During Airspace World, ATM Magazine had the opportunity to catch up with executives we’ve known for years and make some new acquaintances. Skeydrone is one of the new introductions we had during the show. They are a subsidiary of skeyes and were launched in 2020 to develop a UTM system for skeyes and now they offer software-based services allowing drone operators and authorities to manage drone flights, foster the development of the European drone ecosystem and help to make U-space a reality in Belgium. They also hope to become a U-space service providers (USSP). In mid-2021 Brussels airport also joined as a shareholder, reinforcing the importance of these topics in the region.
Hendrik-Jan Van Der Gucht, Managing Director, Skeydrone shared an overview of the current status of the company. Today they are partnering with Unifly and working as an integrator to help organisations integrate with them. During the show they signed a partnership reinforcing this collaboration. Under the terms of the agreement, Unifly will provide their UTM platform, which is fully compliant with the newest U-space regulation, to SkeyDrone. SkeyDrone will leverage Unifly’s platform to add their aviation-grade traffic data and value-added services to help drone operators with all required regulated services, delivering an end-to-end solutions.
Drone Detection-as-a-Service is another topic we touched on. Earlier this year, Skeydrone launched a solution that allows users to evaluate drone activity and categorise potential risk levels in order to determine what steps should be taken, if any depending on the classification of the drone. This could be cooperative/non-cooperative or authorised/unauthorised. What is most interesting about this solution is that way that it is offered as an app-based service. The flexible subscription model allows users to decide if they desire an ongoing monthly or annual subscription, or just need support for a special event. Standardised APIs allow for integration to existing command and control (C2) and security management functions.
The solution is currently in use at Brussels Airport with a 99% detection rate. They are able to combine flight mission data with UTM functionality and determine if there are any non-authorised flights in the region of the airport. The next step is for working groups within U-space to determine the drone threat collaborative decision making process. So what happens when a threat is identified?
We’re looking forward to hearing more from Skeydrone in the days ahead.
