Drones Beyond. 2023
Unfolding Innovative Aerial Services in the Smart City
Bari - October 25 - 26, 2023
Drones Beyond. 2023
Unfolding Innovative Aerial Services in the Smart City
Venue: Bari
Date: October 25-26, 2023
INTRODUCTION
In particular, the development of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), commonly called “drones”, represents one of the key points of this futuristic vision.
In particular, the development of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), commonly called “drones”, represents one of the key points of this futuristic vision.
Drones allow the creation of new missions and services in increasingly broader scenarios, both civil and defence, urban and suburban, and are used in various industrial sectors, such as agriculture, construction, surveillance, health, energy, the environment, public safety and more. Drones are also users of space services for navigation (GNSS), land observation (earth observation) and communications.
The use of drones for monitoring and inspections is the subject of numerous specific applications and industrial developments. In the transport and logistics sector, the use of drones for deliveries has already been tested in many countries, and the first pilot trials in passenger transport are expected within the next few years.
The European Union is committed to promoting the development of new technologies and to the creation of a drone market that can bring not only innovative services, but also create new skills, consolidate strategic capabilities and, ultimately, contribute to the social and economic growth of the union.
In this direction lies the Drone Strategy 2.0, published by the European Commission at the end of November 2022, which relaunches the development of the world of drones and identifies a series of flagship actions which direct the next steps to follow: from the development of technologies and services, the need to formulate more up-to-date legislation, the certification of systems to enable the provision of new services, airspace management and enabling services, and the need for a European network of infrastructures for experimentation.
Puglia has the opportunity to become an important player in this development path. The regional aerospace sector, which includes more than 100 public and private organizations, with a turnover of 1.5 billion euros and an export of more than 340 million euros (2021 data), is characterized by being a highly integrated, collaborative system devoted to internationalisation, with numerous industrial and scientific partnerships on a global scale. The presence of UAS testing infrastructure and related services (in the Grottaglie Airport Test Bed), even if under development, is a significant factor in accelerating the development for the entire regional, national and European ecosystem.
The Drones Beyond 2023 – Unfolding Innovative Aerial services initiative takes place in this context. The event is to be held from 25 to 26 of October 2023, at the ‘Fiera del Levante’ district in Bari, organized by the Aerospace Technological District (DTA) and the Municipality of Bari. The Drones Beyond 2023 initiative is an action of the ‘House of Emerging Technologies of Bari – Bari Open Innovation Hub’ project.
The first edition of Drones Beyond (Drones Beyond, 2021 Operations), designed and built by the DTA within the Mediterranean Aerospace Matching (MAM) initiative, presented the Grottaglie airport and its operational environment, as well as technologies and solutions in the field of Advanced Air Mobility and Innovative Aerial Services, through demonstrating air operations using unmanned aircrafts.
THE OBJECTIVES, AND THE KEY TOPICS
The initiative aims to be part of the European events in the field of unmanned aircrafts, related technologies and enabling services and air services. Drones Beyond is a powerful space for comparing between institutions, the research ecosystem, the aerospace industrial ecosystem, the training ecosystem and, above all, users and integrators of innovative air services, in order to share a vision of future business models in which UAS and related technologies and solutions are a key factor.
The DB23 will therefore bring together the demand and supply of new technologies but also reflection and stimulus on scientific trajectories and their challenges, on the effects on training needs, and on the necessary awareness and involvement of institutions and entities at all levels.
In detail, the initiative aims to:
- Gather key industry representatives to discuss the strategic, technological, and regulatory evolution of cutting-edge aerospace segments, examining the reflections in the business models and value chains connecting technological offering and the demand for innovation;
- Demonstrate concrete operational experiences, innovative services and the level of maturity achieved.
- Connect innovative startups and SMEs with key European players in the sector.
- Promote the experimental capabilities of the ‘Bari Urban Drone Range’, urban node of the Grottaglie Airport Test Bed, within the European network of research and experimentation sites;
- Attract students and young entrepreneurs to the UAS industrial sector, highlighting the potential for development in terms of training, employment and business;
- Contribute to the process of accepting the use of these innovative technologies, showing their potential and usefulness for the community and citizens.
