The Israel Innovation Authority has announced “a new and significant phase” in its national INDI drone project.
The NIS17 million (USD5.2 million) INDI3 programme will be dedicated to developing the systems, expanding testing capabilities, examining the connection and implementation processes, and collecting real-world data that will support the regulatory work of the Civil Aviation Authority.
“The country is moving from technological flight tests to practical testing of operator connectivity, continuous operation, and future models for air services in the fields of logistics, healthcare, and urbanism, with the aim of preparing the infrastructure for a commercial market that will be launched in the coming years,” said the authority in a press release.
According to Dror Bean, CEO of the Innovation Authority: “We are at a stage that brings Israel closer to the next generation of transportation and air services. This is a stage in which industry and the state are learning together what a managed and safe airspace will look like and how companies join the infrastructure and operate within it in a continuous and controlled process. We see significant potential in a variety of applications such as early detection of fires, identification of safety hazards on construction sites, securing essential facilities and real-time traffic monitoring, alongside advanced logistics solutions that will shorten delivery times and improve its efficiency.”
As part of this next stage in a developing a national drone programme, the health system will examine scenarios that will enable the creation of continuous aerial activity in the future, for example: blood donations will move from Hadassah Ein Kerem to Herzog in Jerusalem without traffic congestion, and Ziv Hospital in Safed will continue to receive transport as part of advanced medical support in the periphery. The goal will be to examine how stable, fast, and equitable medical transport routes can be built, according to the innovation authority.
INDI3 – HaYarkon Park (Airwayz)
“A wide array of experiments will be opened in the municipal space to test innovative work processes,” said the authority. “Among other things, Rahat will test capabilities for real-time threat identification, Yeruham will operate aerial security patrols that will provide a wide area picture, Kfar Saba will test a rapid response to reports arriving at the municipal centre, Raanana will practice urban surveillance from drones, and a system will be activated in the Sharon area to detect unauthorized drones. In Hayarkon Park, a model will be tested that will simulate a future in which food deliveries will arrive from the air, including cooperation with restaurants from the Benedict chain. All of these will be examples of field experiments designed to produce a full simulation of a future service, even if the public will not yet benefit from it at this stage.
“In the field of logistics, experiments will begin that will simulate commercial operation. Shloha and Benedict will experiment with fixed delivery routes, the Rami Levy chain will examine a possible change in the retail supply chain, and at sea, a model for transferring equipment to gas rigs and ships will be tested as part of the search for an alternative to expensive and complex manned vessels. The aim of the experiments will be to study in depth the potential for reducing costs and improving speed and efficiency.
“At the same time, the technological infrastructure at the core of the project will be examined. The drones will deal with communication and GPS interference, weather changes, and high safety requirements, including operation in active aviation areas. Artificial intelligence systems will provide capabilities such as anomaly detection, real-time situation analysis, and detection of uncooperative aircraft. These processes will allow us to understand how the technologies will be integrated into organized services in the future.
A key element of INDI3 will be developing UAS traffic management systems (UTM) to support these different use-cases. UTM company Airwayz will manage and synchronize a wide portfolio of drone services spanning urban, logistical and maritime environments, including collaborations with: Propeller Drones, FlightOps, Desert Bird, Mislocha, Benedict, Brook Aviation, Tip&Cue and several municipal authorities, according to an Airwayz press release
Through its AI-driven UTM, Airwayz will coordinate: municipal, security and emergency operations across Kfar Saba, Raanana, Herzliya under HaSharon U-Space (with FlightOps.io, Propeller Drones) and Rosh Ha’aAin Municipality (with Kronomy); support the development of logistics corridors for commercial deliveries (with Mislocha, Benedict); manned-unmanned coexistence advancements (with Brook Aviation); detection of non-cooperative drones (with Desert Bird); supporting urban food-delivery pilots in Tel Aviv’s Park HaYarkon; and researching GPS-denied and communication-interference scenarios (with Tip&Cue).
“Unlike previous phases or typical pilot programs focused on predefined drone routes, INDI3 introduces a fully dynamic, ad-hoc operational model — where drones from multiple operators are dispatched on demand, across varying environments, and must be safely coordinated in real time through Airwayz’s UTM,” said the company. “This represents the first national effort to simulate true commercialization: dynamic missions, real operators, real environments and real-time inter-operator coordination across a wide deployment footprint.”
For more information
https://innovationisrael.org.il/press_release/next-phase-national-drone-initiative/
airwayz.co https://www.linkedin.com/company/airwayz/
(Image: INDI3 – HaSharon U-space –Airwayz)
