skeyes is an autonomous public company in charge of the safety of air traffic in the civil airspace for which the Belgian State is responsible. The company fulfils this mission while optimising costs and punctuality, increasing capacity, and ensuring the sustainable development of air traffic. skeyes provides all the essential services to manage and control manned air traffic safely. skeyes is also working on managing UAS operations in a safe and efficient manner within the areas under its responsibility. Within BURDI, skeyes has the role of consortium leader and assures the overall coherence of the work and the focus on the planned results. 

The Alliance for New Mobility Europe (AME) is an alliance for all aerial mobility stakeholders in Europe, suppliers and users, private and public with a focus on integrating UAVs and VTOLs into aviation and other ecosystems.   AME’s vision is to bring about a lively New Mobility community, new markets and business opportunities around New Mobility in Europe. It does so by contributing to rule-making on UAVs and VTOLs at the EU level and by accompanying national implementation. AME is everywhere where aspects of drone regulation and their markets are being discussed. AME is also very actively involved in the standards development work.  In BURDI, AME is responsible for the communication, dissemination and exploitation of the work and the results of the project. 

AIRBUS Urban Mobility (AUM) develops next-generation eVTOL vehicles by maturing the associated technological bricks, integration and manufacturing processes. AUM also works on the wider ecosystem ranging from unmanned traffic management (UTM), urban traffic concepts, infrastructure (Vertipads), and operators. For the purposes of BURDI, AUM leads the nurturing of societal acceptance through the implementation of the relevant U-space regulatory framework by bringing its cross-expertise in urban aviation and advanced mobility topics related to governance, stakeholders’ coordination, regulatory policy, multimodal mobility integration, sustainable development and social impact. 

Belgian Defence helps to defend Belgium’s interests and ensure peace in the world by the preparation and commitment of military capabilities, if necessary with the use of legitimate force, in order to guarantee the security of Belgium and its allies, protect the future  of the Belgian population, preserve the founding values of the Belgian society and promote them  both nationally and abroad. Military aviation in Belgium is the responsibility of its Belgian Air Component which plays a major role in managing and controlling parts of the airspace and acts as a Regulatory Authority for OAT as well as being an airspace user and an OAT Air Traffic Service (ATS) provider. As an associated partner for the BURDI demonstration, Belgian Defence looks to find the best solutions in order to ensure the safety of its flying assets, the effectiveness of its military airspace and the U-space implementation.  

As a pioneer in the development and production of automated aerial robots, DroneMatrix is enabling the shift of human presence to end-to-end integration of technology to support complex operational processes. With a primary focus since founded on ‘out of sight drone flights BVLOS) through a fully in-house developed drone-in-a-box technology with the highest degree of quality, robustness and compliance. We make the difference by acting not as a drone manufacturer but by providing a fully integrated drone-as-a-service. Our mission is to strengthen our already excellent position and become one of the global leading companies in the drone-in-a-box industry. Within the BURDI project, DroneMatrix will act as an operator and integrator of scalable use cases related to BVLOS flights.

EUROCONTROL is a pan-European, civil-military organisation dedicated to supporting European aviation. Our expertise spans research, development, operations and performance monitoring. We are committed to the European Union’s vision for a Single European Sky. We support our Member States and our civil and military stakeholders in a joint effort to make aviation in Europe safer, more efficient, more cost-effective and with a minimal environmental impact. In BURDI, EURCONTROL works mainly on harmonisation, and cooperation with other DSDs and institutions.

FLYING-CAM is the reference UAS manufacturer specialising in AIRBORNE INTELLIGENCE with Unmanned Helicopters in the 25 kg to 150 kg class.  With 34 years of field experience, design and manufacturing UAVs, FLYING-CAM provides VTOL Unmanned Helicopters that are considered a reference worldwide in the 25kg to 150kg category.  FLYING-CAM has vertical competencies on all the technologies involved in the UAS systems it produces, including the Autopilot System and the Ground Control Station. Each UAS is designed to be Multi-Mission, Multi-Sensor capable including several sensor payloads such as EO/IR systems, Bathymetric LiDAR, Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD), Gamma-Ray spectrometer, …  Today, the FLYING-CAM product family includes two VTOL Unmanned Helicopters using a common Interface System. 

Future Needs Management Consulting Ltd is an interdisciplinary socio-technical research and technology development SME.  We help our clients elicit user requirements for the development of new products and services, we develop R&D roadmaps aiming at product and service commercialisation, and we ensure security standards compliance for services and products we work on before they hit the market.
Future Needs leads the data protection and data management plan of the BURDI project and leads the ATM and U-space capacity assessment. Furthermore, Future Needs will execute regular market surveys and ad-hoc analyses and then, it will elaborate a cost-efficiency report and the business sustainability plan of the effective U-space services provision.

Helicus offers:

• critical and urgent medical transport by drone
• rapid response inspections by drone
• operator tools to manage a drone fleet and ground infrastructure (using U-Space services as acceptable means of compliance)

In BURDI, Helicus will demonstrate these capabilities.

Infrabel is a Belgian government-owned public limited company. It builds, owns, maintains and upgrades the Belgian railway network, makes its capacity available to railway operator companies, and handles train traffic control. Infrabel has been an early adopter of Drone technology and established its dedicated Drone Competence Center in 2017. Infrabel is committed to developing advanced BVLOS UAV ‘Use Cases’ for maintenance, inspection, punctuality and security purposes. Within the Burdi project, Infrabel will deploy its BVLOS ‘Use Cases’ in U-Space and contribute by integrating U-Space surveillance in A-typical airspace railway environments.

