Italian air navigation services provider ENAV recently participated in real-time simulations at Grottaglie Airport, a testbed for the SESAR Joint Undertaking (JU) ENSURE project, coordinated by Indra, that supports the evolution of safe, scalable integration between unmanned and manned air traffic.
Giovanni Riccardi, U-space researcher at ENAV said in a LinkedIn post that four operational use-cases (UCs) were carried out:
UC1 – Emergency-driven controlled-volume violation: A drone needed to enter a controlled airspace due to an emergency. The ATM controller managed the airspace reconfiguration and applied a reservation, while a conformance-monitoring service was in place.
UC2 – Government special-mission drone with prioritisation: A governmental drone mission required maximum priority over other traffic. The U-Space system communicated mission-priority to ATM.
UC3 – SAR + HEMS rescue mission combining small-drones and helicopters: A search-and-rescue mission cooperated with small drones in a U-Space area to locate a missing person outside Grottaglie. Upon detection, a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) departed from Grottaglie Airport to recover the injured person.
UC4 – Routine drone inspection inside controlled airspace: ATM handled this routine operation via Dynamic Airspace Reconfiguration (DAR).
Riccardi said these use-cases reflect the complex real-world scenarios that the project seeks to address.
The SESAR JU Italian cluster partners include Leonardo, DTA Distretto Tecnologico Aerospaziale, Techno Sky, D-Flight and NAIS.
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Image: Giovanni Riccardi via LinkedIn
