The City of Marysville and a local council of governments have agreed to participate in a pilotless program.
At Wednesday’s Northwest 33 Innovation Corridor Council of Governments meeting, the group unanimously agreed to participate in the Ohio Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) Unmanned Aerial System Center and Test Complex.
ODOT is seeking a grant from the federal government and the Federal Aviation Administration to test unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), often called drones. If the grant is approved, the drones will be tested along U.S. 33, between Dublin and Marysville. Both communities have already agreed to participate in the project.
Marysville City Manager Terry Emery already signed the agreement on behalf of the COG because it needed done before the end of the year, but the group needed to formally approve it.
Union County Economic Development Director Eric Phillips said the 33 corridor will be “designated for the testing of unmanned aerial vehicles, drones, in Union County along the corridor.”
“It really does not tie us down to any money, it just says we are going to participate in the program. If we receive this designation, we will be partners in this as we move forward,” Phillips said. “There is a lot more to come here on this development on this effort.”
Dublin City Manager Dana McDaniel said Dublin has approved the agreement because “we don’t know yet what might or could happen, so it is better to be a part of this than to be left out of it.”
“I know sometimes you talk about UAVs, the public kind of gets nervous about that, but the reality of it is we are already part of that airspace for testing,” McDaniel said, explaining that Wright Patterson Air Force Base is a leader in drone testing.
He said it’s a win to integrate the the technology capabilities of the area with drone testing and the autonomous vehicle testing that will take place.
“That space, to be somehow interacting with the ground connection, makes sense,” McDaniel said. “We don’t know what all this means yet, but to have the ability for all these things to interact with these technologies, I think is setting the conditions for all of these things to happen. Then we can have choices on how that happens and what that means.”
Sue Gibson is a Cresttek engagement manager working with the project management firm Michael Baker International.
“I am glad you have approved this MOA so that we can get some testing in our corridor of these unique devices,” Gibson said.
Gibson said she recently returned from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
“It is truly glimpsing the future,” Gibson said.
She said she saw some “fantastical” things, including an unmanned helicopter.
“It’s like an air taxi,” Gibson said. “It just lifts off on its own and goes wherever the software tells it to go.”
She said she saw military-sized drones that are a year to two away from being available.
“These are all coming on the consumer market, which means they will be available for municipalities, DOTs (departments of transportation), institutions of government to utilize in some fashion,” Gibson said.
Also at the meeting, the COG approved an agreement with Michael Baker.
The agreement will be forwarded to the Marysville City Council, since Marysville is actually the recipient of the grant to pay for the $1-million agreement.
The Columbus-based consulting firm will be used to manage the installation and marketing of much of the technology to coordinate the U.S. 33 fiber project with the local fiber loop and with soon-to-be installed infrastructure and in-vehicle technology that would make Marysville the first fully connected city in the world.
The city is working with Honda and the Ohio Department of Transportation to install Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) towers at 27 intersections in the city. Emery said the towers will collect data like the use of signal phasing and timing and “other safety messages.”
Additionally, he said the DSRC will be able to communicate with on-board units (OBU) installed on vehicles. City officials said they will be working to saturate the community with cars that have the units.
Marysville’s Finance Director Justin Nahvi said the $1 million is actually a starting number. He said it could be closer to $1.3 million. He said the additional money will be used to educate the public about the technology and to engage the public to use it. The money is part of a $5.9-million grant.
“I think it is going to be a busy year for us,” Emery said. “I think there is going to be a lot of activity.”