The Advanced Centre for Aerospace Technologies (CATEC), together with the aeronautical engineering companies AERTEC and Pildo Labs and the University of Seville, have successfully completed a series of real-world tests in Seville, within the context of the U-ELCOME Project, aimed at demonstrating the viability of transporting goods, in this case medical cargo, over long distances, using drones and UAS.
The U-ELCOME project is coordinated by Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, and its objective is to carry out demonstrations of the safe and reliable integration of commercial activities with drones in airspace. Seville and Jaén are two of the 15 locations, spread across Spain, France and Italy, where these tests will be carried out, which will help accelerate the incorporation of U-Space services in Europe.
U-space is a set of digital and automated services designed to allow safe and efficient access to a large number of unmanned aircraft in the same airspace. U-space is a framework for the development of UAS operations, their integration and coexistence with manned aviation (air traffic management services, ATM, and air navigation services, ANS).
The trials carried out in Seville have consisted of a test of how UAS in a U-space airspace can optimize the delivery of medical cargo in urban, interurban and rural environments by improving the efficiency, safety and sustainability of operations. The key, on this occasion, has been the combination of digital and physical infrastructure capabilities. The viability of the concept has been demonstrated and flights will soon be carried out in real scenarios.
The test involved the collection of various medical loads (medications, defibrillator, surgical equipment, etc.) in a hospital area with a drone from the University of Seville, which took them to a nearby runway where a TARSIS UAS was waiting, which was responsible for quickly transporting the medical load up to several dozen kilometers, where, upon landing, the load was transferred to another small drone, responsible for taking it to its destination point, in an area of difficult access. The flights carried out were BVLOS (beyond the pilot’s visual field) and were carried out automatically.
These tests have demonstrated the viability of carrying out UAS operations supported by U-space U1 and U2 services. This means that both the basic U-space services (U1), including e-registration, e-identification and geo-awareness, and also the initial services (U2), including flight planning, approval, tracking, dynamic airspace information and information exchange with air traffic management (ATM) systems, have been validated.
This project has received funding from the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) under grant agreement No 101079171.
