Public Funding for BT Group PLC

Project Skyway is an ambitious plan to put Britain once again at the forefront of a transport revolution the likes of which it has not seen since the advent of the steam railway in the 18th century. Then, short lengths of track sprang up around the country allowing steam-powered locomotives to take coal from northern mines or wool and cotton from mill towns to near-by docks to be shipped around the world. But within just a few years those independent miles of track were part of a railway network which spanned the nation, allowing goods and people to travel distances in times hitherto unheard of. This transport revolution and the efficiencies it brought was key in Britain showing itself as an industrial powerhouse on a global scale for the next century. Two centuries on, Britain is on the point of another transport revolution. Drones have the potential to transport in a way our ancestors could never have imagined, but would have surely understood. Just as trains reduced transport times from days to hours, drones will reduce them from hours to minutes; using energy from renewable sources. This will allow efficient and timely inspection of roads and railways, airport and port operators to review infrastructure without dangerous or costly closures, and provide 'lanes' which will enable delivery drones operated by the likes of DHL, Amazon, and FedEx. And this is only the beginning. As the technology is proved through drone operations, more users and use cases will emerge. eVTOL vehicles, will be able to safely cross towns and cities whilst sharing the sky with other manned and unmanned aviation. This revolution has begun with the Arrow Drone Zone (ADZ), under FF2 'Project Xcelerate,' and serves as an important proving ground, providing a route to CAA certification. Using Arrow technology as its foundation -- allowing manned and unmanned aviation to share the sky harmoniously - Project Skyway envisages a nationwide network of ADZs spanning the length and breadth of Britain, a superhighway-network-in-the-sky, providing a critical digital infrastructure which will enable the world's first truly national, open and competitive drone economy. The project's collaborative approach brings together like-minded, future-focused businesses and organisations which are leaders in their specialist fields -- from drone manufacturers, mobile and satellite connectivity providers to fleet operators, sensor manufacturers and airspace managers - to help realise the vision and deliver it to the consortia's first customers.

Project Skyway is an ambitious plan to put Britain once again at the forefront of a transport revolution the likes of which it has not seen since the advent of the steam railway in the 18th century. Then, short lengths of track sprang up around the country allowing steam-powered locomotives to take coal from northern mines or wool and cotton from mill towns to near-by docks to be shipped around the world. But within just a few years those independent miles of track were part of a railway network which spanned the nation, allowing goods and people to travel distances in times hitherto unheard of. This transport revolution and the efficiencies it brought was key in Britain showing itself as an industrial powerhouse on a global scale for the next century. Two centuries on, Britain is on the point of another transport revolution. Drones have the potential to transport in a way our ancestors could never have imagined, but would have surely understood. Just as trains reduced transport times from days to hours, drones will reduce them from hours to minutes; using energy from renewable sources. This will allow efficient and timely inspection of roads and railways, airport and port operators to review infrastructure without dangerous or costly closures, and provide 'lanes' which will enable delivery drones operated by the likes of DHL, Amazon, and FedEx. And this is only the beginning. As the technology is proved through drone operations, more users and use cases will emerge. eVTOL vehicles, will be able to safely cross towns and cities whilst sharing the sky with other manned and unmanned aviation. This revolution has begun with the Arrow Drone Zone (ADZ), under FF2 'Project Xcelerate,' and serves as an important proving ground, providing a route to CAA certification. Using Arrow technology as its foundation -- allowing manned and unmanned aviation to share the sky harmoniously - Project Skyway envisages a nationwide network of ADZs spanning the length and breadth of Britain, a superhighway-network-in-the-sky, providing a critical digital infrastructure which will enable the world's first truly national, open and competitive drone economy. The project's collaborative approach brings together like-minded, future-focused businesses and organisations which are leaders in their specialist fields -- from drone manufacturers, mobile and satellite connectivity providers to fleet operators, sensor manufacturers and airspace managers - to help realise the vision and deliver it to the consortia's first customers.

