Europe conducts first trial of traffic management based on drones and Nokia's UTM solution

The Dutch Twente Airport has become the first European testing facility for traffic management based on unmanned aerial vehicles, in which this communications provider collaborates to develop and test it near urban areas.

The Finnish multinational Nokia will support the first European testing facility dedicated to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for traffic management in smart cities. These facilities are located at Twente Airport, near Enschede (Holanda), permitirán a esta compañía desarrollar y realizar pruebas de campo de su sistema de Gestión de Tráfico de Vehículos Aéreos No Tripulados UTM (UAV Traffic Management), para la utilización de drones en las proximidades de áreas urbanas, personas, etc.

For this, Nokia ha firmado un memorándum (MoU) con el Municipio de Enschede, la administración local de la provincia de Overijssel, Unmanned Systems Center B. V. y Area Development Twente, con el fin de realizar el diseño y la provisión de la infraestructura para probar y desarrollar dicho sistema en el Aeropuerto de Twente, con demostraciones comerciales y simulaciones de aplicaciones de la vida real.

La solución UTM de Nokia proporcionará funcionalidades de automatización de vuelo y control de las zonas en las que no está permitido, así como capacidades de operación sin línea de visión directa, que serán vitales para operar de una forma segura los vehículos aéreos no tripulados en ciudades densamente pobladas y en áreas rurales remotas.

La tecnología de Nokia se apoya en su experiencia en el desarrollo de LTE y 5G y en la funcionalidad de computación en la Frontera de la Red de Móviles MEC (Mobile Edge Computing), para garantizar una latencia extremadamente reducida y una fiabilidad elevada que se requieren para la gestión de tráfico de vehículos aéreos no tripulados.

The drones will be equipped with a Nokia UTM modem (which consists of an LTE modem, a GPS transceiver and other telemetry modules), in combination with the computing and processing power of the company's AirFrame platform, to carry out monitoring of airspace and flight paths.

These systems can exchange telemetry data and dynamically establish zones where flight is not allowed, thus ensuring safe operation near other users of civil airspace.

A smartphone application of Nokia's UTM solution, operating with the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Traffic Management interface, will provide drone operators with flight permits, information on areas where flying is not allowed, as well as on local regulations, all in real time.

In addition, Nokia's UTM platform can be adapted to the individual regulatory requirements of different countries, with the possibility of providing the basis for global standardization of these systems.

During the opening session held at Space 53, the test area of Twente Airport, visitors were able to see a wide range of demonstrations on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in agricultural applications, in search and rescue activities, and public safety and the protection of airports against birds.

For Thorsten Robrecht, head of advanced mobile network solutions at Nokia, 'unmanned aerial vehicles are becoming a common tool in numerous industrial sectors', enhancing security and inspection and maintenance activities, among others. It is critical that these vehicles operate safely and without failures in the complex environments of the real world. This requires much more than having an intelligent drone; an intelligent traffic control system that has been thoroughly tested and is fully developed is needed.

Hasta el momento, Nokia es el único suministrador de comunicaciones que está construyendo en la actualidad este sistema, asegura este responsable, “y estamos trabajando con las agencias regulatorias para realizar los procedimientos de estandarización necesarios”.