In November 2018 the Quantum Systems Trinity performed an 8km long BVLOS flight within the framework of the CopKa disaster control exercise north of Munich. It is particularly worth mentioning in this context that the flight took place in the no-fly zone of the Munich Airport beyond visual line of sight.
CopKa is a BMWI (Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure) funded project exploring the possibility of accompanying rescue operations with live images. Providing faster and more comprehensive information to mission control centers and additional participants in the rescue chain is the main goal. The data connection is achieved via satellite.
The flight path led across a high-voltage line, followed by a highway and railroads through the suburb of Munich. The target area was directly located at the approach corridor of the Munich airport. Airplanes have an altitude of 300m above ground in this area.
Extensive approvals were the prerequisite
Thanks to explicit approvals by the German federal aviation office the Trinity was permitted to perform the mission. Only this made it possible to fly during active flight operations at Munich airport. An ADS-B receiver connected to our mission planning software QBase is only one requirement necessary for operations such as these.
Based on this data, situation-dependent and highly up-to-date resource planning is possible.In addition, valuable time of the emergency forces can be saved.. This time saving can be decisive for the success of life-saving measures in the future.
Thanks to the collaboration with the “CopKa” project, the Trinity was able to successfully transmit the first visual data via live stream to the emergency line. Equipped with data and video link on board, the emergency forces were able to access a wide range of data.
The project was regarded as a success by all participants and promises a lot for the near future. With the further development of the UAV systems, the entry hurdle will be even lower and meaningful data will be available even faster.
Such lighthouse projects are important to increase the acceptance for the use of drones in the population.
Source: Press Release