Use of the devices has been on the rise across public-sector agencies, largely by first responders like police and fire departments. They have been used to aid in gathering rapid information related to how to best respond. Drones have even been used for assisting in the counting of the unhoused population. The private sector has experimented with them too, namely in areas like deliveries with companies like Wing. Amazon has been at work for years on a drone delivery initiative; however, that effort has not yet seen widespread deployment.
A new project in North Dakota aims to explore their uses for rural applications, whether it’s delivering crucial medical or agricultural equipment, or taking a fast and early lead on a search and rescue operation. Project RuralReach, announced earlier this month, is being led by the University of North Dakota Center for Innovation to explore use cases for drones, particularly in “beyond visual line of sight” technology and applications.
“What are the next steps we need to take to elevate this to a larger capacity,” said Jeff Barta, the Center’s economic competitiveness officer and the lead on Project RuralReach, summing up a central goal for the project. Barta is also a member of the North Dakota state Senate.
Project RuralReach has awarded three companies $50,000 each to deploy and test their unmanned aerial systems (UAS) technologies, with flight testing and operational trials to begin in the coming months. ISight Drone Services will explore delivery operations and logistics across the western area of the state. Censys Technologies will focus its energy on testing drones in emergency operations in the northeast region of the state, conducting real-time situational awareness and working to better understand the infrastructure needs of these applications. And in the southeast, a team consisting of Botlink, Dunlevy Consulting and Utah State University’s AggieAir will examine the operational ranges of drones, and what sorts of conditions can shorten or extend their range.
In addition to looking at how drones can enhance rural living, the project will give companies the room to flesh out the kinds of business questions that come with the emergence of new technologies.
“What is it going to take for someone to stand up a business, and what kind of aircraft need to be used, what can we talk about logistically that’s going to add to that cost?” Barta said, offering some of the questions Project RuralReach aims to answer. “That’s one of the long-term focuses of the project.”
When testing drones for emergency response operations, the study will explore various scenarios like search and rescue, or better understanding the situational analysis of an incident.
“In surveying our law enforcement, our firefighting community, and things like that … the air time was a big factor, because they have their eyes on a situation, and then they have to come down and swap batteries,” Barta said, adding that during search and rescue operations “time is of the essence” and a drone could begin scouring an area more quickly than conventional deployments.
Emerging air mobility and air logistics are areas of study catching hold among both rural and urban researchers. It’s an area that also tends to intersect with electrified transportation, as battery and other technologies improve. Urban planners in Los Angeles are taking a proactive approach to planning for tomorrow’s electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, known as eVTOLs — small, lightweight, electric, helicopter-like craft imagined as air taxis in urban environments.
“It behooves us as a city to understand the new technologies and how they can be integrated into the operations of a city,” said Gabriela Juarez, city planner with a focus on urban air mobility with the Los Angeles Department of City Planning. Juarez spoke on a panel Tuesday organized by Urbanism Next, an urban design research division with a focus on emerging technologies at the University of Oregon.
Drone package delivery also fits within this category of air mobility, requiring policy coordination across departments and, often, across municipalities, researchers said.
“We are really about listening and learning,” Juarez said. “We are not trying to be the first one.”
North Dakota university officials said developing a better understanding of use cases and the operational needs and limits to drones will help to develop the proper regulatory environment. The state has found itself cultivating leadership in UAS technology through institutions like the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences at the University of North Dakota, and via its ties to the U.S. Air Force base at Grand Forks. The movement has given rise to the Northern Plains UAS Test Site in Grand Forks, one of seven Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) drone test sites in the nation. The test sites are helping to establish FAA regulations for operating drones.
“Part of the analysis of this too, is the regulatory side,” Barta said, outlining another facet of Project RuralReach. “So what might need to be done on the state or federal level to help make these things happen, or fast-track them.”
