Vodafone has carried out a pilot to provide 5G connectivity to AERTEC's TARSIS UAS system for use by the Guardia Civil in surveillance and monitoring tasks in rural or difficult to access areas, allowing them to gain in autonomy and efficiency.
Vodafone has carried out a pilot in collaboration with the Guardia Civil, in which the supplier AERTEC has participated with its TARSIS system. The pilot consisted of assessing the feasibility of using the 5G network to improve the communication of UAS - unmanned aerial vehicle systems - used in surveillance work in rural or difficult to access areas.
An RPAS (UAS) connected to 5G allows the Guardia Civil to improve surveillance in rural areas.
5G as a solution for remote piloting
Vodafone has developed a pilot that provides 5G coverage for the control of UAS from specialised centres, without having to be at the location where the UAS is deployed. 5G technology makes remote piloting possible from control centres, from where specialised agents are able to give the appropriate orders to be able to inspect the area of interest. In this way, one agent drives his vehicle to the area where the inspection can be carried out and sets up the shuttle for take-off, so that another agent can carry out the remote piloting from the control centre.
For the pilot, the technology company AERTEC has provided its UAS TARSIS, a remotely piloted fixed-wing aircraft with a large payload capacity, autonomy and a wide range of on-board safety solutions. The TARSIS is equipped with a smartphone 5G, which is used both for high-definition camera communications, 4k resolution cameras, as well as for flight command management.
Advantages of 5G in the use of surveillance UAS
Thanks to 5G, the bandwidth and minimum latency necessary for the transmission of high-quality images and for issuing the control commands, in real time, that allow the UAS to be operated remotely from a dedicated control centre is ensured.
In order to perform a teleoperation safely, it is necessary to be able to relay high quality images from cameras installed on the UAS itself while exchanging control actions or reference coordinates by the remote pilot.
5G Andalusia Pilot
This project is part of the "5G Andalusia Pilot" initiative, promoted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, through Red.es, and which is being developed by Vodafone and Huawei. Presented in November 2019 in Seville, it includes 33 use cases that will apply the benefits of 5G technology in the energy, industry, smart cities, tourism, agriculture, health and dependency, security, emergency and defence, society and digital economy sectors.
This is one of the two projects that the government has promoted through the first public call for 5G pilot grants, which was resolved in spring 2019. This initiative has a budget of 25.4 million euros, of which 6.3 million euros are co-financed by Red.es from EU ERDF funds. Vodafone will allocate an additional €1.8 million to the project, not included in the grant.
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