2023-12-04 15:52:00
Using a professional drone is subject to numerous regulatory obligations and requires flight authorizations that are sometimes administratively complex to obtain. It is on the basis of this observation that the company Drone Geofencing was born, in Nîmes (Gard) in 2019, on the initiative of Samuel Brau, electronics, IT and robotics engineer, and expert in aeronautical telecommunications. Incubated at BIC Innov’Up in the Gard capital, Drone Geofencing designs solutions to administer and supervise a fleet of multi-model drones, carrying out missions independent of each other or flying in swarms.
The startup has therefore developed an online platform facilitating administrative and regulatory procedures for obtaining flight authorizations from prefectures, the Ministry of the Armed Forces and other official managers of restricted areas. It also allows the operator of a fleet of drones to define trajectories, manage the skills of remote pilots, and monitor their aircraft fleet (airworthiness status, maintenance procedures, etc.) . This mission preparation software solution, called Gestadrone, is compatible with all international low altitude airspace regulations.
On December 4, it announced that it had completed its first fundraising, 1.4 million euros, from business angel networks – Melies Business Angels, BADGE (Business Angels des Grandes Ecoles), Provence Business Angels, and Défense Angels ( network of 90 French investors in strategic technologies) -, the SOFILARO investment fund (Crédit Agricole du Languedoc et de Sud Méditerranée) and two private investors, Docaret (industry support company particularly active in the security and defense) and the company Lundi Matin, publisher of online management software and mobile applications “ which invests in Drone Geofencing to strengthen its marketplace and e-commerce solutions through logistics and drone deliveries,” says Samuel Brau.
Station-sol
Drone Geofencing solutions meet the needs of operators of fleets of more than ten drones in terms of surveillance and preventive maintenance of industrial infrastructures but also missions relating to the military field (see box) and Civil Security ” as the pruning control, fire detection, surveillance support for border police, etc. “, indicate Samuel Brau.
« The funds raised will mainly be allocated to the industrialization of the solution and its marketing in Europe initially, then more widely, announces the president of Drone Geofencing. But also to the delivery of new systems, two of which will be put on the market in January 2024.”
Drone Geofencing has thus worked on new solutions complementary to Gestadrone: “ We have developed a ground station to follow the evolution of drones, regain control of an automatic drone flight or pilot it remotely. Today, it allows the drone camera to be controlled from the control center while a remote pilot pilots the drone in the field. As for piloting the drone from the control center, we can already do it for the army but not yet in civilian life for regulatory reasons. For example, this meets a need for the French Navy to pilot a swarm of drones from the control center and carry out maritime surveillance. Today, the remote pilot must be less than 200 meters from his device, but there are plenty of use cases where we want the drone to be able to go far away, hence the interest in the ground station. “A first version of this ground station will be released at the end of January 2024.”
Real-time flight authorizations
Furthermore, and because here too, a certain number of use cases require it, the startup prepares to obtain flight authorizations in real time, avoiding drone managers having to submit authorization requests within the regulatory time frame. from 30 days to 48 hours before the flight, which is for example not possible for use cases in the field of civil security (resolving doubts regarding a fire or assessing in real time the level of rising water levels in case of flooding).
“We will interconnect with a U-Space* Service Provider which will give us flight authorizations in real time, which will open up important use cases, explain Samuel Brau. Low altitude airspace, below 120 meters, is reserved for drones but used by many flight managers, particularly for planes when they take off, and administered by 1,500 different authorities! For example, when you have to fly over an army zone, a nuclear power plant, a prison, an airport, etc. The State delegates these authorizations to a manager authorized to operate in low altitude airspace, with whom we will interconnect. »
Drone Geofencing also wants to position itself on parcel transport, which is still experimental in France (on six lines, mainly in Isère) and Samuel Brau says he is working with drone manufacturers who are currently operating on these experimental lines.
“In five years, there might be drones delivering packages, not to deliver people to their homes but to transport hundreds of kilos from a distribution center to a post office via a regular line,” image Samuel Brau.
Embedded system and AI
The manager adds that the startup “ is currently participating in four or five programs with large manufacturers and the fundraising will make it possible to finalize the implementation of these programs and industrialize them.
Drone Geofencing has thus developed an on-board system, co-developed with several CNRS research laboratories (IES and LIRMM) and the Italian Aerospace Research Center, “ which revolutionizes data link modules and algorithms for piloting and guiding swarms”: “This is a system embedded on the drone which allows for very high speed communication and repatriation of flows very high definition video to the control center. The advantage is that we run the AI piloting algorithms on the ground, which is much more efficient.”
The first version of this embedded system will also be released in January 2024.
“Our solution allows the manager of a fleet of drones to have management software, to obtain flight authorizations delayed and tomorrow in real time, and to follow the evolution of the drones from the control center and tomorrow to pilot them from this center”, summarizes Samuel Brau.
Currently, the mission preparation solution is used by around fifty customers “ including several large French groups », i.e. some 600 drones under management. This has been the case with Enedis Languedoc-Roussillon since March 2021 for the monitoring and maintenance of power lines.
Drone Geofencing, which currently employs thirteen employees (there will be fifteen in 2024), does not communicate its turnover.
* Since 2019, drone flights in Europe have had a regulatory framework for access to airspace aimed at offering the best civil operating conditions for drones while preserving safety, supplemented by a solution common to all countries of the European Union and called “U-space”, which entered into force on January 26, 2023.
Defense: growing demand for drones
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, drones, which thanks to their small size sneak everywhere stealthily, have invaded the battlefield and play a crucial role on both camps. Samuel Brau, the founder of Drone Geofencing, confirms a growing interest in these remotely controlled machines: “ Yes, the growing demand for drones is reaching us… Our solution makes it possible to control a swarm of heterogeneous drones of any model, while there are few solutions in France, outside of drone manufacturers themselves… This allows you to have one drone which does surveillance, the other which transports an object, and another which will drop another. The French Navy in particular is interested because it uses multi-environment drones such as ship drones and submarines. We work a lot for Civil Security and we talk quite a bit with the Army. Especially since we are participating in a military program financed by the European Defense Fund, with several European companies.”
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