Project overview

As part of our Smart City work, Milton Keynes City Council will work with Cranfield University’s Drone Innovation Hub and Satellite Applications Catapult Westcott DronePort to prove, trial, test and demonstrate new drone-based services that operate alongside our robotics delivery services and self-driving passenger shuttles. The18-month, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy-funded project builds on our reputation as an ‘urban laboratory’ and will use new technologies to create enhanced and differentiated services, benefitting the city and everyone in it and help create more high-tech, high-skill jobs for our people in anew and growing sector. By integrating our ground-and air-based services, we see opportunities to reduce traffic congestion, and the resultant carbon emissions, creating a healthier environment for all in line with our Net Zero ambitions. Beyond the environmental improvements, we see potential to transform the way services are delivered, for example in areas as diverse as high-speed, safe and secure package delivery, equipment or buildings inspections, or in terms of healthcare provision, for example to transfer vital medical equipment or supplies as part of an

Regulators’ Pioneer Fund Competition Brief6emergency response, by creating the ability to share real-time positional information. The project itself is designed to demonstrate the new technologies, show that they are safe, secure and reliable and aid the development of UK-wide regulation in this area. We plan to establish a testbed that allows ongoing experimentation and we believe our pioneering work will also create a blueprint for wider adoption and deployment, both within Milton Keynes and beyond.