Project Rise

The last decade has seen unprecedented advances in UAV technology and in turn has led to an incredulous rise in the use of drones. Sectors that have never interacted with UAVs are quickly integrating them into their daily activities: drones for agriculture, drones for surveillance and security, drones for medical supply deliveries. Their use has been considered a logical step in the fight against CO2 emissions, time-saving techniques, and civilian protection.
With this in mind, the drone industry has reached a plateau in the form of legislation. Regulations for systems need to advance alongside the technology so as to allow the UAV industry to continue its assistance in making the world a better place. Some of the challenges inhibiting the integration of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) into the wider airspace include sense and avoid technologies and the overall lack of understanding when it comes to a system of systems approach. Alongside these, the use of unmanned aerial systems traffic management (UTM) is only just beginning to take flight. It is now that we are starting to see the need for FMS systems that are capable of delivering more advanced, more complicated, autonomous flights that go way beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS). So begins Project Rise.
Project Rise’s core objective is to develop and demonstrate an open standards application programming interface (API), meaning the API would include a rich data set with functions available to the wider UAS industry. The API would be an integration platform which in turn would become integrated into a prototype system of systems. The idea is to consider the integration platform a flight management system (FMS) that functions as a hub, integrating all the relevant elements of a drone operational workflow. Contributors towards the platform include UAS operators, UAS connectivity integration, UTM service providers, air traffic management (ATM) service providers, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), secondary data service providers, and public users.
Our aim is for the FMS to provide full operational functionality, including but not limited to:
- Flight planning and mapping
- Flight operational dashboard
- Discovery of in-area flights
- Airspace authorisations
- Dynamic restrictions management
- Impact discovery and avoidance services
- Flight rally points and failsafe actions
- Accident and incident reporting
- Flight logs, predictive maintenance, and analytics using artificial intelligence (AI)

Testing the system and demonstrating its functionality will be done through multiple flights of UAVs delivering goods/supplies with a specific focus on UTM Level 1 (BVLOS, <400ft, <20kg, E-ID, nominal and emergency scenarios). The recent Connected Places Catapult Paper (‘Enabling UTM in the UK’) has spurred the team onto adopting the Open-Access UTM Framework guiding principles to help enable a level of coordination within Project Rise and the wider projects within the Future Flight Challenge community.
This consortium is formed of a selection of the UK’s most intelligent and leading minds the UAV industry has to offer. Project leader Dronecloud is perfectly positioned to deliver this project as they play a significant role in the industry thanks to their FMS which is used worldwide by national transport services, UTM providers, and regulation authorities alike. Dronecloud’s services manage every aspect of drone flight, from flight compliance and airspace monitoring to flight logging and fleet management.
Sky-Drones is a global provider of UAV avionics solutions including flight control and ground control systems, communication systems, and drone fleet management with AI analytics. The company provides products and services to drone manufacturers and service providers in the delivery, agriculture, law enforcement, security, and inspections sectors.
Cranfield University is a postgraduate university specialising in science, engineering, technology and management. As a specialist, Cranfield’s world-class expertise, large-scale facilities and unrivalled industry partnerships are creating leaders in technology and management globally. Cranfield reputation for leading in the field of aerospace, urban air mobility communications, system integration and autonomous systems has been established through more than thirty years of research into this field. Cranfield contributes to Rise project are primarily focusing on system integration for complex on-board and ground aircraft connectivity challenges, conflict resolution, air traffic management, and facility for field test trial.
Skyports provides drone delivery through its logistics arm, Delivery by Skyports, which is proving the viability of the company’s best-in-class unmanned systems technologies by conducting medical deliveries for the NHS in Scotland and helping Royal Mail to deliver to the most remote parts of the UK. In project RISE, Skyports will operate field trials of an UAS delivery operation supporting BVLOS drone flights to test the developed system and its functionality.
Frequentis is an international expert for communication and information systems for control centres with safety-critical tasks. Frequentis successfully designs and supplies systems and solutions for the domains of communication, network infrastructure, SWIM, drone and aeronautical information management, and airport optimisation. Important focus lies in the future communication infrastructure domain and new technologies for visualisation of a common operational picture by supporting service oriented and open, standardised architecture. Frequentis contributes to project Rise with a Common Information Service solution, airspace authorization services, and expertise in standardisation of interoperable SWIM information exchange services.