Somerset Council has been awarded funding from Innovate UK to facilitate its drones project for disaster response and environmental protection in the county.
The award for the £191,370 project comes from the Future Flight Regional Demonstrator Fund for the Council’s Project RESCUE.
It will investigate the potential for drones to be deployed to monitor environmental emergencies.
Somerset will be working with two business partners, experts in the field of both drone operations and regulations, to develop a business case and a concept of operations for using drones in emergency situations.
These are Somerset based Land and Minerals Consulting Ltd who are currently working with the Civil Aviation Authority on establishing safety cases for flying Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) and start-up Limosaero developing solar powered fixed wing drones capable of flying long distances.
The Resilience and Emergency Services Coordination Using Enabled-drones (RESCUE) project will also bring together local emergency services, resilience teams, government agencies and drone service operators to develop the case for adopting the scheme in Somerset.
UK aviation minister Keir Mather said: “We’re backing the next generation of British aviation businesses whose transformative technologies will reshape how we live and work in the years to come.
“Investing in emerging technologies like drones and unmanned aircraft is key to build a greener and more efficient transport system.
“But this isn’t just good news for the environment – this tech will also save our public sector and businesses valuable time and cash, whilst helping to boost skills and support high quality jobs across the country.”
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