5G!DRONES and 5GENESIS: Trial of UAV flight with Communication and Control over 5G cellular network

Overview of the 5G!DRONES and 5GENESIS Trial of UAV flight with Communication and Control over 5G cellular network

5G!DRONES conducted feasibility trials of UAV flight using a 5G network at the Stavros Mavrothalassitis stadium, Municipality of Egaleo, Athens in October 2020. The trial assessed 5G connectivity in relation to C2 communication for UAV flights, taking into account the current state of 5G deployments. It also focused on 5G multi-access edge computing (MEC), including the provision of capabilities that allow a UAV to offload the softwarised UAV flight path and controller to the edge of the network. This enables both UAV mission energy efficiency and sophisticated, resource-demanding autonomous flight plans. 

To validate the efficient control of a UAV over a 5G deployed infrastructure, the trial comprised an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) deployed in the Edge cloud, the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) deployed off-site, the streaming server deployed in a private cloud and the drones used to measure the radio network quality (QoS). 

The deployments and configurations span the set-up of a 5G base station and edge; command and control software installation in the edge server and UTM integration.  The UAV drone flight control (C2) software UGCS was installed on a 5G edge server with the flight mission sent to the drone controller over the 5G network. The C2 system was connected to the Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) test system, which distributes drone locations to air traffic services and other drone operators. The 5GENESIS 5G infrastructure at the experimentation facility in Athens was used to have all the necessary tools for the automated experimentation and for the 5G Key Performance Indicator assessment. 

The trial involved partners from the National Centre for Scientific Research Demokritos (Greece); Hepta Group Airborne OÜ, (Estonia);  COSMOTE Kinites Tilepikonies AE (Greece); Infolysis PC (Greece); Municipality of Egaleo (Greece); Cafa Tech OÜ (Greece); Frequentis AG (Austria); DroneRadar SP zo.o (Poland) and Robots Expert Finland Ltd.

5G Key Performance Indicators

This trial measured KPIs for signal strength, latency, throughput and potential for energy efficiency.

• The UTM integration worked smoothly. The location of the drone was visible in real time in the UTM system. The UTM integration with the 5G system could instantly mandate the UAV landing in the event of a security incident based on the policy enforcements. 
• Experimental measurements at the height of 10m were made to assess the coverage of the 5G network and impact of the antenna pitch to the flight performance and UAV accuracy. 5G coverage was measured using a 5G-enabled smartphone attached to the drone, also using the Ookla Speedtest application to assess the uplink and downlink rates. Colour coding was used to visualise the results in terms of coverage of an automated flight following a circular trajectory around the stadium, with green spots showing the best reception quality and 5G coverage, yellow showing medium reception quality and red poor reception quality. 
• The average latency of the C2 signals over the 5G channel was measured to find 30ms proximity, which is a significant improvement compared with the respective round-trip latency measured for the C2 link over LTE according to data cited in research literature. The NetMonitor application was used to measure the signal strength, plotting this as a function of the distance from the gNB during the automated flight. A smooth decay in signal strength was observed as the drone moves away from the base station. 
• The UAV with its softwarised Flight Control System (FCS) component, offloaded at the edge of the 5G network has potential for realising energy efficiency of autonomous UAVs flights.

5G Empowerment

5G deployments are expected to achieve enhanced performance such as higher Gbps data speeds, ultra-low latency, advanced reliability, increased network capability as well as greater bandwidth and throughput. These are ideal enablers for enhancing UAV capabilities towards cellular connected UAV communications and UAV-assisted communications. In terms of coverage, 5G and cellular connectivity in general can support safe Beyond Line of Sight (BVLOS) operation and advanced UAV missions, e.g. cross-border drone flights, thanks to the hand-over capability from one cell to the next. 

The trial enables the UAV industry to serve new use-cases and services with potential societal impacts such as patrolling and delivery services. By enabling automated and agile incident monitoring with autonomous drones, this trial shows the value of this kind of pilot also in times of a pandemic like COVID-19. The integration of the UAV and mobile communication industries brings opportunities for monetising novel services and entities involved, such as UTM systems, thereby creating a UAV regulation framework and air-traffic control ecosystem with diverse systems, sub-systems and services. 

Videos and Demos

5G-enabled UAV Trials in Athens 5GENESIS Platform with COSMOTE commercial-grade equipment (July 2021)

Use Case Data Summary

Location:  Stavros Mavrothalassitis stadium, Municipality of Egaleo, Athens

Date:  October 2020

Partners involved: National Centre for Scientific Research Demokritos (Greece); Hepta Group Airborne OÜ, (Estonia);  COSMOTE Kinites Tilepikonies AE (Greece); Infolysis PC (Greece); Municipality of Egaleo (Greece); Cafa Tech OÜ (Greece); Frequentis AG (Austria); DroneRadar SP zo.o (Poland) and Robots Expert Finland Ltd.

Funding reference: ICT-19-2019 - Advanced 5G validation trials across multiple vertical industries

Funding cycle: June 2019-November 2022

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