- Unifly Celebrates 5 Years of Drone Integration at Port of Antwerp-Bruges.
- SAFIR Project Revolutionizes Drone Operations at Port of Antwerp-Bruges.
- Port of Antwerp-Bruges Leads in Drone Technology with Unifly’s UTM.
Unifly is celebrating the fifth anniversary of playing the central role in the European Union-funded SAFIR (Safe and Flexible Integration of Initial U-space Services in a Real Environment) project on October 3, which completely transformed the face of drone operations at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges. As part of rigorous testing and real-world applications, the project dramatically underscored the practical potential of drone technology within one of Europe’s busiest ports, reports Unifly.
Transforming Drone Operations with SAFIR
SAFIR marked the step forward into successful operational deployment in complex environments like the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, which is a 120 km² critical infrastructure complex. We showed how, for example, U-space services could be deployed as the basis for safe and reliable robust drone operations such as:
- surveillance flights
- parcel delivery
- medical transport
- infrastructure mapping.
These operations helped enhance safety by allowing port authorities to manage, inspect, and control extensive areas more efficiently and rapidly.
Becoming a Geozone Manager and UTM
Having been successful with SAFIR, the Port of Antwerp-Bruges strategically took a step further by becoming a geo zone manager. It played its part in regulating drone activities within its boundaries.
With this, it instituted Unifly’s UAS Traffic Management (UTM) platform to oversee the coordination of drone flights in real time and to improve situational awareness and communication at stake.
Opportunities for the Port
The Unifly UTM platform has opened new business opportunities for the Port of Antwerp-Bruges as the leader in smart port technology and integration with drones. As per Bob Spanoghe, Project Lead for Drones at Port of Antwerp-Bruges:
“The port of the future has a network of autonomous drones that fly BVLOS over the port area several times a day and transmit data in real-time. SAFIR project was one giant step forward for this to become reality.”
Unlocking New Business Cases by Leverage BVLOS Flights
The pre-U-space system of Unifly enables the support of the growth of BVLOS flights to open new business cases in, for example:
- logistics and delivery
- infrastructure inspection
- environmental monitoring
- security
- emergency response
Joris Cleiren, Creative Director of Sky Vision BV, a drone operator at the port, remarked: “The Unifly platform has been a game-changer for us. What used to take up to three weeks to secure flight approvals now takes just one day. This has opened up new business opportunities, allowed us to operate more efficiently and respond quickly to client needs within the Port of Antwerp.”
Over 7,000 Drone Operations and Counting
7,336 drone operations have been carried out in the past three years at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges alone, many of them over distances beyond the visible line of sight.
According to our data, this is a reflection of integrating drone technology into port operations, meaning that there’s enough volume to ensure scaling benefits from Unifly’s UTM system.
Paving the Way for Advanced Air Mobility
Leading Innovation in UTM and AAM
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Source: Unifly
