BT

The ‘Intelligent Drones for Port and Highways Technology’ (InDePTH) project is part of the ‘Future Flight Challenge Phase 3’ programme, funded by research agency UK Research and Innovation which is aiming to help achieve an ambitious vision for the UK’s future drone economy.

The InDePTH consortium, Associated British Ports, Kier Transportation, Connected Places Catapult, RoboK, Herotech8 and BT are working together to build and test the use of drones to carry out automatic ‘beyond visual line of sight’ (BVLOS) missions to monitor and control critical national infrastructure such as highways and ports.

Specifically, the project is demonstrating value in three use cases for ports and highways, including landside port operations and management, marine operations and highway safety and defect inspections.

InDePTH is creating efficient, low-carbon, cost-effective solutions for infrastructure management with Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and practically showcasing opportunities for ports and highways to use ‘drones as a service’.

Incorporating AI data analytics, the project is developing the InDePTH platform, offering seamless integration from UAS imagery, through operational systems, to actionable insights.

By enabling near real-time data transfer from capture to insight generation, the data gathered by UAS becomes a greater asset to a wider number of end users.