Just how close that future is was demonstrated at Space53 and Twente Safety Campus. They hosted the Dutch Drone Delta and the participating parties of Drone2GO and The Beast on 30 September. The demos showed that these partnerships are already miles ahead of the new European legislation that will give some more leeway in their investigations into the possibilities of drones. Currently, a drone is never allowed out of the pilot's sight, but in the simulated test situations, it appears that a pilot is already almost unnecessary.

Within Dutch Drone Delta, Space53 plays the role of connecting link. It brings together the right parties for further developments and ensures that these are Dutch parties. The idea is not to wait and buy ready-made solutions in China. In addition, they can make their test facilities at Technology Base available, partly because it is possible to fly over longer distances here. This is important because the drone has a future in freight transport only over long distances. On the short, it does not win out over the car or scooter.

Drone2GO

Clients Rijkswaterstaat and the other first responders, such as the NVWA, fire brigade, police and ILT Aerosensing challenge the Dutch drone sector to develop an autonomous and remotely flying drone that can be deployed ‘as a service’ by the first responders. 

At Technology Base, the consortia showed, among other things, how, based on drone-generated imagery, coordinates can be established as quickly as possible of one or more real and even a miniature toy ambulance set up among other vehicles, such as fire engines and police vehicles.  With the aim that the first responder could immediately take action at that exact location and not have to wait for the images to be stored, analysed and processed.

The second part consisted of automatically determining the route to a locally designated point of interest. This involved selecting the most energy-efficient route and taking into account static and dynamic constraints, such as an unexpectedly raised no-fly zone'. 

The Beast

This partnership including Saxion University of Applied Sciences and DronExpert developed the AED drone. Drones are not allowed to shed items in the Netherlands, but The Beast demonstrated that their AED drone can deliver a disposable AED to someone in a deserted or hard-to-reach area in a very controlled way, thus saving lives.