Between Vilamòs and Arrés, in the Val d'Aran, drones fly capable of transporting packages of up to five kilos, avoiding curves and slopes. Yesterday, at twelve in the morning, tests began to make a connectivity map that will allow establishing route safety studies to be able to start transportation in spring.
This is the Archytas project of Pirineos Drone, a company promoted by Lara Iglesia, her partner, Daniel Castet and her partner, Nacho Lázaro, which has aid from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge of Spain. Although the 68,000 euros approved by the executive have not arrived yet. In just over three years, the company has gone from using drones to monitor the family's cows in Arrés to inspecting solar panels and other industrial projects and, now, to taking the first steps in parcel delivery.
The work these days consists of guaranteeing connections of the drones with the control centers, the computers and the pilot controls, to guarantee a round trip along the same route. “Although it seems that there is internet everywhere, there are very specific areas where that signal is lost and that will never make the drone fall, but it could cause it to lose the signal halfway, which is what we are checking,” explains Lara Iglesia.
“The light bulb went on two years ago, because it is a real need in mountain areas and in very small towns. It is a project that is very easy to extrapolate to other areas of Spain that are much more isolated,” says Lara.
They fitted the project in Aran due to the complexity of communication. The first complete route will link Pont d'Arròs and Arrés. “On that 12 kilometer route – says Lara Iglesia – there are 10 curves. With a drone, in 10 minutes the package would arrive from one town to another, without roads and without emissions, with all that that entails.
In this adventure, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) accompanies them. Enric Pastor, director of the ICARUS research group at the School of Aeronautics, participated in this Tuesday's tests. “We are connecting the drones to the mobile network and to be able to do global monitoring. Pirineos Drone wants to make long-distance package delivery flights, the previous step is to fly through those areas and ensure that you have good mobile network coverage,” explains Pastor.
“We have integrated the flights – he adds – into an air traffic management platform that is being developed in Spain, U-Space, to regulate unmanned aircraft.” And he adds that, pending the precise analysis of yesterday's tests, a priori there is good network coverage in the area, which suggests that parcel transport with drones may begin in spring.
