Israel, 10 August 2022
A drone effectively delivers chemotherapy drugs, a dedicated drone safely ferrying people around the city; a weatherproof drone thoroughly securing the UK’s power lines and towers – they are all here, and they all have one thing in common – they are all utilizing low altitude airspace. For this reason, they all need to be seamlessly orchestrated within that airspace. That’s precisely what High Lander’s field-proven Universal UTM platform is all about.
Recent advancements in drone technology have propelled the industry into a new reality – skies crowded with drones. The drone industry's solution to controlling air traffic is known as Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM). High Lander’s Universal UTM platform provides next-generation airspace control that can be applied in many different areas.
For example, in England, the National Health Service (NHS) is planning to use drones to transport medicine to distant, hard-to-reach areas. The drones will fly chemotherapy drugs to cancer patients, saving them the hassle of traveling (in many cases, three to four hours round trip) to collect their medicine. This is the first step in developing an extensive network of drone corridors connecting hospitals, pharmacies, labs, care homes, and doctor’s offices across the country.
Increasing deliveries worldwide make creating and approving flight plans more critical. Our Universal UTM platform allows time-sensitive orders, such as medicine deliveries, to be easily prioritized over other less critical missions.
Another area where High Lander’s technology proves itself is its capability to integrate with any off-the-shelf drone and even with custom-built drones. Recently, a company called Jetson began selling a lightweight personal hovercraft, a drone-style flying machine. These early drone cars are to be used for joyrides, but dozens of other firms worldwide are also producing “electrical vertical takeoff and landing” (eVTOL) vehicles. Their goal is to develop further and improve them so that, within ten years, anyone can fly them, even over congested areas.
"When we think of how crowded the skies might become, this is where our platform comes in. Delivery-by-drone requires dynamic collision avoidance, and the Universal UTM goes above and beyond. This requirement is in its facilitation of different types of delivery networks" - Says Ido Yahalomi, High Lander's co-founder and CTO.
In another example, National Grid UK has tested unmanned drones that can perform inspection and maintenance. These drones will hopefully replace manual maintenance of high-voltage towers, which is unsafe, inefficient, and expensive. Even with the high cost of R&D, if the trials are successful, the National Grid expects to save more than £1 million for UK consumers by 2031. With our Universal UTM platform, organizations that manage large, complex airspaces can see all the air traffic in their domains in one intuitively navigable dashboard. National Grid UK may find this service very useful in the near future.
Drones can profoundly transform many industries. High Lander has developed a unique solution that overcomes the existing limitations of drone use and provides efficient and safe traffic management.