Terracuda for commercial drones
Overview
Ensuring management & safety protocols
Drones have shown the potential to transform industries from agriculture to logistics, emergency services, filming and inspection & surveillance that will automate tasks, and uncover new data sets. Demand for commercial drones have already been booming. However, the two challenges that threaten to limit their potential are public safety and airspace management. By issuing a unique ID for every unmanned aircraft, blockchain can keep a “real-time” record of its position and movements, operator, and maintenance history. The use of smart contracts through blockchain could automate compliance of unmanned aircraft with regulations. Blockchain also provides for greater system wide auditability in case of an incident. With a decentralized blockchain, flight records are harder to tamper with, and multiple blockchain nodes provide data redundancy.
Case Studies
UAV & Pilot management
Terracuda can be applied as a single source of truth when it comes to regulatory compliance in terms of UAV & Pilot control. Authorized drone and pilot information as well as the up-to-date maintenance record of each drone are registered on blockchain in a distributed manner so that they are always available, traceable and tamper-proof. Smart contract automates the verification process and guarantees the legitimacy and safety of every flight
Flight data integrity
Storing flight logs and drone data on blockchain significantly improves data integrity thanks to the immutability of DLT. Terracuda hosted in MEC at 5G edge, takes one step further by providing real-time on-chain data registry service to UAVs. Drones that are connected via 5G signals that upload real-time flight data to the blockchain, hosted in the nearby MEC. This will provide a fully traceable flight data record, accessible to authorized parties for audit and / or failure analysis in case of accidents
Beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS)
No-fly zones, military operating areas, aerodromes…the low altitude airspace is a scarce resource shared amongst many stakeholders. For UAVs, services e.g. remote ID identification, airspace authorization, flight tracking and deconfliction are mandatory to ensure the scalability of unmanned aviation ?

With up-to-date information about controlled flying zones published by ATC and control tower of the aerodrome on DLT, UAVs that are connected via 5G with the nearby MEC are constantly updated with these information and being monitored for any potential violation. With smart contract deployed on chain, authorities can impose a penalty and / or take over control of a drone when deemed necessary

Solutions
Requirement for the navigation node that provides the UAV position and velocities, which are connected to other nodes
With the control node, that manages the behavior of the UAV according to the current position received from the navigation node and to target the waypoint position given by blockchain management node
The blockchain management node (Terracuda) hosted in the cloud or at the edge network (MEC), implements all blockchain functionalities (synchronization, authorized permissions, execution of smart contracts…etc). UAVs only communicate together through this platform
Terracuda integrated 5G MECs unlocks the potential of commercial drone aviation
Value Proposition
Trusted Automation
The automation of IDaaS drone verification processes is carried out in a trusted manner via a smart contract on the blockchain
Tamper-Proof
On-chain flight data serve as an important reference / evidence that is immutable amongst multiple parties, in executing log transactions
Service Availability
Blockchain enabled real-time flight data registry and continuity for full service availability without single point of failures
Safety & Security
The application of blockchain allows for the automation of UAV safety & data security in compliance with aviation protocols