The main themes that will be addressed during the event are:
- Technologies that enable drones to fly and provide complementary services, including satellite technologies (Earth Observation, GNSS, SATCOM);
- Air traffic and navigation management functional to safely integrate drone operations (U-space, ATM/UTM integration, creation of flight corridors for drones).
- The importance of developing test and demonstration sites for UAS and for solutions and services, with drones that can accompany the development phases, from prototyping to deployment in an operational environment, also including the regulatory tools to facilitate experimentation.
- The development of the infrastructures of the vertiports and their methods of operation;
- The innovative air services enabled by drone air operations (precision farming, surveillance, inspections, surveying, telecommunications support, aerial work…);
- Innovative air mobility (urban and regional).
Drones Beyond 2023, starting from the results achieved in the previous editions, intends to consolidate the scope of the initiative both to UAS technologies and to innovative air services, favoring the development of new business models that include aerospace technologies. The protagonist will be the city of Bari which, with the ‘Bari Urban Drone Range’ operated by the DTA, in conjunction with the Grottaglie Airport Test Bed research and experimentation infrastructure, consolidates an aggregation center of an ecosystem dedicated to the interconnected development of new Innovative Aerial Services for smart cities and more.
This edition will focus on the role of drones in the value chain. The leitmotif will be the understanding of the applicability of drones in different operational sectors and as a tool for public administration, and the value they are able to deliver in new value chains, with the idea that technological innovation must be aimed at improving the quality of life of society.
Drones Beyond 2023 will favor industrial development by creating the environment to a large audience of experts and potential users to learn about the state of the art echnological developments and perspectives, and to appreciate them with live and recorded operational demonstrations. The system architectures that can enable land observation, aerial work and mobility services for public and private applications will be presented. Airspace management, U-space services, is an integral part of the demonstration sessions. The demonstrations will highlight the complexity, effectiveness and potential of results delivered to the user, yet the aspects related to operations and regulations will not be neglected. All this contributes to the broader national and European debate which has been increasingly lively in recent years.
THE INVOLVEMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE AND STUDENTS
The DB23 foresees the carrying out of a series of educational activities focused on technological innovation, with particular attention to the technology of unmanned aircraft and STEM disciplines, with the aim of stimulating the creativity and curiosity of young people and students, and promoting their active engagement in building their future and the society in which they live in. Among these, following the large participation recorded in the first edition, the “DB racing” will be revived – an FPV drone race open to lower and lower secondary schools and universities.
Finally, there will also be moments of exchanging ideas with the ESA BIC Brindisi team, an incubation center for startups and companies that provides selected startups with support for the development of innovative products and services in the space sector. It will be a unique opportunity for young entrepreneurs to develop innovative ideas and cutting-edge technologies, with the prospect of generating future business opportunities.
THE LOCATION: the BARI URBAN DRONE RANGE
Drones Beyond 2023 will take place in the ‘Fiera del Levante’ district, in the base area of the ‘Bari Urban Drone Range’. Bari is one of the 5 cities participating in the implementation of the Strategic Plan for ‘Advanced Air Mobility’, prepared by ENAC in 2021. The ‘Fiera del Levante’ district hosts an area equipped to test innovative air service solutions and innovative terrestrial and area, the primary reference area of the ‘Casa delle Tecnologie Emergenti’ project in Bari. The DTA has equipped the area with a control room that monitors the aerial operations of drones through various tools and also hosts prototype applications.
The Bari Urban Drone Range is an infrastructural component of the Grottaglie Airport Test Bed: if the airport enables to test flight capabilities of aerial platforms (UAS) and to fine-tune the air-ground communication systems as well as to integrate the UAS in U-space, the Bari Urban Drone Range is the place to experience innovative aerial services by operating in a real and lively smart city environment. The Bari Urban Drone Range aims to act both as a training ground for dealing with all the operational and logistic aspects for the implementation of environmental and territorial monitoring services and logistics, and as a basis for the provision, in the short future, of services for the Bari metropolitan area.
