastructure is going to be displaced by a network of drones,” comments Ben Wood from CCS Insight consultancy.
But he acknowledges they could be useful in hard-to-reach areas, for instance “over large expanses of water, such as a shipping lane”.
Mr Delaney agrees, adding that the solution might suit companies looking to quickly link machines together, for example autonomous trucks driving in and out of a mine.
“You could see a role for a technology like this which lets you get coverage up and running very quickly in very remote areas,” he says.
For now, the biggest challenge could be funding.
Despite Deutsche Telekom’s involvement, the two British firms need more money if they are to offer connectivity from the stratosphere within four years.
Rory Cellan-Jones
3 November 2020
BBC