City Drone Network

Unmanned Aerial Systems to support urban logistics through an open modular automated architecture

Challenge

Urban logistics face a growing problem of delivering goods and services in a timely, reliable, and sustainable manner.



Traffic congestion, pollution, noise, safety, and high costs are some of the major challenges that hamper the efficiency and quality of urban logistics.

These challenges are likely to worsen as the demand for urban logistics increases with the rise of e-commerce, population, and urbanization.

Solution

Urban logistics can benefit from City Drone Networks (CiDroNet).  Open modular drone architecture composed of:

• A network drone cargo ports, seamlessly integrated in the operational activities of its users
• an open cloud-based command-and-control center that integrates dataflows from stakeholders to authorize, monitor and control automated flights in between drone cargo ports.
• A broad group of stakeholders that use this drone infrastructure for a diverse range of use cases.
• Drone operations that are in line with the EU, national and regional regulations. 
  

Team

The City Drone Network initiative is a joint action of DC Venturing and Helicus.  The program evolves around three actionlines:

1. setting up a governance structure for drone ground infrastructure,
2. launching an innovation and development program to support the adoption of improved and new UAS solutions,
3. developing and implementing supporting measures to accelerate the adoption of urban UAS.
   

Our Role

DC Venturing is dedicated to cultivating the innovation ecosystem necessary for the development of CiDroNets. The goal is to engage public, private, academic, and civil stakeholders in a collaborative CiDroNet initiative, outlining specific actions that elaborate on the strategies to implement City Drone Networks. This encompasses the creation of a strong business case to attract both public and private investment.