Cities Chosen for Drone Technology

Bradford, London, Preston, Southampton and West Midlands to explore the benefits that drone can offer in addressing local needs.

17:04 24 February 2018

Five UK cities that were chosen for the Flying High Challenge by Nesta’s Challenge Prize Centre in partnership with Innovate UK will be the first in the UK to design how drone technology could be used to support their local needs.

 

West Midlands, London, Bradford, Southampton, and Preston will collaborate with the Flying High Team over the next five months to explore the benefits that drone can offer to their communities – from using them to support public services to exploring their possible role in commercial opportunities that might exist in the future.

 

The five cities were chosen due to their impressive credentials in the fields of autonomous vehicles, robotics and aerospace, among others. They also have unique approaches to local economic development as well as public engagement.

 

Nishita Dewan, Programme Lead for the Flying High Challenge, explained: “The entries to the Flying High Challenge showed the huge appetite from cities across the UK to develop models for drones that work for their people and communities. We saw diverse and creative uses for drones such as boosting wifi and helping find lost children at the seaside, to the support for key public services such as delivering AEDs and inspecting critical infrastructure.

 

“Cities represent an important medium, through which we can understand the public’s needs, both for Flying High and our partners, BEIS, CAA and the DfT. We want to co-create a solution that understands the needs of local people and the future city they want to live in.

 

“In the subsequent phases of the Flying High Challenge, the five cities that have been selected will become testbeds for future demonstrations.”