Vodafone to test traffic control for drones over mobile network
Vodafone to test traffic control for drones over mobile network
Telecoms industry seeks lead role in safely integrating unmanned craft into airspace
Nic Fildes, Telecoms Correspondent FEBRUARY 20, 2018 3
Vodafone is to test the world’s first air traffic control system for drones over a mobile network as the telecoms industry seeks to take a central role in developing a framework to integrate drones safely into international airspace.
The telecoms company will work with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on the tests, to take place in Germany and Spain. Preliminary trials in Seville last year showed that its 4G network could be used to control a 2kg drone. The company intends to make the drone tracking and safety technology available for commercial use from 2019.
The proliferation of drones has caused a problem for aviation regulators, bringing safety concerns and the risk of inadvertent or criminal incursions around sensitive locations including airports and prisons, where drones have been used to deliver contraband. The European Commission has launched a “U-space” initiative to develop innovative and safe drone operations.
The system is not designed to track and monitor consumer drones but instead the larger classes being developed for commercial use. It will be able to track drones up to a height of about 400m and force descent on any device that strays higher towards the flight path of ordinary aircraft.
Vodafone has adapted a system it first developed to track McLaren Formula One cars using its mobile network. Santiago Tenorio, now Vodafone’s group head of networks, strategy and architecture, worked on the McLaren trials.
Companies such as Amazon are considering drones for deliveries and other services, presenting a challenge to traditional air traffic control systems, which cannot pick up small craft on radar systems.
In future, Vodafone is also hoping its technology will be applicable to larger unmanned aircraft.
The Financial Times first reported that companies including Vodafone and Nokia had met aviation regulators in 2016, a sign that telecoms companies were looking to the skies for growth opportunities in the “internet of things”.
Some aviation regulators have argued that if the technology were proved at low levels, where the majority of leisure and commercial drones are expected initially to operate, it could eventually replace the traditional air traffic management system used for thousands of passenger and cargo flights every day. Vodafone will have to work with local traffic management systems during the trials.
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