Drones operate across multiple sectors including medicine, agriculture, mapping, deliveries, inspection and emergency services. They range over different terrain and display different characteristics. The DIODE project focused on demonstrating capabilities to safely manage multiple drones flying in very low-level airspace at the same time, while accomplishing multiple tasks and missions. The project worked on the assumption that each aircraft (manned and unmanned) will report its positions. In other words, the whole traffic is cooperative and its complexity is therefore reduced.

A consortium of Italian companies conducted 11 missions in Rieti, a small province close to Rome, with several different geographical situations, including rural, mountain and remote territories, industrial, urban and semi¬-urban. The demonstrations covered a wide range of operations: parcel delivery; road traffic patrol; professional photography; railway and power lines surveillance; search and rescue, airport operations; interaction with general aviation; and firefighting. The flights were carried out in combination with manned flight and took account of third parties on the ground.

The demonstrations adopted a risk-based approach to the provision of initial and advanced U-space services aligned with the expectation of drone operators. The drones were monitored using D-Flight, a dedicated platform which provides e-registration, e-identification and static geofencing in compliance with European regulations due to be introduced in 2020. The risk assessment followed the specific operations risk assessment (SORA) methodology used for complex drone operations and looked at new competences and technology to support the growth of drone services.

DIODE demonstrated emerging and mature capabilities on-board drones, which support the deployment of a risk-based and an operation-centric concept of U-space.

The project considered a huge range of drones and highlighted opportunities where the drone market can also contribute to development of more advanced U-space services.

Participants:

ENAV
Leonardo
Telespazio
IDS Ingegneria Dei Sistemi e-GEOS
Nextant Applications & Innovative Solution (NAIS)
AiviewGroup
Poste Italiane 
EuroUSC Italia
Techno Sky