Sergey Mishurov, chief designer of the newest ground station for monitoring commercial UAVs of the Navigator Institute of Aviation Instrumentation (St. Petersburg), told RT that several such products will be placed in St. Petersburg in the coming months. The stations will be tracked by drones equipped with special transmitters.
"By the end of the summer of 2023, we plan to install four to five drone surveillance stations, which are equipped with ADS-Bee transmitters (transponders) developed by us. This will be our pilot project with its own control center. The project is necessary for testing and subsequent debugging of the UAV control service," Mishurov said.
He compared the system that Navigator plans to create with the well-known Flight Radar 24 service. According to Mishurov, it is necessary in order to launch a full-fledged airspace control that meets all safety standards in the future.
The elements of this system should be observation stations, transponders installed on UAVs (ADS-Bee radio transmitting devices), data storage and processing equipment, as well as control tools, said the chief designer of the Navigator. The drones will cruise at an altitude of approximately 300 m.
"Russia, like other countries, is moving to ensure that drones become legal participants in the movement in the airspace. First of all, we are talking about the delivery sector in cities. To do this, you need to form a well-functioning navigation and control system. In it, UAVs will be registered in a certain way and must be equipped with transmitters, as well as manned aircraft, "Mishurov explained.
"In electronic mode"
On May 18, the press service of the Navigator announced the completion of work on the creation of a decimeter aircraft observation station. According to the company, the product performs the functions of automatic dependent surveillance (ADS-1090ES, AZN-B) for mobile objects, including drones equipped with transponders. The station was presented at the HeliRussia-2023 exhibition, which was held in mid-May in Krasnogorsk near Moscow.
"Equipment (stations. - RT) is an ADS-B message receiver, which is designed in an IP67-protected plastic case and has an interface for communication and Power-Over-Ethernet (POE) power supply, "the Navigator explained.
The station provides reception of messages and telemetry indicators from UAVs, transmission of navigation information, generates and provides users with data on airspace participants. The advantages of the station, the developer includes the ability to detect objects located at low altitude, small dimensions and lower cost compared to competitors.
"The ground station is both an independent product and part of a unique complex developed by us to ensure the safety of joint use of airspace by manned and unmanned vehicles. If we talk about the advantages of our equipment, it is worth noting the station's ability to see objects located at low altitude, its small dimensions and lower cost in comparison with competitors, "the press service of the Navigator quotes the words of the general director of the enterprise Sergey Baburov.
As the chief designer of the station said in an interview with RT, it consists of an antenna, a receiver and a computer. The coverage area of the product in the absence of natural and artificial barriers is up to 200 km.
"In a city with multi-storey buildings, a radius of 200 km is unattainable. For this reason, in order to form an airspace control system, it is required to install stations at different altitudes and on the ground. We assume that they will be on the streets, rooftops, cell towers. So we will be able to cover the entire agglomeration of such a city as, for example, St. Petersburg, "says Mishurov.
- ADS-Bee transmitter
- © JSC "Navigator"
Also at HeliRussia-2023, Navigator demonstrated a small-sized radio transmitting device for UAVs ADS-Bee, which is designed to transmit data to a surveillance station. The weight of the product without an antenna is 48 g. It can be mounted on drones weighing from 30 to 750 kg.
"ADS-Bee is the first device in Russia that makes drones visible to manned aircraft and control towers. The new development is designed to integrate UAVs into a single airspace and ensure their safe operation, including in an urban environment, "the Navigator materials say.
On April 27, the ADS-Bee transponder was presented to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the territory of the Moscow industrial park Rudnevo. After visiting the industrial complex, the head of state held a meeting with representatives of enterprises in the field of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). During the discussion, the prospects for air traffic management in the Russian Federation were discussed.
As Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev told the Russian leader, a system is already operating in the Russian Federation in some areas that allows "electronically determining the flight sites of drones." At the same time, according to the head of the Ministry of Transport, today there are problems with the identification of drones.
Savelyev pointed out that the State Corporation for Air Traffic Management (ATM) is engaged in the organization of the UAV control system. He promised to integrate the technical solutions of domestic enterprises to improve the drone surveillance system.
According to the president, the organization of air traffic should be implemented using digital technologies.
"We will have thousands of these (unmanned. - RT) devices, and maybe tens of thousands. Here, without digital platforms, it is impossible to solve these problems, it's just a different life and a different level of tasks," Putin stressed.
At a meeting on the development of unmanned aircraft, which was held on the same day, the head of state focused on the fact that UAVs are extremely necessary for the development and development of "our vast spaces, including for the rapid delivery of food, medicines, the provision of postal and other popular social services."
- Presentation of unmanned aircraft systems in Rudnevo to Russian President Vladimir Putin
- RIA Novosti
- © Artem Geodakyan
"In the coming years, unmanned aircraft systems should largely take over the control of the state of industrial facilities, pipeline systems, power lines, almost all critical infrastructure, and monitor forests," the president said.
To solve this problem, Vladimir Putin called on representatives of the authorities and the industry "to localize the development and production of their own breakthrough technologies and element base as much as possible, to put the production of promising, competitive models on stream."
"Development of air mobility"
According to experts interviewed by RT, with the solution of control and security issues, the UAS market expects almost explosive growth caused by the high demand for drones in various sectors of the economy, including the transportation segment.
In a recent interview with RT, Gleb Babintsev, General Director of the Association of Employers and Enterprises of the Industry of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Aeronext, said that, according to the estimates of the organization under his control, by 2035, the annual volume of cargo transportation using UAVs in the Russian Federation could reach 600 billion rubles.
According to him, the organization of a mass movement of drones in the city is still a difficult task. For this reason, in different regions of Russia, including St. Petersburg, there are experimental zones "aimed at the development of air mobility."
"This is both the EPR of Innopolis and the EPR of St. Petersburg. The latter is notable for the fact that it is aimed specifically at developing technologies for controlled safe flights in the city, "Babintsev emphasized.
From the point of view of specialists, the development of Navigator and other Russian enterprises in the segment of civilian UAVs brings closer the creation of a service for monitoring commercial drones, which will become part of the overall air traffic safety system, including in the city.
As Denis Fedutinov, editor-in-chief of the Unmanned Aviation publication, noted in an interview with RT, the authorities are currently seeking to obtain a drone identification tool, and the industry is trying to create a legal environment for the commercial use of UAVs.
"Now we are seeing steps that could potentially bring closer the possibility of large-scale legal use of drones. To do this, first, it is necessary to separate legal operators from illegal ones. Secondly, we need to control the flight of each drone for compliance with a pre-agreed route and ensure flight safety for other air traffic participants, etc., "says Fedutinov.
A similar opinion was expressed in a conversation with RT by the general director of Aerocon JSC, aviation expert Eduard Baghdasaryan.
"Of course, it is not easy to create such a system due to the fact that there should be no other aircraft on the flight route of the drone. But many countries are following this path. Yes, security issues today are extremely acute, but modern technologies are able to solve the problems associated with the operation of UAVs, "Baghdasaryan emphasized.