Close Cooperation to Clear UAS Operations in Urban Environments
ST Engineering’s Aerospace sector became the first entity in Singapore to receive authorisation from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) to conduct Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) trials over the Lower Seletar reservoir, the company announced on 26 February. The BVLOS trial is for demonstrating the company’s latest unmanned aerial system (UAS) solution, DroNet.
Designed for autonomous operations in an urban environment, DroNet is an end-to-end solution that applies advanced unmanned technologies, such as drones, through a network system to carry out specific tasks or services. By harnessing the power of networking, video analytics and data sharing, DroNet is able to provide solutions for a range of applications, including perimeter security, asset inspection and lightweight deliveries.
“As ST Engineering brings to market UAS technologies and capabilities to help in enhancing urban living, safe and secure flight operations is something that we focus a lot on. We are pleased to have obtained the first of such authorisation for BVLOS operations in Singapore, which attests to the leading position that ST Engineering enjoys in advancing UAS applications in a safe and robust way. This will help pave the way for drone applications to be conducted more effectively and with more use cases as compared to the traditional line of sight operations, thereby unlocking higher potential in drone operations for users,” commented President of ST Engineering’s Aerospace sector, Lim Serh Ghee.
“We congratulate ST Engineering for conducting the first-ever BVLOS flight trials in Singapore. The ST Engineering team underwent a series of stringent safety evaluations to make this possible, opening up the possibility of more sophisticated UAS operations in Singapore. [The] CAAS is committed to working with ST Engineering and other companies to support innovations for the use of UAS. We look forward to more successes from the ST Engineering team,” added the Director-General of the CAAS, Kevin Shum.
“PUB is working towards a smart water management system with the use of new technologies that will improve efficiency and strengthen our operational resilience. Remote-sensing technologies on unmanned vehicles such as drones have the potential to provide real-time monitoring of our assets and infrastructure. We are happy to work with ST Engineering to study the feasibility of incorporating such technologies into our existing operations and work processes,” observed the Chief Information Officer of PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency, Michael Toh.
Leveraging its strong technology, engineering and development capabilities, ST Engineering has been providing value-added services that make use of the latest smart and unmanned technologies in its solutions for the aerospace segment. In addition, as a leading participant in the UAS industry, the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CAAS in early 2018 to facilitate the development of BVLOS UAS operations in Singapore’s urban environment. Under the MoU, ST Engineering is making use of its industrial knowledge and expertise to provide a suite of technical services for system integration and prototyping in identified areas of interest, and to assist CAAS to enhance the regulatory requirements for BVLOS UAS operations in Singapore.
