Milton Keynes uses drone mapping to create digital twin

Milton Keynes City Council in the UK is trialling the use of drones with the aim of “transforming the way essential and emergency services are delivered”.

Drone flights will map the city centre in detail and help create a digital twin which can then be used to inform highway surveys and accident response.

Working alongside Cranfield University’s Drone Innovation Hub and Satellite Applications Catapult Westcott DronePort, the city council is due to begin trials this week to see how the technology can be integrated into the city’s existing infrastructure.

“This is yet another instrumental trial coming to Milton Keynes to test future technologies,” said Milton Keynes Cabinet Member for Economy, Sustainability, and Innovation, Cllr Shanika Mahendran.

“The world is moving fast and I’m proud that we’re leading the way in bringing innovative methods to deliver essential services that our residents and businesses rely on. If the trials are successful, it will also help us meet our climate action ambitions and create new jobs of the future for local people.”

The 18-month trial, which is being funded by the UK Government, is designed to test the safety and reliability of using drones to inform future policy direction.

The council also sees the potential for drones to deliver services such as smart traffic monitoring, secure parcel deliveries and remote building inspections.

Real-time information sharing through drone technologies will allow emergency services to work together and act faster when responding to incidents, and integrating ground and air-based services will also reduce carbon emissions – supporting the city council’s climate-change commitments.

Trials

In August, the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) gave the greenlight for test-flying drones beyond a human controller’s line of sight, opening up the possibility for widespread use of drone transport.

But last week Amazon, one of six organisations selected to take part in trials, revealed it had been forced to delay plans to deliver parcels after airspace regulation prevented it from launching.

According to The Telegraph, the company had been planning to start UK drone flights to deliver packages in under an hour by the end of this year, but said the CAA had not yet set out rules allowing it to carry out deliveries.

“We are ready to make drone delivery a reality for our customers in the UK,” an Amazon spokesman said.

“We have built safe and reliable drone delivery services elsewhere in the world in close partnership with regulators and the communities we serve, and we are working to do the same in the UK.

“However, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is still developing the regulatory framework to support the type of operation that we launched in the United States. We will continue to work closely with the CAA as they develop the framework which can make commercial drone delivery a reality in the UK.”

Image: Milton Keynes city council