Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM)

'Thales on the whole Drone ecosystem' series. Chapter 1 : UTM.
(Acces to all chapters at the end of the article)

Integrating unmanned aerial systems (UAS) aircraft seamlessly into controlled airspace is a hugely important focus for the sector. In the coming years and decades, drones will have a high air traffic density compared to crewed aviation, says Anaelle Le Mentec, product line manager in Thales' airspace mobility systems business.

Various technical challenges must be overcome to produce a safe and efficient UTM system. A strong combination of expertise is required to support the air traffic management challenges of commercial UAS operations.

Detect and avoid technologies are a particular focus', as Neil Watson, Market Development Manager in Thales’ airspace mobility solutions business, highlights. Thales is looking at how its ground-based surveillance capabilities ‘could help create a rich situational awareness picture, because the secret is understanding where everyone is, regardless of their size.

This includes adapting the company’s specialist radar capabilities and furthering its work in position, navigating and timing (PNT) technologies. Thales is working with organisations like the European Space Agency in this area.
 

To embrace the future Thales invests and engages in structures shaping the solutions to enable the drone revolution.

As an example, at the end of 2021, a drone hub called CEDIF (Drone Center of Excellence Ile-de-France) was inaugurated. Supported by three main players, Thales, Eurocontrol and Systematic. CEDIF offers a complete platform to incubate, validate and industrialize all direct and indirect drone activities.

During the last ParisAirShow (2023) Thales and Systematic have inaugurated the first long-range corridor in Bretigny-sur-Orge (Paris area) and reach a new milestone in the U-ELCOME project. The 20 km-long corridor saw the very first BVLOS flight in a semi-urban area operated by Parrot and managed by Systematic Hub Drones, using Thales' digital tools
 

Julia Jiggins, Head of Strategic Marketing for Aviation & Space in Thales UK, highlights the company’s role as a founding member of the Digital Aviation Research and Technology Centre (DARTeC), a hub that brings together leading experts in digital aviation.

 This has a range of focuses, she notes. In terms of UTM, a key priority is building a digital twin that could represent the airspace drones operate in, helping lay the groundwork for beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations.

Thales has also been involved in developing the National Beyond Visual Line of Sight Experimentation Corridor (NBEC) in the UK, she adds, allowing users to test BVLOS-focused technologies.
(Read more: Thales helps bring UTM to NBEC and the UK | Thales Group)

Innovation and partnership are again keywords here, with Thales’ involvement within the Airspace Of The Future (AOF).

A further example is the SESAR Joint Undertaking programme in Europe, where Thales is part of the AURA project. The project’s objective is to lay the foundations for integrating the new entrants in the current and future air traffic environment, developing the required concept of operations and validating ‘U-space’ services information exchanges with ATM systems.

With its experience in partnerships with government and civil administrations, Thales offers new ways to monitor and control drones and make UTM a priority for airspace security

A core element of Thales’ approach is to meet with customers to understand their needs and to propose a solution, says Vincent Moro, the company’s Product Line Manager for air traffic control radars. This is, by nature, a collaborative approach.
‘I’m not here only to sell a product - I’m here also to gather information on the real issues you are facing every day,’ Moro explains.

Frank Erb, director of business development for Thales' digital aviation activities in the Asia-Pacific region, says it is vital to take this adaptive approach, depending on the partners and end customer. This ultimately comes down to individual use cases, which will be determined and expanded through active and deep collaboration.

For example, he pointed to its work for the city of Geelong in Australia, where Thales partnered with Telstra, a national telecommunications company, to trial the use of drones in various use cases: for example, coastline monitoring, examining rooftops for cracks and defects, even monitoring the height of trees.

In October 2021,Vantis selected Thales USA as its system integrator for North Dakota’s UAS network, which is being developed as the first statewide system to allow autonomous aircraft to operate BVLOS in the US.

Aveillant (a Thales company) is part of the following consortiums to develop safe BVLoS (beyond Visual Line of Sight) drone operations which can be integrated into the civilian airspace.

SAFIR consortium (EU) ;  DARTeC consortium(Cranfield University). 

Thales has recently demonstrated a BVLOS drone flight in Taiwan. It supplies a range of UTM services in the country, built around its TopSky UAS Airspace Manager and its ScaleFlyt Remote Identification tracker.
The company is also set to develop a drone control centre in its office in Neihu, which will simulate a UTM centre.

Thales is also working with AEROTHAI, which provides air navigation services in Thailand. It recently delivered a UTM solution that could be used to demonstrate several use cases of the technology, notably the delivery of blood samples and medicine.