Altitude Angel joins Sweden’s trials of drone operation UTM-DroneDJ
Leading European specialist in uniform traffic management (UTM) Altitude Angel has received the nod from authorities in Sweden to deploy its GuardianUTM Enterprise system during trials in the country’s largest test area for drones.
High angel will use its UTM platform during further trials of 2,400 km² Drone Center Sweden in the city of Västervik, on the country’s southeast coast. As a result, the company will become a part of Project PNK maps for positioning, navigation and communication. It will test and evaluate the feasibility and potential benefits of using mobile telecommunications networks to manage the various aspects of UTM in drones. The specific PNK4UTM program will test the approach of monitoring and orchestrating various modes of operation for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights.
The PNK4UTM trials are monitored by the Swedish Transport Administration and its research institutes. Other participants include Drone Center Sweden’s operators, the companies Telia and Ericsson and The Swedish Network of Permanent GPS Reference Station. They will all integrate Altitude Angel’s GuardianUTM Enterprise system into their operations with the goal of enabling successful and secure BVLOS drones.
Optimize communication assets to shape future UTMs for drones
The specific program is part of a broader effort that seeks to bring together actors from academia and the private and public sectors in a joint project to develop services, products, technologies and processes to serve as the basis for the next generation of drones and UTM systems. The goal is to prepare Swedish society and business to react to fully utilizing the potential for advanced air mobility when crafts and services become a reality in everyday life and business.
“Sweden has a rich history in the development and marketing of world-leading technology,” says Karim Cosslett, Sales and Partnership Manager for Altitude Angel. “Getting GuardianUTM Enterprise chosen by one of the country’s most prestigious institutions, which develops next-generation deliveries and solutions for urban air mobility, is very exciting.
PNK4UTM project manager Åke Sivertun says that while Sweden has developed rich and varied communication assets, it looks to Altitude Angel to break them for the best ways of thinking and developing the country’s UTM for drones.
“Given Sweden’s versatile geography, it has for many years built up a large, mature communication network,” he says. However, this network is currently not optimized to communicate with UAVs operating at an altitude of between 10 and 120 m, so the coverage must be verified and the cells, in some cases, adjusted to achieve the desired coverage. New radio frequencies in 4-5G provide great opportunities to add services to the networks that are important to many target groups, including autonomous vehicles. ”
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