Drones Beyond provides the perfect context to demonstrating the ability to operate drones in urban areas while creating and spreading awareness of the infrastructural and dynamic conditions of a smart city in which operations and mobility in urban areas will soon be a concrete reality.
Various ongoing initiatives, coordinated by DTA, intend to develop standardized operating methods, technologies and enabling solutions (including UTM services) for the implementation of territorial monitoring services which will further develop the transformation of Bari into a smart city, as well as emergency transport services between and in the different areas of the city.
BARI OPEN INNOVATION HUB is a project led by the Municipality of Bari presented in response to the notice of the Ministry of Economic Development (MISE) – based on resources from the Development and Cohesion Fund – for the realization of “Houses of Emerging Technologies”. These places are the core of technological transfer, aimed at supporting research, experimentation projects, the creation of start-ups, and the technology transfer to SMEs on issues relating to the use of the Blockchain, IoT and Artificial Intelligence. The objective of the ‘Bari Open Innovation Hub’ project is to create an innovation hub in the metropolitan city of Bari to test new technologies and operational protocols.
Through the use of 5G, as an enabling technology, AI, next-generation IoT and drones, the topic of autonomous and semi-autonomous driving has gained particular relevance.
The project proposal is characterized by the presence of an extremely qualified public-private partnership able to ensure the necessary skills to carry out research activities (University of Bari, Free Mediterranean University, National Research Council) and technology transfer to companies (District Aerospace Technology and MEDITECH). Furthermore, the project aims the creation of experiments and prototypes (TIM, Exprivia, AMT Services), the definition of operational protocols and national and international standards (ENAC) and the maximum dissemination and replicability of results (ANCI, ARTI). Drones Beyond 2022 is a technology transfer, communication and territorial animation initiative proposed by the DTA, to demonstrate the potential and benefits for the community of innovative solutions and services that will be tested in the ‘House of Emerging Technologies’ thanks to the Bari Open Innovation Hub project.
To Find out more, click here.
Initiative organized by:
Under the patronage of:
With the support of:
Participating as partners of the “Bari Open Innovation Hub” project:
ENAC e
TIM, Exprivia, AMT Services
Participating as partners in the Education activities:
Ufficio Scolastico Regionale per la Puglia;
Participating as service providers and UAS operators:
ENAV, D-flight e
DroneBase, Nimbus, TopView
Drones Beyond 2022 is an initiative implemented as part of the “Bari Open Innovation Hub” project, funded by the Ministry of Economic Development and the Development and Cohesion Fund with the “House of Emerging Technologies” call.
ASSURED-UAM: URBAN AIR MOBILITY FOR THE FUTURE OF THE CITIES
Where: Fiera del Levante, Bari
Key messages
The GZM METROPOLIS for ASSURED-UAM
- The ASSURED-UAM case will be presented together with the main national and European projects related to the implementation of UAM in cities.
- In implementing urban air mobility, GZM focuses on educating city authorities to raise awareness of their responsibility for UAM challenges, including the impact on airspace management and the need to adapt infrastructure. Indeed, knowledgeable cities are excellent scenario carriers for developing UAM services and important ambassadors for these solutions.
- To demonstrate the potential of UAM for cities, we rely on the collaboration of an ecosystem: cities – R&D – industry.
The CITY OF PORTO for ASSURED-UAM
- The ASSURED-UAM case will be presented together with the main national and European projects related to the implementation of UAM in cities.
- Focus on bottlenecks in logistic areas.
- Focus on demo flights with the hospital, survey and modelling of the competitiveness of transport modes.
- Willingness to monitor activities (traffic, building maintenance), conditioned access zones and vigilance.
Key questions
Public acceptance: how can it be actively promoted?
- Being a first mover: perceived benefits and needs, building infrastructure and conditions to use.
