Urban-Air Port and Blue Innovation to co-develop advanced air mobility vertiports in Japan
Urban-Air Port will provide the critical ground infrastructure to kickstart Advanced Air Mobility in Japan. Image copyright Urban-Air Port®. All rights reserved
Urban-Air Port Ltd (UAP), the British start-up company developing zero emission ground infrastructure for eVTOL passenger air taxis and autonomous delivery drones have signed an MOU with Blue Innovation Co. Ltd (BI), a Japanese autonomous drone and robotics solutions provider.
The agreement will see the two companies collaborate on creating several proofs of concept (POC) for autonomous medical and logistics drone operations and co-development of vertiports to establish the first advanced air mobility (AAM) hub using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Japan.
The development of the new vertiports will see the perfect marriage of ground and air architecture driven by an autonomous digital platform at the core. Critical to this digital infrastructure will be BI’s Vertiport Information Management System (VIMS), powered by its Blue Earth Platform (BEP), a proprietary device integration platform that is capable of remote beyond visible line of sight (BVLOS) autonomous control and operation of drones. The software allows optimisation of drones to autonomously perform tasks that would normally require human input.
UAP and BI are aiming to develop several proofs of concept for practical application throughout Japan in use cases such as transportation of medical supplies, industrial maintenance/inspection work and logistics solutions, paving the way for remote pilot passenger operations and ultimately autonomous passenger air travel.
Since 2016 BI have been conducting extensive research and development into a vertiport system, the “BEP Port”, in collaboration with the Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan and the University of Tokyo, which combines their VIMS digital platform with infrastructure design – the expertise UAP will bring to the table. This valuable groundwork has already seen BI conducting multiple POCs throughout Japan.
The collaboration between UAP and BI will enable further POCs to be developed in an effort to create social implementation of AAM not just in Japan, but on a global scale.
Blue Innovation Co.'s Blue Earth Platform will provide the digital technology for autonomous drone operations. Image copyright Blue Innovation. All rights reserved
“Japan is a key market for Urban-Air Port. Collaborating with Blue Innovation establishes us in Japan, providing best-in-class technology as well as a platform for further development and co-operation. Similarly, this agreement gives Blue Innovation a far broader reach in terms of geography and customers. We’re excited to make this announcement today and look forward to making the strongest AAM ecosystem in Japan and across the world.”
About Urban-Air Port Ltd
Urban-Air Port Limited designs, develops, manufactures, sells and operates ground, air and digital infrastructure for new forms of sustainable urban air transport such as air taxis and autonomous delivery drones. Its mission is to remove the largest single constraint to sustainable air mobility – ground infrastructure – in order to create a zero-emission-mobility ecosystem that will significantly cut congestion and air pollution from passenger and cargo transport. Urban-Air Port is recognised as a world leader in the Advanced Air Mobility sector. It recently completed the launch of Air One, a world-first demonstration of its vertiport technology in Coventry City Centre, UK and plans to deliver over 200 vertiports across the world in the next five years – ultra-compact, rapidly deployable, operations hubs for manned and unmanned vehicles providing aircraft command and control; charging/refuelling; and cargo and passenger loading.
The company is backed by UK Government and major international partners, including Supernal. Urban-Air Port’s team of innovators, aeronautical engineers and aerospace experts have worked at companies including Airbus, Foster + Partners, Arup, JP Morgan, Knight Frank, British Aviation Group, Qinetiq and Uber, and in the UK Defence Sector. Visit www.urbanairport.com for more information or social media through Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Blue Innovation Co. Ltd
Established in 1999, Blue innovation has been a pioneer of industrial drone applications, dedicated to developing coastal monitoring systems using drones, creating optimized drones and their components and applications, and providing solutions for recovering the coasts lost in the Great East Japan Earthquake. Currently, Blue innovation Co., Ltd. is an innovative solution provider delivering five major services including security, indoor inspection, education & safety, entertainment, and logistics based on our Blue Earth Platform (BEP). BEP is an infrastructure platform that enables complex missions via cooperation and coordination of multiple drones, and it is the backbone for all of the solution services Blue innovation offers.
Visit https://www.blue-i.co.jp/en/ for more information.
