Drone disruption
around cities where navigation and
safety issues are far more prominent.
None of that is stopping Airbus
in its quest to join the automated
package delivery revolution. Drawing
on the expertise of Airbus helicopters
and Airbus Defence and Space, its
Skyways project based in Singapore
signed up SingPost in April 2017 as its
logistics partner to trial small parcel
delivery via drones to designated
stations on the campus of the National
University of Singapore.
The ultimate aim of Skyways
is a safe and commercially viable
aerial unmanned delivery system for
use in dense urban cities, but that
doesn’t preclude another phase in its
development: shore to ship maritime
deliveries. Airbus has teamed with
Wilhelmsen Ships to trial delivery of
goods from the Singapore Coast to
ships at anchor.
Skyways drones will fly along
aerial corridors to avoid collision
while a central ground operations
centre continuously monitors flight
operations. Initial delivery range will
be about three kilometres.
Other companies in the delivery
space include DHL (Parcelcopter)
and Google (Project Wing) which
has trialed package delivery over
multiple test flights near Canberra
in conjunction with separate trials in
the US. Apart from its UAVs, Project
Wing integrates an unmanned traffic
system that may have implications for
successful development of integrated
air traffic management worldwide.
Meanwhile Boeing has joined the
race closer to home in a joint venture
with the Queensland Government to
develop and trial UAVs for a variety
of roles. The three-year deal, signed
in March, covers land, sea and air
projects, and includes search and
rescue and agricultural applications
as well as ocean and land-based
monitoring.
Queensland has been particularly
pro-active in evolving a strategy for
drone management that includes
scoping a possible drone test site near
Cloncurry, while search and rescue
potential has already been thoroughly
demonstrated by the Little Ripper
system linked to Queensland and
NSW surf rescue organisations.
Boeing is also involved as a
development partner in one of the
most imaginative global projects
in terms of scope and scale: Uber
Elevate, the ultimate in aerial ride
sharing, which would see a vast
network of dedicated skyports
handling thousands of vertical takeoff
UAV flights carrying up to four
passengers at a time over the top of
crowded cities.
The sheer weight of corporate
giants partnering Uber in the Elevate
project should go some of the way to
burying scepticism that this should be
parked in the realm of science fiction.
Bell, Embraer, Boeing, Pipistrel and
Karem Aircraft are all involved in
the development of electric VTOL
aircraft capable of meeting Elevate
specifications, while Uber has signed
an agreement with NASA aimed at
resolving airspace management issues.
The Uber timeframe would see trial
flights of experimental vehicles around
2020.
Anyone doubting the viability of
autonomous vehicles themselves only
need look at trials by the Volocopter
in Dubai, a machine capable of both
controlled and remote-control flight.
Volocopter CEO Florian Reuter has
said his company hopes to launch a
flying taxi service by 2022.
Then there is the equally ground-breaking work undertaken by
Chinese company Ehang with its
184 AAV. Ehang’s first test flights in
China, carrying the company CEO
and subsequently local government
officials, took place in February in
Guangzhou. Ehang has undertaken
further tests and demonstrations, also
in Dubai, and is pitching for more
regular public flights of its single
passenger quad-copter later this year.
While these ambitious projects
seize the headlines, the current
mainstay of the commercial drones
industry, in Australia at least, is based
around less glamorous pursuits that
nevertheless have huge implications
for regional economies and asset
management.
Gary King, director and manager of
Toowoomba-based Universal Drones,
specialises in services to regional
and rural Australia with a focus on
agricultural work, surveillance and
inspection, and damage assessment for
insurance purposes. King believes that
what he calls “the bread and butter” ofUber has signed an agreement
with NASA aimed at resolving
airspace management issues
for its Elevate project.UBER‘Uber has
signed an
agreement
with NASA
aimed at
resolving
airspace
management.’
Airbus’s Skyways autonomous
parcel delivery drone made its
first flight demonstration on
February 8, where it validated
its automatic loading and
unloading capabilities. AIRBUS.