- Consequence analysis to understand the environmental benefits.
- Benefits for cities and citizens: recognising the common goals of sustainability that bind different stakeholders to work together.
Joint action to make UAM a reality: how can all relevant stakeholders work together to facilitate this process?
- Recognise the importance of bringing together different actors – public authorities, start-ups, universities or industry.
- Work with national authorities and companies to overcome problems.
Critical milestones & challenges on the way to deployment: how to overcome challenges?
- Protecting people’s privacy, controlling noise and visual pollution, managing the safety of eVTOLs flying in urban environments, etc.
- Political, regulatory, systems and technical challenges
- Definition of air corridors and location of vertiports for implementing a U-Space system that will allow drones to transport goods in a safe and controlled environment.
- Test infrastructure as the key to certification and safe autonomous flight.
- Urban logistics versus passenger transport.
Drones Beyond. 2023
Unfolding Innovative Aerial Services in the Smart City
Venue: Bari
Date: October 25-26, 2023
INTRODUCTION
In particular, the development of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), commonly called “drones”, represents one of the key points of this futuristic vision.
Drones allow the creation of new missions and services in increasingly broader scenarios, both civil and defence, urban and suburban, and are used in various industrial sectors, such as agriculture, construction, surveillance, health, energy, the environment, public safety and more. Drones are also users of space services for navigation (GNSS), land observation (earth observation) and communications.
The use of drones for monitoring and inspections is the subject of numerous specific applications and industrial developments. In the transport and logistics sector, the use of drones for deliveries has already been tested in many countries, and the first pilot trials in passenger transport are expected within the next few years.
The European Union is committed to promoting the development of new technologies and to the creation of a drone market that can bring not only innovative services, but also create new skills, consolidate strategic capabilities and, ultimately, contribute to the social and economic growth of the union.THE OBJECTIVES, AND THE KEY TOPICS The initiative aims to be part of the European events in the field of unmanned aircrafts, related technologies and enabling services and air services. Drones Beyond is a powerful space for comparing between institutions, the research ecosystem, the aerospace industrial ecosystem, the training ecosystem and, above all, users and integrators of innovative air services, in order to share a vision of future business models in which UAS and related technologies and solutions are a key factor.
The DB23 will therefore bring together the demand and supply of new technologies but also reflection and stimulus on scientific trajectories and their challenges, on the effects on training needs, and on the necessary awareness and involvement of institutions and entities at all levels.- Gather key industry representatives to discuss the strategic, technological, and regulatory evolution of cutting-edge aerospace segments, examining the reflections in the business models and value chains connecting technological offering and the demand for innovation;
- Demonstrate concrete operational experiences, innovative services and the level of maturity achieved.
- Connect innovative startups and SMEs with key European players in the sector.
- Promote the experimental capabilities of the ‘Bari Urban Drone Range’, urban node of the Grottaglie Airport Test Bed, within the European network of research and experimentation sites;
- Attract students and young entrepreneurs to the UAS industrial sector, highlighting the potential for development in terms of training, employment and business;
- Contribute to the process of accepting the use of these innovative technologies, showing their potential and usefulness for the community and citizens.
- Technologies that enable drones to fly and provide complementary services, including satellite technologies (Earth Observation, GNSS, SATCOM);
- Air traffic and navigation management functional to safely integrate drone operations (U-space, ATM/UTM integration, creation of flight corridors for drones).
- The importance of developing test and demonstration sites for UAS and for solutions and services, with drones that can accompany the development phases, from prototyping to deployment in an operational environment, also including the regulatory tools to facilitate experimentation.
- The development of the infrastructures of the vertiports and their methods of operation;
- The innovative air services enabled by drone air operations (precision farming, surveillance, inspections, surveying, telecommunications support, aerial work…);
- Innovative air mobility (urban and regional).
