As part of the ongoing medical drone distribution network Project CAELUS (Care and Equity –Logistics UAS Scotland), AGS Airports and its consortium partners have launched a survey on drone sounds.
Project CAELUS is part funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Flight Challenge. It brings together 16 partners including the Arup, University of Strathclyde, Skyports Drone Services, NATS and NHS Scotland, which are working to deliver what will be “the first national drone network that can transport essential medicines, bloods and other medical supplies throughout Scotland including to remote communities”, the project states.
Project CAELUS recently held successful live flight trials between Glasgow Airport and NHS Golden Jubilee. Now, the project has launched a remote listening test that enables users to experience drone sound in different environments and provide feedback on how they sound. The sound demonstrations used in the survey have been led by Project CAELUS partner The Drone Office and developed by Arup, using the company’s experiential SoundLab technology.
Arup uses this technology to create sound demonstrations that take a human-centric approach that gives people the opportunity to hear with their own ears sounds of the future and make up their own minds about how they sound. All members of the public need is a pair of headphones to take part.
Since January 2020, the CAELUS consortium has designed drone landing stations for NHS sites across Scotland and developed a virtual model (digital twin) of the proposed delivery network which connects hospitals, pathology laboratories, distribution centres and GP surgeries across Scotland. Live flight trials were operated by CAELUS consortium member Skyports Drone Services. The UK-based operator is an experienced provider of drone delivery, survey and monitoring services.
Fiona Smith, project director for CAELUS, said, “We were delighted to see the successful start of live flight trials at the end of October. This new sound survey is an important initiative as the data gathered will help the industry form a better understanding of what considerations or mitigations may be required for future drone operations in rural and urban environments. We would invite everyone to take part in the survey.”
Adam Thomas, senior consultant at Arup, said, “Drones have a unique sound character. It’s unlike any other environmental noise sources that people are familiar with, such as road traffic or conventional aircraft noise. It’s really important that as this new technology is implemented, we capture data on people’s views of these sounds, so that we understand public reaction to them, and can ensure operations are planned in a way that reduces disturbance or other possible negative effects.”
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