Framework Service Contract for Unmanned and Manned Aerial Platforms

Item Description:

The European Commission, Joint Research Centre, referred to below as the contracting authority, is planning to award the contract(s) resulting from the above procurement procedure. The procurement documents consist of the contract notice, the invitation letter, the draft contract(s) and tender specifications with their respective annexes. All documents are available in the attached ZIP File.

Overall scope of the aerial image acquisition

This contract is for image acquisition through (un)manned aerial platforms as an alternative source of post-event imagery of Very High spatial Resolution (VHR) in emergency situations or as realtime follow-up of events (e.g. earthquakes, urban flooding) whenever satellite images are not available or when the satellite EO’s resolution is not sufficient.

Increasingly, lightweight UAV’s (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) are providing operational capacities that render them attractive for complementing under certain conditions satellite-based services in support to emergency response operations.

Lightweight UAV systems have clearly a mature market segment potential. The robustness and reliability of UAV systems are continuously improving. One of the key advantages of such systems is the rapid deployment and user-friendly setup.

In this contract, the option of using manned cartographic survey capacity is also considered. Major advances in this domain include the move to fully digital camera systems, the simultaneous use of multiple angular camera systems and integration with ancillary 3D mapping systems (e.g. LIDAR). Manned aerial systems offer the best performance in terms of spatial and spectral resolution, they are very flexible in operation and all data that are acquired usually are available to the user as soon as the survey mission and image elaboration is completed. Quick deployment of manned aerial platforms is continuously improving due to the presence of important players in the market with several hubs across European Countries.

Feasibility and operational considerations

The geographic extent of this service is limited to the EU countries only.

Lot 1: Framework Service Contract for Unmanned Aerial Platforms

Supply of images from fixed wing lightweight unmanned systems for the production of ortho-rectified images and/or digital surface models. Included in the contract is also the creation and maintenance of a European network of authorized drone operators.

Lot 2: Framework Service Contract for Manned Aerial Platforms

The supply of images from large format or push-broom digital aerial sensors to be used in the production of ortho-photos and digital elevation for rapid mapping purposes in the context of emergency response. The use of LIDAR is included in the contract.

Download all available documents in: [ZIP]