BARI OPEN INNOVATION HUB is a project led by the Municipality of Bari presented in response to the notice of the Ministry of Economic Development (MISE) – based on resources from the Development and Cohesion Fund – for the realization of “Houses of Emerging Technologies”. These places are the core of technological transfer, aimed at supporting research, experimentation projects, the creation of start-ups, and the technology transfer to SMEs on issues relating to the use of the Blockchain, IoT and Artificial Intelligence. The objective of the ‘Bari Open Innovation Hub’ project is to create an innovation hub in the metropolitan city of Bari to test new technologies and operational protocols.
Through the use of 5G, as an enabling technology, AI, next-generation IoT and drones, the topic of autonomous and semi-autonomous driving has gained particular relevance.
The project proposal is characterized by the presence of an extremely qualified public-private partnership able to ensure the necessary skills to carry out research activities (University of Bari, Free Mediterranean University, National Research Council) and technology transfer to companies (District Aerospace Technology and MEDITECH). Furthermore, the project aims the creation of experiments and prototypes (TIM, Exprivia, AMT Services), the definition of operational protocols and national and international standards (ENAC) and the maximum dissemination and replicability of results (ANCI, ARTI). Drones Beyond 2022 is a technology transfer, communication and territorial animation initiative proposed by the DTA, to demonstrate the potential and benefits for the community of innovative solutions and services that will be tested in the ‘House of Emerging Technologies’ thanks to the Bari Open Innovation Hub project.
To Find out more, click here.
Initiative organized by:
Under the patronage of:
With the support of:
Participating as partners of the “Bari Open Innovation Hub” project:
ENAC e
TIM, Exprivia, AMT Services
Participating as partners in the Education activities:
Ufficio Scolastico Regionale per la Puglia;
Participating as service providers and UAS operators:
ENAV, D-flight e
DroneBase, Nimbus, TopView
Drones Beyond 2022 is an initiative implemented as part of the “Bari Open Innovation Hub” project, funded by the Ministry of Economic Development and the Development and Cohesion Fund with the “House of Emerging Technologies” call.
ASSURED-UAM: URBAN AIR MOBILITY FOR THE FUTURE OF THE CITIES
Where: Fiera del Levante, Bari
Key messages
The GZM METROPOLIS for ASSURED-UAM
- The ASSURED-UAM case will be presented together with the main national and European projects related to the implementation of UAM in cities.
- In implementing urban air mobility, GZM focuses on educating city authorities to raise awareness of their responsibility for UAM challenges, including the impact on airspace management and the need to adapt infrastructure. Indeed, knowledgeable cities are excellent scenario carriers for developing UAM services and important ambassadors for these solutions.
- To demonstrate the potential of UAM for cities, we rely on the collaboration of an ecosystem: cities – R&D – industry.
The CITY OF PORTO for ASSURED-UAM
- The ASSURED-UAM case will be presented together with the main national and European projects related to the implementation of UAM in cities.
- Focus on bottlenecks in logistic areas.
- Focus on demo flights with the hospital, survey and modelling of the competitiveness of transport modes.
- Willingness to monitor activities (traffic, building maintenance), conditioned access zones and vigilance.
Key questions
Public acceptance: how can it be actively promoted?
- Being a first mover: perceived benefits and needs, building infrastructure and conditions to use.
- Consequence analysis to understand the environmental benefits.
- Benefits for cities and citizens: recognising the common goals of sustainability that bind different stakeholders to work together.
Joint action to make UAM a reality: how can all relevant stakeholders work together to facilitate this process?
- Recognise the importance of bringing together different actors – public authorities, start-ups, universities or industry.
- Work with national authorities and companies to overcome problems.
Critical milestones & challenges on the way to deployment: how to overcome challenges?
- Protecting people’s privacy, controlling noise and visual pollution, managing the safety of eVTOLs flying in urban environments, etc.
- Political, regulatory, systems and technical challenges
- Definition of air corridors and location of vertiports for implementing a U-Space system that will allow drones to transport goods in a safe and controlled environment.
- Test infrastructure as the key to certification and safe autonomous flight.
- Urban logistics versus passenger transport.
