Further development of cargo drone for forestry

Important results from the project

The goal was to develop a design- and manufacturing concept for Nordluft´s cargo drone, so that only minor details in design and component selection remained. That has been reached. A clear design and manufacturing concept now exists. The parties realized that when balancing between different desired characteristics, it is central to reduce the short term barriers. Therefore, a relatively simple solution was chosen to achieve low costs for a first smaller series. At a later stage, this will be changed to take advantage of economies of scale and optimized flight characteristics.

Expected long term effects

The result of the project was the desired one. After a good engineering collaboration between Nordluft and RISE, a clear design and manufacturing concept for Nordluft´s next generation cargo drone is now in place. This leads to fewer barriers for Nordluft to take the next step in reaching a commercial level of operations. The risk and cost of building a first batch of cargo drones has been reduced. The attractiveness of Nordluft´s concept with customers and investors has thus increased.

Approach and implementation

The project was carried out according to plan in mainly three phases: 1) Drafting of requirement specifications 2) Design drafting and research 3) Workshops and engineering work. Initially work took place at Nordluft in the form of drafting requirements. This was then reconciled with RISE. Then work took place in parallel at Nordluft and RISE in the form of engineering and design sketches. Finally together in a workshop on site at Nordluft. The concept was then finalized at Nordluft after taking into account the results that emerged at the workshop, and subsequent discussions/dialogue.