The AW-Drones Coordination and Support Action intends to contribute to the safe use of mass market drones by facilitating the on-going EU regulatory process for the definition of rules, technical standards and procedures. The Action will benefit from the contribution of the most relevant stakeholders in the drone value-chain including drone suppliers, operators, academia and regulators. These actors will support, from their respective point of view, the collection of data, information and perspectives regarding the use of drones worldwide and contribute to its analysis supporting EASA's regulatory due-process. In particular, data, information and perspectives will include: · Current standardization activity and standard perspectives for evolution of drone products and services · Research works regarding safety and incidents involving drones · Local and regional solutions adopted by aviation safety regulators to address mass market drone operations · Application issues emerging from different market application of drones · Elements hampering wide distribution and mutual recognition of drone-based product and services between States Information gathered will be critically assessed and benchmarked using defined criteria taking into account the needs and opinions of the different stakeholders of the drone value-chain. Data useful for the validation of specific products or technical requirements will be structured systematically and correlated with appropriate confidence measures. The objectives will be to: · Provide a knowledge-base of "best practice" and data supporting the EASA's regulatory process · Contribute to the development and subsequent validation of a well-reasoned set of technical standards appropriate for all relevant categories of drones

The PODIUM project comprises four complementary, large scale demonstrations, taking place in Denmark, France and the Netherlands where more than 185 drone flights will be conducted. Its partners’ quick wins integrated UTM solution will be demonstrated in a broad range of realistic operational conditions of drone operations (VLOS and BVLOS) in VLL airspace (controlled & uncontrolled airspace; urban, rural and in the vicinity of airports) interacting with manned traffic. Each of its four sites has its own specificities (e.g. routine day to day operations, emphasis on UTM/ATM communication, normal/abnormal conditions). The demonstrations will notably enable its safe and secure use by various categories of users (e.g. authorities, drone operations, drone pilots) and for many types of drone operations (e.g. electricity line inspection, emergency services). Together the four sites demonstrations ensure a comprehensive and extensive demonstration of the full potential and technology readiness level of the PODIUM UTM functionalities (from Before-flight to Post-flight with a special focus on in-flight dynamic geo-fencing). PODIUM is a U-Space compliant demonstration. Under EUROCONTROL leadership, PODIUM consortium comprises 10 members,17 linked third parties and 4 sub-contractors, including many in-kind contributions. By bringing together drone actors (UTM provider, drone operators, drone trackers manufacturers), ATM actors (ANSPs, ATM system integrator & others) and infrastructure providers (drone demonstrations centers, telecommunication network) supported by their local authorities in its Advisory Board, PODIUM project will naturally improve the links between the drone and the ATM communities therefore contributing to a safer integration of drone operation in the European airspace and maximising the outreach of the project at regulatory and standardisation levels.

The Drones4Safety project aims to increase the safety of the European civil transport system by building a cooperative, autonomous, and continuously operating drone system that will be offered to railway and bridge operators to inspect their transportation infrastructure accurately, frequently, and autonomously. The Drones4Safety approach will design energy harvesters to tap energy from the overhead electricity infrastructures of railways and power lines to recharge drones. The project will use satellite and open maps to identify the parts of the transport infrastructure that lays near the electricity infrastructure and feed that information to its drones for scheduling their autonomous missions. The project will develop and improve the state-of-the-art artificial intelligence algorithms to optimize the inspection results onboard of the drone. The project will build a swarm drone system that uses advanced low power long range communication network techniques to inspect different parts of the infrastructure at the same time. Navigation based on advancements in EGNOS/Galileo GNSS will improve accuracy og geo-location of inspection events. The project’s outcomes will be offered to the transportation operators in forms of software services and hardware drone system. The project brings together leading industrial, research, and academic experts in infrastructure inspection, energy harvesting, artificial intelligence, communications, and drone technology. Two use cases for bridge and railway inspections will be conducted to evaluate the project outcomes.