The project was presented today at the Fucino Space Centre of Telespazio. As a technological partner in the project, Telespazio is involved as the end-to-end service manager and ENAC certified drone operator, together with the Sirente Velino Regional Natural Park (AQ), the Local Health Authority 1 (ASL1), eighteen municipalities in that area of the Abruzzo region and the ASL's Restricted Committee of Auditors.
The project is part of the wider U-space European COMmon dEpLoyment (U-ELCOME) project, which in turn is part of the European SESAR 3 JU Digital Sky Demonstrators initiative, coordinated by the Eurocontrol Innovation Hub and involving 51 partners in Italy, Spain and France.
In a mountainous area such as the Sirente Velino Regional Natural Park, the delivery of hospital drugs can be at risk due to inaccessible roads and, especially in winter, bad weather and snow, which creates considerable difficulties. The U-ELCOME project therefore aims to ensure the delivery of medicines to all patients who need them and who live in the Park area, by using remotely piloted aircraft and satellite technologies, which will be tested and tried out in the coming months.
Specifically, the project provides for the drugs distributed by the hospitals in the cities of L'Aquila and Avezzano to be transported to special hubs near the municipalities that have joined the trial, in particular the municipalities of Castelvecchio Subequo, Rocca di Mezzo, San Demetrio and Vestini. Pharmacists will then collect and deliver the drugs to end users. The aerodrome in the municipality of Celano will be used as technical stopover to increase the efficiency of the service between the municipalities of the park.
In the first phase of the trial, the drone will be able to fly for 35 km in BVLOS mode (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) along pre-established routes, with the option of making an intermediate charging stop to increase autonomy. At this stage, the delivery service will be limited to drugs that do not require refrigeration.
As a drone operator and technology partner, Telespazio will provide the project with all the innovations developed in the field of unmanned aircraft and of satellite navigation and communication services. Specifically, Telespazio will manage the entire drone delivery service, from the planning and execution of the flight to the request for authorisation, through the proprietary T-DROMES ® platform, which will act as the system’s true cloud control centre, also contributing significantly to the optimisation and simplification of routes.
Telespazio will also provide commercial drones equipped with the TPZ Air 100 box, which allows reliable and safe command and control of the drone thanks to both satellite and terrestrial communication channels. Once the testing phase has been completed, the partners aim to finalise technologies, procedures and processes to deliver the actual service in 2025.
“This project represents a significant acceleration towards the future that, through the integration of geoinformation and multi-source communication services, Telespazio wants to achieve. Our company is transforming established experimental expertise into products and services essential to citizens' health and lives, combining satellite capabilities, data and precision with the agility of drones. Initiatives like this also benefit from Leonardo's solid skills in the field of remotely piloted systems and from the most recent study and experimentation activities in the more general field of advanced air mobility.”
Paolo Minciacchi, Head of Telespazio's Geoinformation business line and CEO of e-GEOS.
Over the last few years, Telespazio has combined consolidated space skills, new capabilities and technologies in the field of drones, investing in key sectors of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) such as public safety, infrastructure monitoring, agriculture and healthcare logistics. Today, thanks to assets such as the proprietary T-DROMES ® platform, the ability to integrate AI-related innovation with geo-information, the availability of satellite communication services, as well as being a Drone Operator with a certified Safety Management System, Telespazio can offer institutions and companies end-to-end scalable services over vast geographical areas, making its unique know-how and global presence available to them.