ETRI expands drone operating system for railways, nuke plants

South Korea’s state-run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute said Monday that it would expand its operating system for drones and helicopters to be used for the operation of trains and nuclear power plants.

The ETRI’s indigenous embedded OS software, called the Qplus Air, will be further developed with its partners to focus on monitoring and running the safety systems of railroads and nuclear power plants.

It has partnered with KEPCO Engineering & Construction, the nuclear power plant design engineering subsidiary of the state-owned Korea Electric Power Corp., to adopt the ETRI’s Qplus Air OS for safety system management and operations of nuclear power plants.

Together with the Korea Railroad Research Institute, the ETRI will enable the Qplus Air to operate like a “multiplatform,” allowing a variety of components developed by small and medium enterprises to work on different trains through the OS.

Currently, Korean SME suppliers have to produce parts separately for different trains running on different tracks. For instance, key parts for subway trains on Line No. 1 are different from those for Line No. 9.

“It’s like the (Google) Android OS, which is not only used for smartphones but also for watches and automobiles,” said Kim Tae-ho, director of the ETRI’s next-generation OS research center.

“Given the importance of safety in railroads and nuclear power plants, the Qplus Air will be adopted primarily to operate and manage the infrastructure’s safety systems. The OS software will enable the same parts hardware to be reused in various trains.”

The Qplus Air was developed in 2012, and was first used by the Korean Air Force to control and drive unmanned aerial vehicles. The institute successfully tested the OS on drones in early 2013.

The OS was later expanded into Army helicopters, the ETRI said, adding that it has been developing the OS to monitor and operate the safety systems of Korea Aerospace Industries’ Surion utility choppers since September last year.

The state-run electronics researcher said it would further expand the Qplus Air to be adopted in robots and automobiles’ safety and monitoring systems.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)