DNA+Drone Project, ETRI Consortium Selected
Investing 48 billion won over 5 years in drone service development
Testbeds provided by 13 demand agencies


A project to develop new drone services by integrating drones with ICT such as 5G, AI, and big data is being promoted.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 28th that, following the selection evaluation results for the DNA+Drone Technology Development Project (2020–2024, total 48 billion KRW), it has finally selected a consortium led by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) and will proceed with the project.

This project is designed to create a new drone service model by integrating data, 5G, and artificial intelligence technologies into drones, in response to the changes in the drone industry that are rapidly expanding from drone manufacturing to application services.

The selected consortium is expected to include a total of 25 organizations, consisting of three public research institutes including ETRI, three universities including KAIST, and 19 companies including telecommunications companies (KT, LGU+), drone manufacturers, and AI specialized companies (Acrylic, etc.).

The consortium plans to build an open platform that utilizes 5G to analyze mission data acquired in real time through AI learning and inference, and provides application services using autonomous and swarm flight technologies for non-line-of-sight.

Over the next five years, the ETRI consortium plans to develop and demonstrate four service models: police drones (search for missing persons and patrolling), water resource drones (monitoring localized floods and water pollution, etc.), smart farm drones (AI-based precision pest control and crop management), and structure drones (management of cell towers and high-rise structures).

In the data section, data is secured through linkage with data (satellite, aerial, and spatial) held by the National Geographic Information Institute, and sensor data modeling and standardization are promoted.

In the 5G sector, the application of small cell technology to overcome dead zones, demonstration of drone operation linked with the Korea Aviation Safety Technology Institute (5G drone flight test site) and telecommunications carrier networks, and the establishment of a mission control platform for 5G drone operation will also be carried out in parallel.

In the AI sector, next-generation AI technologies such as customized AI modules for each service model, distributed learning, and edge AI for recognizing and tracking moving objects will be developed based on the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) supercomputer high-performance accelerator system and applied to drones.

The consortium plans to increase the participation of demand agencies through competitive demonstrations between service models to enable early commercialization of service models, while simultaneously pursuing the pre-disclosure of results (data, AI modules) through challenge competitions and preemptive regulatory improvements through consultations with relevant ministries (Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, etc.).