The ATLAS Center hosts a conference of flights with UAS for its use in fire-fighting operations and transportation of medicines

The conference, which was attended by the former Regional Minister of Employment, Enterprise and Trade, José Sánchez Maldonado, is framed within the REAL European project, which seeks to facilitate the integration of the drones in the airspace

The ATLAS Experimental Flight Center, located in the town of Villacarrillo (Jaén), is recently hosted a conference of tests with unmanned aircraft (UAS/RPAS/drones) in which, through various flight pioneers, has been tested such as facilitating the use of UAS operations of fire-fighting and the transportation of medicines.

These flights have been framed within the REAL European project, an initiative in which FADA-CATEC participates and seeks to facilitate the integration of drones in airspace and in low-altitude actions that present great exploitation potential. The objective of this project is to promote the use of the new EGNOS satellite communications system and new technologies in order to contribute to the integration of drones into airspace and their use in operations such as fire-fighting or the transportation of urgent medicines.

The meeting was attended by the former Regional Minister of Employment, Enterprise and Trade of the Junta de Andalucía, José Sánchez Maldonado; and other authorities like the Chancellor of the University of Jaen, Juan Gómez Ortega; the deputy of Employment of the Provincial Council de Jaén, Manuel Hueso; and the Mayor of Villacarrillo, Francisco Miralles; accompanied by the director of FADA, Joaquín Rodríguez Grau, and the director of the ATLAS Center, Anastasio Sánchez.

Also, various managers of companies and entities interested in understanding the technologies related to the sector of the unmanned aircraft and their applications in different areas and operations, and more specifically in the included in the European project, attended the event.

The REAL project (RPAS EGNOS Assisted Landings) consists of a consortium composed of CATEC, Pildo Consulting (Spain), Sharper Shape (Finland) and EuroUSC (Italy). It is funded by the European GNSS Agency (GSA) within the H2020 program.

Currently, the project is validating the technologies developed through their application in different scenarios. In the specific case of fire extinctions, a wide variety of aircrafts (both helicopters and airplanes) are used, and in the critical operations phase, the use of an aircraft is required to coordinate and maintain the safety of air operations in the areas of influence, managing traffic properly. The objective of the operations carried out at ATLAS has been to validate the navigation and surveillance requirements necessary to include a drone in these tasks.