Milton Keynes City Council is preparing to use drones to create a digital twin of its area as part of its highways surveys and planning for accident response.
It is beginning an 18-month trial, working with Cranfield University’s Drone Innovation Hub and the Satellite Applications Catapult Westcott DonePort, to test the service as part of its smart city infrastructure.
Drone flights over Milton Keynes will map the area in detail to provide data for a digital twin.
The council said the use of drones could help to deliver services such as smart traffic monitoring, secure parcel deliveries, remote building inspections and emergency response. Real time information sharing through drone technologies will allow several services to work together and act faster when responding to incidents.
In addition, integrating ground and air based services can reduce carbon emissions, supporting the city council’s climate change commitments.
Testing technologies
Cabinet member for economy, sustainability and innovation, Cllr Shanika Mahendran, said: “This is yet another instrumental trial coming to Milton Keynes to test future technologies. The world is moving fast and I’m proud that we’re leading the way in bringing innovative methods to deliver essential services that our residents and businesses rely on.
“If the trials are successful, it will also help us meet our climate action ambitions and create new jobs of the future for local people.”
Milton Keynes has been one of the country’s leading locations for the testing of smart places technologies. It has recently been announced as one of the spots for the use of air quality sensors to assess the impact of green spaces on reducing pollution, and other initiatives have included an accelerator programme for 5G innovations.
