Page 36 - GCN, June/July 2018

EMERGING TECH
lishing those relationships with health care providers and understanding what their needs are because what we don’t want to do is just a bunch of demo flights,” Yap said. “We want to actually complete flights that are a benefit to our health care system.”
Medical supplies might not be the only thing taking flight in North Caro- lina. Israeli company Flytrex wants to set up shop in a strip mall and make deliveries to nearby neighborhoods,
with the goal of expanding from there. The company has tested the approach in Iceland, Yap said.
An important part of such efforts is the ability to know where drones are while in flight. Telemetry data can be transmitted via cellular net- works, and the region already has a strong network. In addition, NCDOT has partnered with T-Mobile as a cell provider for the project, and Yap and his colleagues are considering using
ADS-B technology as a redundant system for drones that fly beyond line of sight during the pilot program. Yap pointed out that such awareness will be especially important around hospitals, where helicopters are regularly coming and going.
The next step for NCDOT and the nine other participants in the pilot program is a two-day meeting with FAA officials in June to lay the groundwork for the next two-and-a-half years.•
Expanding rural infrastructure for drones
BY MATT LEONARD
Drones can provide significant benefits for residents and businesses in rural areas — for example, by delivering medical supplies, collecting data on the status of crops, and aiding in search- and-rescue efforts.
Unfortunately, those areas tend to have little in the way of the communi- cations infrastructure that unmanned aerial systems need, said James Grims- ley, president and CEO of autonomous systems developer Design Intelligence
Inc. DII has been working as a consul- tant to the Choctaw Nation of Okla- homa on its drone programs.
There are two levels of infrastructure to consider with drones operating in rural areas: air traffic management and data management, said Grimsley, who also serves as associate vice president for research at the University of Okla- homa’s Norman Campus.
The technology developed to track commercial aircraft wasn’t designed to accommodate large numbers of drones,
so ground-based radar will be tested in Oklahoma. The required data exchange between operator and drone will likely be handled by “a little bit of every- thing,” including cellular networks and the expansion of ground-based fiber, he said.
As one of the participants in the Federal Aviation Administration’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integra- tion Pilot Program, the Choctaw Nation and its 20 partners will be investigating how rural communities can create the
36 GCN JUNE/JULY 2018 • GCN.COM
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