Skip to main content

Spain may use drones for traffic monitoring

Spain’s highway agency and technology company Sistemas y Montajes Industriales are developing unmanned drones to monitor traffic on public highways and may have drones ready to come into operation from next year, according to Euroweekly News. Alberto de Laorden, the director of Sistems, was at the Seventh National Road Safety Congress in Valencia and confirmed that the prototype is on course to be ready by next year. Laorden spoke about the advantages of the aircraft at the Congress, “Much cheaper tha
November 10, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Spain’s highway agency and technology company Sistemas y Montajes Industriales are developing unmanned drones to monitor traffic on public highways and may have drones ready to come into operation from next year, according to Euroweekly News.

Alberto de Laorden, the director of Sistems, was at the Seventh National Road Safety Congress in Valencia and confirmed that the prototype is on course to be ready by next year.

Laorden spoke about the advantages of the aircraft at the Congress, “Much cheaper than a helicopter and faster to deploy, drones could be used to monitor problem areas such as zones affected by floods or other natural disaster.”

The aircraft could be fitted with cameras to detect issues with road surfaces, recognise number plates and record traffic violations he said.

At the moment legislation demands that the operator keep the drone within sight which would make it impossible for the aircraft to be used to track hundreds of kilometres of motorways.
UTC

Related Content

  • June 25, 2020
    Honeywell forms dedicated drone unit
    Products to be developed include a fly-by-wire autopilot system
  • March 1, 2013
    Bringing enforcement standards into line
    Difficulties with the apparent accuracy of enforcement systems have been making the headlines in the United States over recent months. Jon Masters investigates the causes and possible cures. Online newspaper reports in the United States over recent months have painted a picture of the authorities struggling to keep on top of their speed and red light enforcement pro­grammes. Among a host of stories put out by the Washington Post and others on the subject of speed cameras during January, there were reports
  • April 26, 2013
    ITS asset management matters
    Maintenance of on-road ITS kit needs to become more sophisticated; while new technologies can deliver better road maintenance. David Crawford investigates both sides of the issue "Good information is key to effective ITS asset maintenance,” says Ian Routledge of the Ian Routledge Consultancy (IRC), whose Imtrac (Information Management for TRAffic Control) system is poised for European expansion. Developed as an ‘intelligent filing cabinet’ for storing information about on-road equipment, the online database
  • February 3, 2012
    Cooperative infrastructure systems waiting for the go ahead
    Despite much research and technological promise, progress towards cooperative infrastructure system deployment is still slow. Here, Robert Cone and John Miles take a considered look at how and when it might come about. From a systems engineering viewpoint it looks logical and inevitable that vehicles should be communicating between themselves and with the road infrastructure. But seen from a business viewpoint the case is not proven.