AT A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION IN THE FEDERATION COUNCIL, THE CENTER FOR STRATEGIC RESEARCH PRESENTED STRATEGIC PROPOSALS FOR INCREASING THE ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF UAS USE.

The Federation Council held a roundtable discussion on the use of UAS for violation recording and traffic enforcement.
Currently, drones are being used for traffic enforcement in 29 regions of Russia, and by the end of 2022–2023, they had identified approximately 35,000 traffic violations. Of these, 68% were recorded in two regions, the majority in the Krasnodar Krai.

Anton Koren, General Director of the Transport strategy center (TSC), identified three key aspects for improving the economic efficiency of UAS use:

1. When implementing the goal of increasing the efficiency of budgetary funds, the cost per flight hour or the cost per scenario is clearly important.
The Transport strategy center (TSC) experience in developing new electric UAS shows that the flight hour cost of electric UAS, under the same scenarios and in some highly efficient drone configurations, is 67% lower than that of fully-automated ICE-powered UAS (when calculated over the entire lifecycle). Anton Koren proposed investing specifically in electric UAS development, including taking into account the annual increase in battery capacity, which averages 6%–8% and allows for increased range and flight time without product modification. This increase is expected to be 4.5 times greater over 20 years due to the increase in battery capacity alone.

2. The second important strategic aspect of reducing operating costs is the transition to autonomous droneports and automation of operations.

According to Transport strategy center (TSC) estimates, automation of operations using fully automated droneports—drone stations—reduces operating costs by 42%. This is achieved by reducing the number of pilots and payload operators involved, as well as other cost items. One promising area mentioned by the expert is the development of tethered drones. Budgetary costs can also be reduced by implementing a service model. Anton Koren noted that developers of such automated drone station solutions exist in Russia, including those willing to work on a turnkey basis using a service model.

3. The third important aspect of increasing the economic efficiency of UAS and saving budget funds is that the joint use of UAS by several agencies provides savings of up to 100% on equipment ownership costs alone. For example, based on the experience of the Transport strategy center (TSC) in the Volga Federal District, the same drones can be used to record road accidents and promptly transmit data to emergency medical services.

The Transport strategy center (TSC) believes that it is precisely by taking these three strategic aspects into account that the economic efficiency of this emerging industry will be maximized in the scenarios under consideration.

The roundtable was attended by representatives of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia), the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, representatives of manufacturers, operators, and developers of innovative UAS, and the Transport strategy center (TSC).

For more information on the project practice, watch the video on the Transport strategy center (TSC) Telegram channel.

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