To safely integrate drones into the airspace, the U-space SAFIR consortium conducted a series of demonstrations to show how technology can support the safe deployment of a multitude of drones in a challenging airspace environment. Three U-space service providers and one air navigation service provider integrated their services to control the airspace collaboratively. The test scenarios included parcel delivery flights, aerial survey, medical inter-hospital flights and emergency prioritisation supported by leading operators in these domains.   The use cases were first successfully tested at DronePort in Sint-Truiden, Belgium, a secure test environment for manned and unmanned aircraft, before transferring to Antwerp City (urban area), Antwerp Airport terminal area and the Port of Antwerp to test the viability of the use cases in a realistic environment. In addition, SAFIR tackled the issue of unregistered drones and their impact on legal drone operations and manned aviation. A specialised radar developed by the CLASS project was deployed to detect rogue drones in critical areas and provide a live feed for the U-space service providers. SAFIR’s federated model enabled information sharing between multiple interoperable services, categorised according to their function. SAFIR proved the ability of drones to safeguard critical areas, such as an international port or an urban environment. It was demonstrated how the Port of Antwerp could request a drone to inspect a certain area should there be reason for concern, as well as create no-drone zones to manage safety in the port. The project also showed how multiple U-space service providers can operate in the same geographical area at the same time thanks to UTM systems can be interoperable. SAFIR demonstrated full availability of the following services: e-identification; pretactical, tactical and dynamic geofencing; strategic and tactical deconfliction; tracking and monitoring. The project successfully tested initial, advanced and full U-space services and made recommendations for further research. For example, it concluded that tracking data sourced from different places needs to be fused; full integration is needed between UTM and drone operators on the ground; and interaction with air traffic control is important, preferably in an automated way. Flight authorisation is complex and SAFIR expects European regulation to help clarify drone categories. It also found satellite mobile connectivity performed well, but 4G degrades at higher altitudes and would benefit from a dedicated 4G drone overlay network, particularly relevant to beyond visual line of sight operations. SAFIR findings have contributed to the EU regulatory process and deployment of interoperable, harmonised and standardised drone services across Europe.

See follow-up projects, SAFIR-Med and SAFIR Ready