Businesses roped in to test, develop island-wide safe drone system

Singapore

THE Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and the Ministry of Transport have roped in the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and several private sector firms to test out a system to serve any enterprise who needs to fly drones safely in Singapore's urban environment.

The consortium will build and test a framework for authorising, monitoring, and coordinating large numbers of drones. The framework will facilitate the charting and approval of flight paths as well as the identification and authentication of aircraft and pilots against a registry.

The two-year programme aims to develop a connected urban airspace management system that allow flight operations as drone pilots remotely operate and monitor beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drones from a Drone Operations Centre.

"Our goal is to make it possible for any enterprise who needs to fly drones BVLOS in Singapore to easily do so in a safe and effective manner," said Ong Jiin Joo, project director of the Future Flight consortium, as well as chief technology officer of Garuda Robotics.

The consortium is led by Singapore-based Garuda Robotics, with the other members including SCDF, private healthcare provider Parkway Pantai, Security Industry Institute, Singtel, Arete-M, AirMap, Gemalto, Flare Dynamics, Volans-i, drone creator Skyfront, University of Glasgow (Singapore), and Acorn International Network.

The members of the consortium will use complementary technologies and carry out stringent tests to ensure the system is both reliable and safe, given that the drones will be flying in an urban environment.

In addition, the consortium will develop remote take-off and landing stations and advanced onboard detect-and-avoid capabilities as well as perform detailed risk modelling and operations analysis.

In a press statement, Future Flight highlighted that the adoption of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or drones, could deliver benefits such as productivity gains and cost savings as well as improve workplace safety across industries.

For its part, the SCDF is looking at how to use the drones to form an aerial supply chain to deliver critical supplies. Meanwhile, Parkway Pantai plans to transport blood samples and specimens by drone between its four hospitals and its central laboratory.

Phua Tien Beng, chief executive officer (Singapore operations division) for Parkway Pantai, said: "Parkway Pantai is always exploring new ways to provide quality healthcare to our customers more efficiently. Emerging technologies like unmanned aircraft systems allow us to unlock new opportunities in how we deliver care more expediently and better serve our patients."