ANRA Technologies, a worldwide leader in unmanned traffic management (UTM) and drone operations platforms, recently announced the successful opening of a brand new U-Space Sandbox positioned in Tartu, Estonia, in partnership with the Estonian Transport Administration, the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency and the Tartu Science Park Foundation.
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First announced in May, 2023, after which formally launched in June, the test facility had its first successful test flights on September twelfth and thirteenth, modeling a spread of scenarios designed to validate the ability.
“The working group’s activities reached one other very vital phase as we tested the performance of the U-space services and made test flights,” said Priit Rifk, Head of the Unmanned Aviation Department on the Estonian Transport Administration.
ANRA Technologies, who provide services for the U-Space and act because the Common Information Services provider, are working alongside the Estonian Aviation Academy, who’re providing piloting services for the brand new U-Space. “Testing and validation play a very important role, because it allows us to check out different scenarios that can appear in U-space in the longer term,” Rifk added. “Consequently of the testing, we hope to acquire the mandatory input for the validation and certification of the U-space service providers.”
Maria Tamm, the Unmanned Aerial Systems Team Lead on the Estonian Aviation Academy, struck an optimistic tone of their press release, stating that, “The testing of the systems developed by ANRA revealed plenty of regulatory and technical challenges for the implementation of the U-space. It will help us to higher focus our efforts within the near future, in order that the unmanned aviation sector gets the boost it must develop.”
After the completion of the test phase at the tip of September, the ability can finally fully come on-line. “The outcomes of the technical tests currently being conducted shall be analyzed by each the Aviation Academy and the Transport Administration, and only on this basis will or not it’s possible to ascertain a subsequent roadmap regarding the quantity and shape of the created test facility,” Tamm said.
Amit Ganjoo, the CEO of ANRA Technologies, stated, “This has been a terrific private-public collaboration for providing the muse for credible U-space activities. ANRA’s support of Estonia’s revolutionary approach for launching U-space services culminated in a successful delivery of a sandbox that may be a major step for establishing industrial U-space services.”
This project is merely one step in a broader effort to supply uncrewed air traffic services across Europe in accordance with the European Commission’s Implementing Regulation 664/2021. The participants within the project are the Estonian Transport Administration, the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency, ANRA Technologies, the Estonian Aviation Academy, Lennuliiklusteeninduse AS, the Ministry of Climate, the City of Tartu and Tartu Science Park.
The cooperation project “Expertise for the event of the uncrewed aviation test facility (U-space sandbox)” is funded by the European Regional Development Fund 2014–2020.
ANRA also recently announced the discharge of their latest Mission Manager X Fleet Operations Software, which you’ll read more about here.