Autonomous flight is a general purpose technology with enormous commercial potential. As a result a lot of resources are being put into solving for Logistics and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). We want to provide these companies with the world's most advanced solution for autonomous unmanned flight and we took the first steps in FFP2\. In FFP2 the consortium led by [sees.ai][0] has developed a technology that enables BVLOS flights on demand, at low altitude and close to obstacles. In our system the Pilot designs the mission; our UAS senses and maps the world in 3D using Lidars and Cameras, allowing it to fly autonomously close to and amongst infrastructure. The 3D map is sent in real-time to the pilot who supervises the mission remotely for safety. This technology provided the necessary safety and risk mitigations that allowed us to obtain the first authorisation for routine BVLOS approved by the CAA. Although the system is designed to work in any congested area (including urban) the authorisation is limited to a number of predefined industrial sites in which we will build our safe flight record. In FFP3 we are pushing the technology and our operational safety case to extend our current capabilities to: * Enable Atypical Airspace (AA) BVLOS inspection of assets in the public domain by: * Advancing the capabilities of our DAA (Detect and Avoid System) so it can detect vehicles and people on the ground and any approaching aircraft * Embedding our operations into the wider aviation ecosystem by integrating them into a commercial UTM system. * Developing a system that can provide comms between UAS and pilot in areas with poor or no 4G/5G coverage. * Leveraging our advanced spatial awareness and our integration into the aviation ecosystem to create a solid Concept of Operations that will allow us to obtain one of the world's first approvals for AA-BVLOS. * Enable a pilot to control multiple UAS, an important step towards increasing the efficiency and scalability of UAS operations. We will also be aiming to be one of the first companies to obtain regulatory authorisation to fly multiple UAS simultaneously in AA. With these advancements our consortium will be hoping to contribute to the BVLOS infrastructure of the future. At the end of the project we will have a number of systems that will be tried and tested and ready to be deployed regularly by our clients. [0]: http://sees.ai/

Autonomous flight is a general purpose technology with enormous commercial potential. As a result a lot of resources are being put into solving for Logistics and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). We want to provide these companies with the world's most advanced solution for autonomous unmanned flight and we took the first steps in FFP2\. In FFP2 the consortium led by [sees.ai][0] has developed a technology that enables BVLOS flights on demand, at low altitude and close to obstacles. In our system the Pilot designs the mission; our UAS senses and maps the world in 3D using Lidars and Cameras, allowing it to fly autonomously close to and amongst infrastructure. The 3D map is sent in real-time to the pilot who supervises the mission remotely for safety. This technology provided the necessary safety and risk mitigations that allowed us to obtain the first authorisation for routine BVLOS approved by the CAA. Although the system is designed to work in any congested area (including urban) the authorisation is limited to a number of predefined industrial sites in which we will build our safe flight record. In FFP3 we are pushing the technology and our operational safety case to extend our current capabilities to: * Enable Atypical Airspace (AA) BVLOS inspection of assets in the public domain by: * Advancing the capabilities of our DAA (Detect and Avoid System) so it can detect vehicles and people on the ground and any approaching aircraft * Embedding our operations into the wider aviation ecosystem by integrating them into a commercial UTM system. * Developing a system that can provide comms between UAS and pilot in areas with poor or no 4G/5G coverage. * Leveraging our advanced spatial awareness and our integration into the aviation ecosystem to create a solid Concept of Operations that will allow us to obtain one of the world's first approvals for AA-BVLOS. * Enable a pilot to control multiple UAS, an important step towards increasing the efficiency and scalability of UAS operations. We will also be aiming to be one of the first companies to obtain regulatory authorisation to fly multiple UAS simultaneously in AA. With these advancements our consortium will be hoping to contribute to the BVLOS infrastructure of the future. At the end of the project we will have a number of systems that will be tried and tested and ready to be deployed regularly by our clients. [0]: http://sees.ai/

To develop a software platform to facilitate integration of Internet of Things technologies currently being developed in other projects. This will further evolve into a refined, stable product that enables business growth via provisioning of cutting-edge services encompassing 5G and future Internet of Things solutions.

To improve efficiency, minimise cost and time to market of system features through the effective use of semantic composition which will facilitate the discovery and combination of existing services and deploy them for cloud computing.

To develop methods that will leverage data across all channels to optimise interactions with customers – the ability to target more accurately and in a timely manner with customers to provide them with appropriate suggestions, offers and incentives to maximise their satisfaction and optimise ROI.

To develop a remote fault detection, diagnostic and field force instruction system and embed knowledge of advanced computational intelligence, intelligent environments and augmented reality.