Intent Exchange Demonstrates Drone Routes and Launches Task Force in International Industry Association

Intent Exchange Inc. has conducted a demonstration on the construction and operation of a drone route in Chichibu City as part of NEDO's (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) "Digital Lifeline Infrastructure Project / Demonstration of Drone Routes," and has established a task force within the international industry association GUTMA. Based on the demonstration's results, the company will promote the construction of drone routes along rivers and other areas in Japan, while also advancing the international expansion of its cultivated ground risk management technology.

Background The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has formulated the "National Comprehensive Plan for Digital Lifeline Infrastructure" to spread digital technologies like drones throughout Japan, even amid a declining population. Under this plan, the development of drone routes is progressing as an early harvest project. In a drone route system, a drone route operator manages access under the flight path and coordinates with the neighborhood on behalf of the drone operator. By using the newly constructed drone route system, drone operators can easily conduct beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS/Level 3) flights in uninhabited areas. Intent Exchange participated in the development of the drone route system in fiscal years 2024 and 2025, specifically handling route demarcation, connection with UTM, and route interlining.

Overview ### 1. Successful Demonstration of Drone Routes In March 2026, Intent Exchange verified a series of drone route functions in Chichibu City with actual drone flights. Specifically, they validated route demarcation for ground risk management, reservations across multiple route operators, operations via UTM, and the use of Open Data Spaces to support inter-operator and LLM collaboration.

**(a) Validating the effectiveness of route demarcation, even in complex terrain** When conducting Level 3 drone operations, it's necessary to manage the access to the potential impact area from the flight path. To address this, the company developed a "route demarcation" function that simplifies flight plan creation by considering the dispersion area for each aircraft, and verified its effectiveness even in complex terrain and weather conditions. This method first defines the access-controlled area, and the system automatically calculates the space where a flight plan can be set, considering wind and elevation changes.

**(b) Demonstrating route interlining** Drone route operators are envisioned as locally-based businesses, such as power line or river administrators. By having these operators interconnect their routes, a mesh-like network is formed, allowing drone operators to fly continuously across different routes. In the Chichibu demonstration, Grid Skyway LLP operated a power line route, and Intent Exchange operated a river (dam) route, successfully demonstrating that a drone could operate across these two routes.

**(c) Integration of UTM and Drone Routes** The demonstration also simultaneously verified drone operations using UTM (Uncrewed Traffic Management). UTM is an information system for reducing mid-air risks. In the test, a drone operator using UTM provided location data to the drone route operator, enabling the operator to manage the aircraft's position and deviations. The process of switching the data-providing destination before and after an interline transfer was also verified.

**(d) Demonstrating the use of Open Data Spaces (ODS)** Drone routes are designed with an architecture based on the Open Data Spaces (ODS) technical concept. In ODS, services link to other related services, allowing users to navigate through them. In the Chichibu demonstration, it was confirmed that a drone operator could use the location information from their terminal to automatically discover the nearest route operator, access adjacent operators, and book routes and droneports in a batch. Furthermore, by utilizing ODS and MCP (Model Context Protocol), the team verified that services could be discovered and used via a chat interface.