Thales is planning to take part in a Finnish drone project to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles across a variety of industrial sectors.
The French multinational is set to provide the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) with an unmanned traffic management system (UTM) to handle flight authorisation, geographic information and network identification, and traffic information services.
Thales explained its UTM is the first step VTT is taking in Drolo 2, a project to develop and deploy automated drone systems.
Work is initially focused on U-Space Finland, a set of regulatory frameworks covering unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which forms part of wider European initiatives to enable drone operations.
Thales stated the frameworks could pave the way for drones to be used in fields spanning “logistics, agriculture, forestry, airport and construction operations”. Another element of the work involves creating a business environment for the UAV industry, with an overarching goal of putting Finland in the vanguard of drone launches and testing in compliance with European regulations.
A testing site is located near the city of Oulu, which Thales explained is an ideal proving ground due to having a “medium-sized international airport, seaport, inhabited island”, a mid-sized city centre and a 5G development centre.
Source: Mobile World Live
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