The industrial drone solutions provider and realty company have completed testing of Terra Drone’s unmanned traffic management (UTM) system in the city of Tokyo, demonstrating how unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be used in urban environments to aid logistics, security and surveillance, and disaster prevention.
The demonstration was conducted in one of Japan’s leading business centres – the Marunouchi area of Tokyo. Leveraging the UTM system, a drone flew autonomously at an altitude of 2.5m, navigating between high-rises.
The UAV captured aerial footage and relayed it back to a control room where analysts monitored the video to detect issues such as logistical bottlenecks and security threats.
The test flight was organised as part of the Marunouchi UrbanTech Voyager initiative by Mitsubishi Estate.
The aim of the project is to transform the Marunouchi district into a business and innovation hub by utilising urban-development-friendly artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and robotics.
In Japan, drone use is active in mountainous areas and remote islands, but full-scale use in urban areas is not expected before 2022.
