Nested 5G Nokia Drone Networks solution released with CE certification

Finland’s Nokia has released what it calls the first-ever turnkey nested drone solution for public safety and enterprise users boasting CE certification by fulfilling the European Union’s safety requirements.

Long known for its mobile and other digital communications activities, the Finnish company’s more recent work in robotics now gives rise to its Nokia Drone Networks platform – a nested combo whose dual gimballed UAVs connect via 4G/LTE and 5G to enable edge cloud processing of collected data. Paired onboard modems allow craft to remain in contact with multiple networks at once, offering system redundancy often required by aviation regulatory bodies, and ensuring operational safety that was necessary to obtain CE certification.

Those factors, Nokia says, mean its Drone Networks product is compliant with European Union Aviation Safety (EASA) Agency and US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, particularly in terms of operating piloted or fully remote automated drone operations and recharging on a 24/7 basis.

The company says Nokia Drone Networks’ communication tech offers faster data transfers than Wi-Fi, and enables beyond visual line of sight operation, as well as real-time kinetic positioning to improve situational awareness of intended public safety agency clients. 

Read: Nokia deploys drones for disaster alert and rescue

Those and other capabilities, the firm adds, will also increase the effectiveness and value of enterprise missions flown by construction, defense, mining, energy, inspection, mapping, and other industrial customers.

“Our mission is to reshape the industrial UAV market, providing enhanced situational awareness to aid search and rescue, surveillance, and other UAV operations in a wide variety of industries,” said Thomas Eder, head of Nokia’s embedded wireless solutions division. “Nokia Drone Networks has been designed to comply with the remote operation requirements of aviation regulatory bodies such as EASA in Europe and FAA in the United States.

“This will help us address growing market demands as a turnkey provider with a solution designed and produced in Europe,” Eder adds. “The unique feature set enabling the integration of Nokia drones with third-party applications will aid the transformation of the drones, allowing them to be used as a flying data collection platform leveraging reliable 4G and 5G edge cloud connectivity.”

Nokia Drone Networks uses various models of the company’s UAVs, which – depending on setup and configuration – permit more than 50 minutes of flight time over distances exceeding 30 kilometers. The product will be featured from May 23-25 at Critical Communications World in Helsinki.