Japan's first safety performance test of manned helicopter and unmanned aircraft in the same airspace in Fukushima Prefecture

Prodrone Co., Ltd. (Head office: Naka-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, President and CEO: Kono New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO, Headquarters: Saiwai Ward, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Chairman: Kazuo Furukawa), SUBARU Corporation (Head Office: Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, Representative Director and President Yasuyuki Yoshinaga), Enroute Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Asaka, Saitama Prefecture) With the cooperation of Fukushima Prefecture and Minamisoma City, we conducted Japan's first safety performance test of manned helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles in the same airspace at the Fukushima Robot Test Field site in the Reconstruction Industrial Park in Minamisoma City, Fukushima Prefecture. In recent years, in Japan, in addition to an increase in low-altitude manned flights such as medical helicopters, the number of unmanned aircraft in operation is also steadily increasing. Developing collision avoidance performance is an urgent issue. In this demonstration experiment, we obtained basic data such as mutual visibility and the effect of downwash of manned helicopters on the flight of unmanned aircraft. We plan to use the data acquired this time and future experiments to formulate performance evaluation standards for collision avoidance of unmanned aircraft. For details, please refer to NEDO's presentation materials. http://www.nedo.go.jp/news/press/AA5_100887.html