Royal NLR is a leading international research centre for aerospace. Bolstered by its multidisciplinary expertise and unrivalled  research  facilities,  NLR  provides  innovative  and integral  solutions  for  the  complex  challenges  in  the aerospace sector. NLR’s activities span the full spectrum of Research Development Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) and  bridge  the  gap  between  research  and  practical  applications  while  working  for  both government  and  industry. In  the BURDI project, NLR will lead WP7 on Recommendations for U-space regulation, Standardisation and Socioeconomic impact, as well as the task on the Harmonisation and cooperation among all the awarded DSD projects.

Port of Antwerp-Bruges is the second largest port in Europe and home to Europe’s largest integrated chemical cluster. Port of Antwerp-Bruges has always been a testing ground and a place of innovation. Together with the port community and our partners, we turn today’s challenges such as energy transition, digitalisation and mobility into solutions. This is how we prepare the port for the future and make it more efficient, safer and smarter. A smart port is one that brings together the economy, climate and people. We have opened up our port as an innovation platform for these new technologies and are working with public and private players to create the port of the future. In BURDI, the port will be used as one of the sites where drone operators can test specific cases in a real-life environment.

PZA (Police zone Antwerp) is part of the Belgian integrated police services. PZA provides police services in the fields of intervention and first response, front office service, research and investigation, traffic police, prevention, victims aid and public order, events & disaster control and intelligence. PZA is located in the larger Antwerp area, providing police service for over 500.000 inhabitants and each day for over 1.5 million temporary visitors. Antwerp is one of the largest harbor cities in Europe and has the largest diamond trade center of the world.  The strategic aim of PZA is to provide safety and security for all people who live in and visit Antwerp. Police service is provided on a partnership basis and cooperation, sharing and benchmarking are core values. Within Burdi PZA participates as an end user with 2 interests. PZA as user of (state operated) drones & PZA as law enforcer. Form both perspectives PZA will challenge partners and technical developers with scenarios to which extend the Burdi platform should be able to provide the desired services. Specific challenges on which PZA is looking forward towards the provided solution include giving prior access to airspace for urgent state aircraft missions as well as notification of unauthorized UAV flights in restricted or sensitive areas. PZA will also provide its cooperation in participating in test set ups as well as evaluating POC’s.

The SABCA Group conducts operations from the three Belgian regions (Brussels Capital Region, Charleroi in Wallonia, and Lummen in Flanders), as well as from Casablanca, Morocco. Today, SABCA benefits from a large palette of expertise, built over its 100 years of experience in designing, manufacturing, maintaining, and upgrading large and complex elements for aircraft and space launchers. Its customers and partners belong to the elite of the aerospace industry. SABCA offers a full range of services to the civil, space and military aviation markets and recently expanded into the commercial Unmanned Autonomous Systems (UAS) market as an integrator and operator of aerospace-grade solutions for the industry, focusing on safety-critical missions. Within the BURDI project, SABCA will operate and integrate its large fixed-wing platform in one of the first U-Space implementations in Europe.  SABCA is a part of Orizio Group, a unique industrial ecosystem in the Belgian aerospace industry which is owned by Sabena Aerospace (holding company) and by the Société Fédérale de Participations et d’Investissements (SFPI/FPIM). Through its subsidiaries, Orizio is active in the design, development and manufacture of aviation and aerospace equipment, offers maintenance services for aircraft and brings solutions to drive the sustainable development of the industry as a whole. In doing so, the group addresses its customers’ business needs from end-to-end. The group is active in more than 10 countries around the globe, has more than 1200 employees in Belgium and abroad and a cumulated turnover of 250M€. 

SkeyDrone is a drone technology start-up cofounded by skeyes and Brussels Airport Company. We provide a  one-stop-shop for all your drone needs:

• by helping you protect your business-critical assets against the risk of 3rd party drone flights;
• improving your business performance by facilitating drone-powered solutions;

We provide aviation-grade certified solutions guaranteeing the highest level of reliability, safety and security. Within BURDI we will lead WP6 and pick up the role of U-space Service Provider.

Skyports Drone Services is an expert in the operation of long-range and BVLOS flights for a multitude of use cases, including ship-to-shore and maritime applications, medical logistics and asset monitoring. Customers include the NHS, Royal Mail and Thome Shipping Co. For project BURDI, Skyports Drone Services will lead medical delivery operations, working with a network of hospitals to enable the transport of pathology samples and medical goods between sites over distances of more than 20km. The goal of the project is to demonstrate how drones can enable cost and time savings and, crucially, improve patient care.

Unifly develops and deploys Unmanned Traffic Management solutions since 2015. In the BURDI project, they participate in several work packages, focusing on the USSP and CISP software solutions. In collaboration with skeyes and SkeyDrone, Unifly will look into the certification of both those software solutions in U-space. Unifly will lead WP4 and 5 on, respectively CISP and USSP system design and implementation in early adopter areas, as Unifly is already active in such an area, namely the Port of Antwerp-Bruges. Within WP6 Unifly will take up the task on the Validation activities. 

Unisphere is a specialist in software solutions for automated flight operations of drones and air taxis. The technological core of the operations management platform creates a digital twin of each flight to enable accurate flight planning and weather risk assessment. In the BURDI project, Unisphere is developing the U-Space Weather Information Service to ensure compliance with EASA regulation 664/2021. In addition, an advanced weather service based on digital twin technology will be developed. The advanced service will evaluate the weather conditions along the flight path in accordance with the operational limitations, ensuring that the drone is only operated in conditions that allow safe flights.