NATS, DroneCloud and Network Rail complete trial to unlock drone operations around critical infrastructure

NATS, DroneCloud and Network Rail have completed a major project exploring how drones could be safely used at scale around critical national infrastructure, including for rail inspections and incident response.

Project SOCNI, ‘Scaling BVLOS Operations for Critical National Infrastructure’, brought together partners from aviation, drone technology, rail infrastructure and policing to test how beyond visual line of sight drone operations could be safely supported in complex environments.

The consortium, led by DroneCloud, included NATS, Network Rail, Transport for Wales, RUAS and British Transport Police.

Beyond visual line of sight operations, where drones fly beyond the direct sight of the pilot, are seen as critical to unlocking the full potential of drones for infrastructure operators and emergency responders.  Enabling those flights safely and at scale, however, will require new forms of safety mitigations and digital coordination between flights.

Focused on a real-world rail environment, Project SOCNI tested how multiple operators could coexist safely in the same piece of airspace by ensuring they all had access to the same information and followed a clear prioritisation model.  The live demonstration, which used real aircraft and simulated real-world scenarios, will result in a new concept of operations to support the transition from segregated to shared airspace.

For NATS, the project provided an opportunity to demonstrate its OpenAir concept in a practical operational setting.  OpenAir is being developed to support the safe integration of new airspace users by enabling data sharing and digital coordination between operators.

“Project SOCNI has given us a valuable opportunity to test OpenAir in a real-world critical national infrastructure environment”, said Andy Sage, Director of Safety Transformation at NATS.

“BVLOS drone operations have the potential to deliver real benefits for infrastructure owners, emergency responders and the wider public, but they need to be integrated into the airspace network safely and in a way that can scale.  This project has helped us to better understand how digital services can support airspace integration, and the learnings will be important as we continue to develop OpenAir.”

Jan Domaradzki, Co-founder of DroneCloud, said:

“Project SOCNI has shown the value of bringing together the right partners to test how BVLOS operations can be delivered safely in complex environments.

“Working with NATS and the wider consortium has allowed us to explore not only the technology required, but also the operational processes and safety considerations needed to support future deployment at scale.”

The outcomes from SOCNI will now support the continued development of OpenAir, which will undergo further demonstrations throughout this year and inform wider industry work on the safe integration of drones and other new airspace users.

The project was supported through the UK Research and Innovation Future Flight programme, which funds projects that aim to advance the next generation of aviation systems and services in the UK.