DRONEPREP
DronePrep is a government backed software platform which is helping drone companies, researchers, regulaters and end users unlock new possibilities in low-level airspace to enable new dynamic Drone use cases.
The future of drone delivery involves use of low-level airspace and landing locations not previously used for manned flight i.e. low-level airspace over property and access to land to landing and take-off purposes.
The DronePrep platform facilitates communication between landowners, external stakeholders and end users allowing drone users to understand where they can and cannot and can fly and help communicate which landowners are receptive to delivery.
Since 2020 DronePrep has led and supported collaboration projects which have enabled the UK’s first regular NHS medical deliveries and Parcel Deliveries by Royal Mail, as well as brokered the UK’s first airspace leases to enable drone flight in low-level airspace and to support the UK’s first ‘drone enabled’ fully autonomous Farm. These collaborations have led to successful spin out activity to further the development of UAS and Electric Aviation via 'Sead Artists' and 'Open Skies Network'.
Our software is designed to communicate landowner drone access policies and delivery locations for 32million land parcels in the UK and is supported by DFT, CAA, DEFRA, Natural England, HM Land Registry, Registrars of Scotland, Ordnance Survey, ESRI and what3words.
Role in the project
DronePrep's role in the project is to facilitate REFMAP project partners research by providing access to real world test environments, OEM platforms and stakeholders to help collect tangible robust primary data to validate research model assumptions, concepts and theory in areas where the technology is being exploited and introduced at pace across the world.
In our facilitation there is close synergy with the USAL’s ARC team who will address noise issues of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to unlock the substantial financial, environmental and societal benefits of these novel vehicles. Our facilitation will help USUAL ARC quantify the noise produced by UAS, and will also support their investigation of the noise impact on human health and well-being as well as wildlife.
By supporting and linking research to real world partners and environments USAL will be able to derive Noise Targets for the trajectory optimisation of new aviation vehicles, so their impact on humans and wildlife is minimised.
Our facilitation to REFMAP partners and access to test infrastructure, regulators and first mover exploitation teams with enable
1) comprehensive psychoacoustic testing for a complete understanding of drone noise in acoustic and non-acoustic context allowing for data to be gathered to evidence interdependencies between drone noise noticeability and annoyance for a number of different drone types, operating conditions and ambient background noise levels. This will include a range of Soundwalk Real World Flying studies to determine human perception of drone noise as it relates to the environment.
2) Developing a drone noise impact assessment approach for wildlife. Through co-creation with end-users, a noise impact assessment framework for wildlife will be developed. The drone noise models developed by USAL, TUD and DronePrep will enable prediction of the noise exposure of wildlife. A systematic review of noise effects on wildlife, coupled with targeted field experiments on responses to drone noise, will enable exposure assessment to be translated into impact assessment. The initial focus will be on birds (for this proof of concept), but the framework developed is expandable to other wildlife groups.