The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU), responsible for the sport’s national team, has been training its performance analysts to fly drones to review the performance of its players.
Ten analysts from the SRU have been training on a course designed and delivered by Consortiq, a company that trains people in safe use of drones. The firm has been approved by the U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority to provide such training, too.
The SRU is looking to use drones to analyze the performance of the players during training, particularly around formations and tactics.
The team from the SRU is expected to graduate from the specialist course in November, once flight assessments are completed. When this initial batch of operators are certified, further members of the SRU may also be trained. Consortiq has created its own drone operations software, CQNet, which plans missions, logs flight data and seeks to mitigates risk. The company launched this new software at the Auvsi Xponential trade event in May of this year.
In a statement released around this product launch, David Walters, Software Development Manager at the company said: “CQNet is a powerful, singular tool to manage all aspects of Small Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) operations efficiently, enabling the ultimate safety of every flight. Rather than piecing together data from individual spreadsheets and logbooks, everything needed to plan a successful UAS operation is right there in front of you.”
Meanwhile, in a statement regarding its partnership with the SRU, Séamus Kearns, Customer Success Manager at Consortiq said: “They knew they wanted the course, and within a very short of period of time, we arrived there and delivered that training in line with the timescale that they required.”
Consortiq also revealed that Scottish Football League champions and treble winners, Glasgow Celtic FC had contacted the company regarding providing drone training for use in player scouting.