New Public Projects with Drones to be Launched

Public projects utilizing drones will be promoted by the government.

The Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Hyesuk Lim, hereinafter referred to as the ‘MSICT’) will lead a new project in cooperation with various ministries such as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Public Procurement Service. In the software platform development project (2019-23, 41.3 billion won in the national budget), it was announced that it would select research institutes in charge of three new themes reflecting public demand and launch of the project.

The new project promoted this time has three themes including △the Collection of on-site information on coastal garbage, △Research on land and cadastral areas, and △Crime prevention and patrol missions in mountainous areas.

Drone utilizing project aims to improve the quality of public services by developing unmanned vehicles and software platforms that reflect the needs of public institutions and supporting the growth of small and medium-sized firms through public innovation procurement.

The details of the new project and the subjective research institution are as follows:

◆ Hancom Inspace Co., Ltd. was selected as the lead research institute for the task of developing an unmanned mobile system to collect on-site information on coastal garbage (*Demanding institution: Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean engineering(KRISO)).

In this project, the system will be developed to perform missions such as coastal garbage observation and information acquisition for more than 20 minutes in an area within a maximum operating distance of 4 km.

◆ Umac Air Co., Ltd. was selected as the lead research institute for the task of developing an unmanned mobile system for high-precision image information processing for national land survey and cadastral re-investigation (*Demanding organization: Korea Land Information Corporation). It will operate a number of unmanned aerial vehicles (up to 4) to perform an image shooting mission for 20 minutes over an area of up to 1 square kilometer.

◆ Gryphondynamics Co., Ltd. was chosen as the lead research institute for the task of developing an unmanned mobile system(*Demanding organization: Hwaseong City Hall) for automatic repetitive missions for crime prevention and patrol in the island and mountainous areas.

Within a maximum operating distance of 20 kilometers, the project will establish a system that can automatically and repeatedly perform crime prevention and patrol missions for up to 40 minutes.

The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSICT) plans to provide a budget of KRW 1.5 billion for two years from July this year to June 2023 for three research themes selected after receiving demand from the government, local governments, and public institutions. During the period, it plans to designate excellent procurement products and support public innovation procurement in connection with market development.

“The combination of public procurement, which aims innovation, co-prosperity, and public safety, and unmanned mobility, which is the core of the 4th industrial revolution, will be a catalyst for accelerating government innovation and we will continue to support drone innovation companies and public service innovation,” said Changyun Lee, Director of Basic Source Research Policy, MSICT.

Reported by Smart City Today