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Orange Polska and Dimetor are working together in the GOF 2.0 EU project to verify the possibilities to enable the safe operation of drones in the airspace via 5G communications.

“Reliable real-time communication between drone operators, air navigation service providers (ANSPs), and other relevant third parties is critical for deploying innovative drone use cases at scale,” according to a Dimetor press release. “Mobile network connectivity allows drones to be conspicuous and safely managed for beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations.  For this reason, Orange Polska is using Dimetor’s AirborneRF platform to provide critical connectivity and ground risk information in support of BVLOS drone operations.

In the last year, three reasons have emerged to showcase Europe authority’s leading position in cellular-enabled beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) drone operations.

GUTMA and GSMA collaboration (LINK), ACJA Work task #2 has recently released the ‘Reference Method for assessing Cellular C2 Link performance and RF environment characterisation for UAS’. AirborneRF Co-founder and TEOCO Vice President of Business Development and Innovation Thomas Neubauer leads the initiative and explains in this DroneTalks video the essential concepts to take into consideration:

Today at Amsterdam Drone Week, DRONELIFE had the opportunity to speak with Thomas Neubauer, VP of Innovation at TEOCO.   TEOCO is developing the AirborneRF: connecting the cellular industry with aviation.

The Global UTM Association and GSMA, representing more than 750 mobile network operators, set up a collaboration in 2019 called Aerial Connectivity Joint Activity (ACJA). The ACJA is made of several Working Groups, and it focuses on promoting mutual understanding and interchange of data between the aviation and cellular communities. The end purpose is to enhance automated information sharing and avoid incompatibilities between these two ecosystems.

The toughest problem to solve to enable widespread use of autonomous air taxis and drones beyond visual line of sight is the holistic integration of new and legacy air traffic systems. A European project dubbed Gulf of Finland (GOF) 2.0, kicked off on September 2, 2021 and tackled this head on, in the largest trials yet of a single sky air traffic management system. 

While the U.S. chose not to go the route of networked Remote ID, Europe went a different way in developing their UTM program, U-Space.  The newly published NetworkCoverage Service Definition will help European drone operators, aviation systems, and telcos communicate: and the European drone industry to advance towards complex operations.

When we talk about broadcast versus network, the focus has often been mostly around remote ID and their applications to this singular piece of the regulatory puzzle. But what about other pieces like ground and air risk mitigation, live data streaming BVLOS, and other systems that not only make flight safer but also opens up new use cases?

For most commercial drone operators worldwide there is one overriding concern: how can we unlock the true potential of the industry by providing secure beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) services? The theoretical answer has been known for some time. 

We talked about drones as Internet of Things technology, how cellular connectivity enables drone services and what are the use cases today. He shared with us his thoughts about the future of BVLOS drone operations and UAM.