2.7B

Drone Flights est. in 2026

1.2M

Sensors required

"Hedera improves the provenance of data. For Neuron this increases accountability for safer aviation while allowing operators to resolve liability issues and helping regulators make better policy decisions."

James Dunthorne

Founder, Neuron

Industry

Internet of Things, Mobility

Overview

Neuron provides a surveillance-as-a-service platform for trusted surveillance data from ground sensors to drones.

Challenge

When flying drones beyond the visual line of sight of a pilot, such as for drone deliveries and linear infrastructure inspections, regulators require the drone to see and avoid other airspace users. Neuron uses ground-based surveillance sensor networks to achieve this. Due to the potential consequences of airspace collisions, Neuron needs to maintain records of communications to provide an audit function for regulators and air accident investigators.

Solution

Neuron uses Hedera Consensus Service to provide a tamper-proof record of all critical communications between sensors and drones.

Drones are in a unique position to help solve the logistics and high cost of last-mile delivery and aid disaster recovery. However, to effectively and safely operate drones at scale, the world requires a new set of operating standards.

By having visibility of what's in the sky, we help protect the space for authorized drones to safely travel, preserving their access and preventing unauthorized or malicious use. To safely integrate drones and flying taxis alongside manned aircraft requires a network owned by industry participants that offer a safety-critical system of systems that regulators accept.

Drone Surveillance Network

Neuron makes drones and aircraft visible to each other through its data platform. Neuron achieves this through ground-based sensors and a set of APIs for drone manufacturers to reserve and manage flights. Neuron's combination of sensors and developer platform makes it easy for operators to fly anywhere, knowing they can operate safely.

Flight tracking

The proliferation of drones requires a shared data platform. Without a single, verifiable source of truth, severe accidents and disputes can happen. For the best auditing solution and to monitor the decision-making and avoid conflicts, Neuron needed a fast, impartial, and immutable record.

Every flight using Neuron's shared network emits a signal each second and is received by multiple ground sensors. Most blockchain-based systems cannot keep up with this level of throughput and suffer from highly variable transaction fees.

Hedera Consensus Service

Neuron selected Hedera as its public ledger of choice because of its scalability. Each flight event is recorded to Hedera using the Hedera Consensus Service, receiving an immutable consensus timestamp and allowing any 3rd party to verify each interaction. By leveraging hashgraph as its consensus algorithm, Hedera can handle thousands of transactions per second at a predictable, low fee.

As a public ledger, Hedera enhances Neuron's data integrity over a centralized database or private ledger. The immutable data records help resolve disputes between parties or in a court of law. Furthermore, Hedera allows Neuron's costs to be predictable and elastic to support rapid responses gracefully. Neuron anticipates these trusted records will play a critical role in supporting an ecosystem to drive the future of flight forward.

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Hedera is not affiliated with, and does not sponsor or endorse this project.