Heron AirBridge Sponsors Mobile Tethered UAV & UGV Project with SUTD
Partnering Innovation in Education, Powering Real-World Operations
At Heron AirBridge, we believe that the future of unmanned systems lies at the intersection of academic innovation and real-world application.
In collaboration with the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), we sponsored a student-led project that reimagines how tethered UAVs can be mobilized within restricted airspace—powered by our AirBridge platform as the digital backbone for mission planning, execution, and oversight.
1. From Runway Inspection to Scalable Surveillance
The project began with a clear mission: to develop a mobile tethered drone system for automated runway inspection in tightly regulated environments.
Tethered drones are typically constrained to fixed points, limiting their flexibility. This student team innovatively solved that by mounting a tethered UAV onto an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), creating a mobile aerial platform that could move safely along a runway while maintaining a persistent surveillance view.
The tether provided continuous power and helped meet airspace compliance rules—allowing operations in locations where untethered drones would not be approved.
Beyond runway inspection, the system proved to be modular and adaptable. With simple reconfiguration, the platform could support event surveillance, critical infrastructure patrols, emergency response overwatch, and disaster site assessment.
This flexibility demonstrated how a concept rooted in regulation could evolve into a scalable tool for real-world operational needs.
2. Innovation Backed by Industry Expertise
Heron’s support extended beyond funding—we provided deep technical mentorship throughout the project.
Our team helped the students navigate hardware integration between UAV and UGV systems, manage tether constraints, and optimize flight behavior. We also guided them through the scripting of MAVLink commands to achieve seamless coordination between the drone and ground vehicle.
Crucially, we equipped the team with access to the Heron AirBridge platform, allowing them to build flight plans, simulate operations, and monitor live telemetry.
This was a rare opportunity for students to work with an industry-grade flight management and monitoring tool—an experience that bridged theory with practice and prepared them for professional-grade mission management.
3. AirBridge as the Operational Nerve Centre
Throughout the testing and demo phases, Heron AirBridge served as the central mission system. The students used the platform to plan UGV movement paths and tethered UAV flight envelopes within geo-referenced airspace boundaries.
Real-time telemetry and system health feedback were visualized through AirBridge’s web dashboard and mobile app—giving both users and mentors a full picture of each mission as it unfolded.
By integrating live tracking, geofence enforcement, and automated conformance monitoring, AirBridge enabled safe, structured operations—just as it does in real-world deployments.
The platform’s use in this project wasn’t just educational; it demonstrated exactly how AirBridge supports secure and compliant drone operations across a wide range of industries.
Outcome: Education Meets Execution
With Heron AirBridge’s full-spectrum support, the SUTD student team successfully developed and field-tested the mobile tethered UAV platform.
The project fulfilled its primary objective of enabling compliant runway inspections and showcased the scalability of the system for broader surveillance use cases.
Just as importantly, it validated Heron AirBridge platform as a mission-proven planning and monitoring tool—not only for professionals, but also as a learning platform for the next generation of engineers and drone operators.
This project exemplifies what’s possible when education is empowered by operational-grade tools. Heron AirBridge remains committed to supporting innovation in academia and shaping future-ready talents capable of delivering impact in the unmanned systems ecosystem.
