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