Centria Drone Lab

Centria has strong drone expertise. We utilise versatile commercial drone solutions. In addition to these, we can design and manufacture drones for different purposes.

Centria Drone Lab

The drones are designed using 3D modelling software. They can be simulated, and it is possible to complete component strength calculations. Different materials can be used in the manufacture of parts, and they can be manufactured in different ways, for example by using a 3D printer.

The drone equipment is evolving

Centria’s drone activities started in 2014 when the first drone was acquired for research and development activities. The drone served as the main device in the IMAGE 5G project (2016–2018), which carried out many new types of experiments and sought solutions for the needs of companies and authorities. During the IMAGE 5G project, the project workers gained a lot of pioneering experience of drone technologies and operations in challenging conditions.

Today, drones are used in several different research and development projects at Centria. The needs of companies and authorities continue to create many use cases of drones. The aim is to come up with new types of solutions for these use cases with different drone equipment, and to reach conclusions and further process the data obtained by the drones. Centria has various sizes of drones that are mainly used for research activities, and several small drones suitable for teaching purposes.

Equipment acquired for research and professional use

The equipment enables various types of demonstrations and experiments in different weight classes and flight times.

It enables versatile utilisation for different purposes. The applications include the needs of agriculture and industry.

Drone-related projects

For research and development:

• IMAGE 5G (2016-2018) 
• 5GFORCE (2018-2021) 
• AA3D (2019-2022)
• AFarCloud (2018-2021) 
• PRIORITY (2019-2021) 

For education:

• DroneMaster (2020-2023) 
• UCN Drone (2021-2023)

Examples of use

Airborne measurements, development of new measurement methods and visualisation of measurement results

• For example, air quality measurements, radio frequency measurements and mobile network coverage measurements  

Drone control using mobile network

• Enables longer flights

Thermal camera applications

• Detecting district heating network leaks
• Thermal leakage from buildings

Challenging industrial environments

• Situation information on hazards unsafe for humans
• Air quality measurements

Safety

• Surveillance tasks, autonomous surveillance flights

Indoor flights, maintenance, utilisation of UGVs and other applications

Supervised A2 additional theory tests in Ylivieska, Pietarsaari and Kokkola

If you want to fly drones that weigh between 500 g – 2 kg in a densely populated area, it is an open category sub-category A2 operation. In this case, in addition to the A1/A3 online theory test, you must have self-managed practical training and a supervised A2 additional theory test successfully completed.

Centria’s supervised exam sessions can be found in the academic calendar.

We also offer training in operating a drone

• Stricter aviation legislation concerning drones
• The training is intended for persons with a background in hobbies, studies or work in technology and an interest in drones
• The trainers are the University of Oulu, Oulu University of Applied Sciences and Centria University of Applied Sciences 
  

The training includes topics such as:

• Theoretical and practical training in drone technologies 
• Drone-related legislation
• Use of drones as measuring devices
• Analysis of the data produced by the drone

Proof-of-Concept trials in projects

• Antennin 3D-säteilykuvion mittaus dronella Centria-ammattikorkeakoulun testiverkkoympäristössä 
• Radiotaajuudella olevan häiriölähteen havaitseminen UAS:n avulla
• Massive MIMO antennin keilanohjauksen havaitseminen UAS:llä 
• IMAGE 5G: Centria Ylivieskan kampus kuvattuna Dronella ilmasta 
• Arctic Airborne 3D – The first hovering tests with VTOL 
• Arctic Airborne 3D demonstrates 
• The PRIORITY project, Trial 1
• The PRIORITY project, Trial 2 
• AA3D demonstrates: Drones for searching and finding reindeers 
• AA3D testaa: dronet poronhoidossa 
• AA3D demonstrates: Using GPS data to find a reindeer with a drone flight 
• Drone kunnossapidon mittauksissa 

References

• Nelikopterit tulevat RF-mittauksiin 
• Centrian tutkimus ja kehitys kehittää 5G-verkon sovelluskohteita kolmessa uudessa hankkeessa 
• Pikkukaupungissa toimii huippunopea verkko 
• Dronet 5G-verkon kenttätesteihin Kirkkonummella
• Droneja voidaan ohjata matkapuhelinverkon kautta 
• Taktinen kupla testattavana OuluZonessa – Siirrettävä 5G tukiasema voi hyödyntää viranomaisia 
• Taktisen kuplan avulla viranomaisverkko liikkuu hankaliin paikkoihin
• Uudet teknologiat viranomaisviestinnän käyttöön

Publications

• M. Heikkilä, M. Koskela, T. Kippola, M. Kocak, J. Erkkilä and J.Tervonen, “Using Unmanned Aircraft System for Mobile Network Verifications“, 2018 IEEE 29th Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor, and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC), Bologna, Italy, 9-12 September 2018. 
• M. Heikkilä, A. Seppänen, M. Koskela, J. Pihonen, J. Engelberg, A. Pouttu, “The Use of Unmanned Aircraft System for the Radio Frequency Interference Measurements”, 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Measurements & Networking (M&N), Catania Italy, 8-10 July 2019. 
• J. Urama, R. Wiren, O. Galinina, J. Kauppi, K. Hiltunen, J. Erkkilä, F. Chernogorov, P. Eteläaho, M. Heikkilä, J. Torsner, S. Andreev, M. Valkama, “UAV-Aided Interference Assessment for Private 5G NR Deployments: Challenges and Solutions”, 2020, 58th IEEE Communications Magazine. 
• J. Erkkilä, M. Koskela, M. Heikkilä, ” Utilizing Private Mobile Network for UAV Communication in Logistics”, 2021 The 30th Conference of Open Innovations Association FRUCT, https://fruct.org/publications/acm30/files/Erk.pdf 
• Overview of the Nordic Challenges for Unmanned Aircraft Systems: DOI: 10.23919/FRUCT53335.2021.9599965 
• Kramar V., Kanth R., Toppinen A., Rabah M., Immonen E., Koskela M., Erkkila J., Westerlund T., Tenhunen H., Isoaho J., Lybeck T., Perttula A., Tammi K., Sjoholm M., Arffman V., Ruotsalainen K., Tikanmaki A., Roning J. : Unmanned Aircraft Systems – Education Activities in Finland, UCNDrone Perspective https://fruct.org/publications/acm30/files/Kra.pdf