Denmark’s New EUR 8.6 Million Drone Research Includes Offshore Wind

With a budget of DKK 64 million (approx. EUR 8.6 million), the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) is leading a major research project involving five of the country’s universities which will set up two new drone laboratories in collaboration with HCA Airport in Odense.

The new drone laboratories that will be established at the airport include a test laboratory equipped with simulators for testing drones in different environments, such as inspecting offshore wind turbines, and a composite laboratory that will enable experiments with composite materials in the construction and design of the drones, said Brad Beach, who has been in charge of the drone center at SDU.

In addition to Denmark’s universities, public and private companies may also use the laboratories when they are finished, SDU said.

In the national drone strategy, the Ministry for Education and Research has allocated DKK 30 million from the research infrastructure funds for a national drone research infrastructure. The universities will provide DKK 34 million for the research.

The UAS-ability project will unite research in drone technology from SDU, the University of Aalborg, the University of Aarhus, the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen.

Minister for Education and Research, Ulla Tørnæs, said: “The research infrastructure will be available for researchers all over the country and will strengthen the ability to transform knowledge about drones into concrete value for Danish companies.”

The grant from the Ministry means that drone researchers from the nation’s universities can make major purchases. They can now afford to buy the equipment that will facilitate development of the next-generation drones.

“At SDU, we are going to buy a 3-Dimensional radar. It is a tool which is absolutely necessary in developing drones that can self-register and avoid obstacles in the air. It is expensive and something we couldn’t afford before,” said Kasper Hallenborg.

At Aalborg University, the researchers are going to buy a large van: a command center on wheels that can monitor the airborne drones. The researchers will also buy a helicopter test drone with which they can test new sensors that can detect other aircraft.