Nokia has revealed a CE-certified, turnkey drone-in-a-box, designed to meet the demands of public safety agencies, smart cities, construction, energy and defence.

CE-certified to meet safety requirements of the European Union, the Nokia Drone Networks offering connects over public and private 4G LTE and 5G networks to enhance situational awareness for first responders and other professionals.

It is manufactured in Europe and comprises Nokia drones, docking station, dual gimbal camera and edge cloud processing using the firm’s MX Industrial Edge (MXIE).

By connecting over public and private 4G LTE and 5G networks, users should benefit from higher reliability. Using cellular connectivity also offers higher data rates and lower latency enabling more data to be streamed than over wifi.

Beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations with real-time kinetic (RTK) positioning improves situational awareness. Dual modem connectivity allows Nokia drones to connect simultaneously to multiple networks, complying with system redundancy that is commonly required by aviation regulatory bodies.

The drone can be operated remotely for search and rescue activities, and to assess damage in a hazardous environment. The drones can also be programmed to manage autonomous scheduled flights for applications such as additional security at large events or to manage regular remote equipment inspections.

The docking station protects the drone and payload, such as the sensor devices or dual gimbal camera, from external hazards and harsh weather while it remotely charges the drone to prepare for the next flight.

When used with MXIE, data from the drones can be collected and processed in real time at the edge cloud. An open API framework allows agencies and enterprises to onboard pre-integrated Nokia and third-party applications and systems and take advantage of a growing number of public safety and Industry 4.0 use cases for drone automation, including object identification, tracking and network measurements

Nokia and the New York Power Authority have already demonstrated the use of the drone connected over private LTE, for transmission line inspection.

“Our mission is to reshape the industrial UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] market, providing enhanced situational awareness to aid search and rescue, surveillance, and other UAV operations in a wide variety of industries,” said Thomas Eder, head of embedded wireless at Nokia. “Nokia Drone Networks have been designed to comply with the remote operation requirements of aviation regulatory bodies such as EASA in Europe and FAA in the USA. This will help us address growing market demands as a turnkey provider with a solution designed and produced in Europe. The unique feature set enabling the integration of Nokia drones with third-party applications will aid the transformation of the drones, allowing them to be used as a flying data collection platform leveraging reliable 4G and 5G edge cloud connectivity.”

Depending on the deployed configuration, Nokia drones offer more than 50 minutes of flight time and cover distances of more than 30km due to the hardware architecture, integrated software and the 4G and 5G connectivity.

The drone will be featured on the Nokia stand J60 during this month’s Critical Communications World in Helsinki, from 23 to 25 May.