Over 300 drone industry experts met in Warsaw at the international conference “Droniada Future Forum by Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation”. This is the most important event of this type in Poland, organized by Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation and the Mikromakro Institute Foundation. The topics of this year’s edition were the future of the drone industry, advanced air mobility, supporting the drone ecosystem in Poland and increasing its international competitiveness.
– Poland has a chance to develop a thriving UAV sector and has the potential to build a competitive advantage, both on the EU and global markets. However, we are at a critical moment because European authorities and their regulations may slow down this development and we certainly do not want to lose the momentum that we have and that the Polish UAV sector has already gained – said during the opening of the conference, the director of the Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation, Dr. Eng. Paweł Stężycki.
National institutions such as the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency and the Civil Aviation Office have an important role to play. The President of PANSA, Magdalena Jaworska-Maćkowiak, talked about the agency’s role in integrating and managing the drone industry through the development of the PANSA UTM system and the drone team within the organization. The Civil Aviation Office, represented by Paweł Szymański, director of the UAV Department, pointed to the impressive number of registered drone operators in Poland – over 250,000, which constitutes 15% of all registered in the European Union. 300 new operators are registered in Poland every day. The drone market in Poland is therefore growing very quickly.
Advanced air mobility
One of the main topics of this year’s forum was advanced air mobility using drones. Director of the Department of International Cooperation and Research Excellence, Dr. Beata Lubos from the Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation argued that it is worth getting involved in international projects in this field. This supports the development of innovation and enables Polish companies to access new technologies. The Institute, which is the coordinator of the Industry Contact Point “Smart and Clean Mobility”, organized a special matchmaking during the forum for companies interested in increasing their competitiveness by joining a partnership in the Horizon Europe program.
Where we are and what remains of the vision of the future in the context of advanced air mobility were discussed during an international panel discussion. The panel was led by Dr. Eng. Sylwester Wyka, deputy director for research at the Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation, and the participants were: Adriana Witkowska (Metropolia GZM), Oscar Lara Rapp (CRISALION Mobility), Nabil Hagag (DLR), Sebastian Babiarz (DroneUp) and Bartosz Dziugieł (Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation). During the discussion, the following topics were discussed: sustainable development of transport or differences between the development of air mobility in cities and outside large urban centers. Examples of the implementation of advanced urban mobility were also presented: ASSURED-UAM project (GZM, Bari, Porto) or Dallas (deliveries for one of the retail chains carried out by DroneUp).
Future scenarios for the drone industry
What the drone sector will look like and what innovations are already being introduced by Polish companies were discussed during discussion panels divided by drone market sectors (logistics and transport, monitoring and inspection, precision agriculture, Search and Rescue) and market participants (owners of critical infrastructure, airspace organizers and representatives of institutes – technological perspective). It was a continuation of conversations undertaken during the first foresights of the UAV market in Poland in the form of online seminars which were organized in the first half of the year by the Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation and the Mikromakro Institute Foundation.
The conclusions drawn from the debates are mostly positive, although the industry also reports problems related to excessive legislation which hinders development. Conference participants reported for example the demand to treat drones used in remote sensing of crops as agricultural machines and not as aircraft.
More information about the current state of the drone industry in Poland can be found in “The Storm. Drone market in Poland. Edition 2024.”
Technologies for drones
The organization of the conference also enabled its participants to become familiar with the research offer of the Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation, including: with: a meteorological system, avionics for drones, silent propeller technology and the possibility of designing and testing drone landing gear.
Participants visited part of the Institute’s research infrastructure, where testing, engineering design and simulation services are provided for the drone industry, and more:
- Hybrid Drive Laboratory (hybrid drive testing)
- Environmental testing laboratory (Environmental tests)
- Wind tunnel (wind tunnel tests)
- Anechoic chamber (acoustic tests)
- Center for Composite Technologies (composite technologies)
The next edition of the Droniada Future Forum by Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation conference is planned for next year.
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