UVs for environment demo

The environmental protection capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAS) will be demonstrated during a project to be carried out by QinetiQ, the Welsh government and Snowdonia Aerospace in November.

The one week project will be held at Snowdonia Aerospace Centre (formerly Llanbedr Airfield) as part of the West Wales RPAS test and evaluation environment and associated segregated airspace. 

The potential for UAVs to be used for fisheries protection, flood risk management and coastal erosion monitoring applications will be investigated during the project.

A fisheries protection scenario will see a UAV seek to locate and identify participating fishing vessels and determine their intent. This will assess the potential for UAVs to support Natural Resources Wales in its commitment to doubling sustainable growth of aquaculture and achieving Good Environmental Status for its territorial waters by 2020.

A flooding and coastal erosion scenario will see the aircraft survey the coastline to monitor water levels and identify areas that may be vulnerable to flooding or collapse. Coastal erosion is a major area of concern in Wales with around 2,000 properties estimated to be at risk from coastal erosion over the next 100 years if there is no active management. This exercise will examine the possibility of providing an early warning system for these events, enabling better preparedness and timelier responses.

Discussions are also underway to see whether the technology can be used to monitor protected marine mammals and birds off the Welsh coast. 

Jeremy Howitt, unmanned services campaign manager, QinetiQ, said: ‘This is an exciting opportunity to demonstrate the potential for RPAS to be used as part of a multi-layered approach to environmental protection. Through this project we will identify ways in which RPAS technology and QinetiQ’s unique expertise could help to improve capability in fisheries protection and coastal change monitoring, providing value for money for the taxpayer. It is an excellent showcase for Wales and QinetiQ, which are well-positioned [to] take leading UK and EU roles in the demonstration of medium and large-scale UAVs.’

The aircraft that will be used in the demonstrations is an Unmanned Services Group F-330, which will be flown by two operators on the ground at the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre. The F-330 has a wingspan of 3.3m, weighs 21.5kg, can fly for up to eight hours with a data link range of approximately 50km.