New E-Identification & Tracking for Drones

At the World ATM Congress in Madrid Unifly today presented an e-Identification and tracking solution for drones. The device works in a completely independent fashion, with its own power source and sensors for position, altitude, temperature, pressure, speed and direction. As soon as the pilot attaches it to a drone, it is ready for use.

Koen Meuleman, co-founder of Unifly explains: “Drones are becoming more and more a part of our daily lives. When a drone is observed, it is important to understand the pilot’s intentions, where it took off and who is controlling it. Both E-Identification and tracking provide this information.

Airborne equipment needs to be lightweight,?robust, and able to withstand widely varying climatological conditions ranging from cold and heavy rainfall to blistering sunshine. This is why Unifly has developed a drone tracking and e-Identification product: the Unifly BLIP (broadcast location & identity platform). BLIP is tailored to the specific needs of UTM service providers and local authorities.”

See BLIP in action here.

From the moment BLIP senses vertical movement, it automatically starts sending tracking data over the LTE wireless broadband network to the UTM backbone. Additionally, BLIP broadcasts the drone’s e-identification, 3D location and take-off position over Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

This information can be accessed in real-time by relevant authorities through secured applications. This allows for example a police patrol to read out all details of drones flying within a distance of up to 200 metres of the patrol’s position. With this device, Unifly is committed to providing the authorities and drone operators with a reliable, highly integrated, robust, efficient and easy to use tracking solution with the following characteristics;

• High precision position data acquisition
• Communication with the UTM system over mobile broadband networks
• E-identification and location broadcasting
• Weatherproof, fully self-contained enclosure
• Up to 4 hours endurance, wireless charging

In combination with the Unifly UTM platform, BLIP provides a complete solution for authorities and ANSPs to identify and track drone traffic in their area of responsibility, independent of the systems used by the drone operators.

About Unifly

Drones are breaking through rigid traditional barriers in the most diverse industries. According to research, the global market for UTM services is estimated to be worth 517 million USD between 2018 and 2022. One of the main conditions for realizing this business potential is the safe integration of drone traffic with existing manned air traffic.

Unifly offers an innovative, user-friendly software platform that allows drone pilots to check if their intended drone flight can be performed without violating the applicable local and national legislation as well as NOTAM restrictions. The same platform allows authorities to manage and trace drone traffic and flight authorizations within their assigned airspace. Unifly’s award winning Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) platform is already in use today by the national authorities of Germany, Denmark, Austria and Belgium. Since collaboration is one of our core values, we also participate in several European unmanned air traffic management projects. In the US, the NUAIR Alliance selected Unifly as a partner to provide enhanced unmanned traffic management capabilities for the New York UAS Test Site, a 50-mile UTM corridor in Upstate New York. Unifly also deployed the first African UTM system in support of UNICEF’s drone corridor in Malawi.