After more than two years of collaboration and field testing, security technology company OSL has announced the successful completion of the final phase of Project HADO, a UK Research and Innovation-funded research and development initiative aimed at enabling secure, repeatable Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operations across UK airspace.
Project HADO (High-Intensity Autonomous Drone Operations) focuses on enabling fully autonomous drone missions in busy, safety-critical environments such as airports, ports, urban centres, and transport hubs.
In the final series of live trials, OSL deployed its system within the Heathrow Flight Restriction Zone (FRZ), demonstrating two core use cases: perimeter patrol, using visible and thermal cameras to detect loiterers or intrusions along a fence line; and building survey, using automated point-to-point flight and image capture to generate both visual and thermal inspection data.
These missions were supported by a detailed digital twin of the environment, developed in collaboration with Cranfield University. This synthetic modelling environment enabled precise flight planning, environmental awareness, and training of the autonomous behaviours required for safe and repeatable operations.
The system is fully integrated into OSL’s proprietary platform, FACE, which incorporates drone-in-a-box infrastructure, layered sensor fusion, Uncrewed Traffic Management (UTM) tools, and a real-time operator interface. This end-to-end capability is designed to enable safe, automated missions even in GPS-denied or dynamically changing environments.
One of the outcomes of this final phase is the development of a rapidly deployable mobile HADO system, enabling organisations to set up autonomous drone operations on-site within a single day. The project also delivered significant advances in detect-and-avoid functionality. By combining radar, optical sensors, and real-time environmental scanning with AI-driven logic, the system can autonomously detect risks, adjust its flight path, or safely return to base.
OSL led the consortium as prime integrator, bringing together key organisations including Heathrow, Thales, Cranfield University, UAVTEK, Carmenta, HEROTECH8, and Dynamic Intelligence Solutions. OSL continues to work closely with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to support the safe expansion of BVLOS operations in the UK. The company and its partners are actively exploring future opportunities to deploy and evolve the system in line with operational needs.
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