Israel to develop national AI system for massive drone traffic in 2 years

Jerusalem, March 21

Israel is expected to develop a national artificial intelligence (AI) control room that manages all the country's drone traffic by the beginning of 2023.

On Wednesday, Israeli authorities demonstrated the first national air test in which a group of drones, operated by their respective companies from a control room about 50 km away, flew simultaneously at a distance of a few meters away from each other, Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

The flight tasks performed at the same time by the drones in shared small air space included lifting equipment, shooting videos, and delivering goods to a designated distribution station.

Israeli authorities stated that the pilot project would be run for two years, and it will be a significant global breakthrough in the ability to manage drone operations at scale.

In early 2020, a government steering committee was established to support and promote a national drone network operation titled the NAAMA Initiative.

The project is supported by the Innovation Authority, Israeli Prime Minister's Office, Civil Aviation Authority, Ministry of Transportation, private companies and others.

In recent years, more and more Israeli companies, as well as amateurs, have begun to use drones for a variety of purposes such as photography, monitoring crops and securing properties.

Israel is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and has thus one of the most packed skies. Israel's busy sky necessitates the regulation of all air users to prevent fatal air accidents.

Eyal Zor, CEO and co-founder of Airwayz, one of the companies that participate in the Israeli AI drone control pilot, told Xinhua that the AI control room will work like a road navigation system to facilitate the airways by providing each sky user its own safe route.

"I think it is one of the first worldwide drone experiment that tests multiple drone operations over the urban skies," said Zor.

In case of a potential collision, the system will give alerts to drone operators to change their routes.

"In two years, we will start seeing hundreds and hopefully, thousands of drones flying over our heads" across cities with food deliveries, medicine supply and industrial deliveries, said Zor. — IANS

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