Senegal Flying Labs and Mobility One Power a New Era of Drone Innovation in West Africa

By Senegal Flying Labs

Senegal Flying Labs is proud to announce the signing of a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Mobility One — marking the beginning of a bold, action-driven partnership to accelerate the adoption of drone and robotics technologies across Senegal and the wider West African region. This collaboration reflects a shared ambition to move beyond ideas and into real-world implementation, positioning Senegal as a regional hub for advanced aerial and data-driven solutions at a time when digital transformation is rapidly reshaping industries worldwide.

At its core, this partnership is about turning innovation into tangible impact. Senegal Flying Labs and Mobility One will work closely to co-develop, test, and deploy drone-powered services tailored to local needs, ensuring that solutions are both scalable and grounded in reality. Together, the partners will identify and advance high-potential projects across key sectors such as agriculture, public safety, logistics, and infrastructure. These efforts aim to unlock new efficiencies, improve decision-making through data, and expand access to essential services across under-served and rapidly growing areas.

Key areas of collaboration include:

• Agriculture: Leveraging drone-based mapping and analytics to improve crop monitoring, productivity, and resilience.
• Public Safety and Security: Enhancing surveillance, disaster response, and risk management capabilities.
• Logistics and Delivery: Expanding innovative delivery models to improve access to goods and services.
• Surveying and Infrastructure: Supporting urban planning and development through high-resolution aerial intelligence. 

This is not innovation for its own sake — it is innovation designed to solve real challenges and create measurable value.

A defining strength of this partnership lies in the powerful combination of global technology and local expertise. Mobility One brings its advanced M1UCS (Mobility One Unified Control System), an integrated platform that enables coordinated drone and robotics operations at scale, powered by AI analytics and centralized control systems. This technology supports applications such as large-area aerial surveying, infrastructure inspection, and safety management. Senegal Flying Labs complements this with deep regional knowledge, operational experience, and strong stakeholder networks — ensuring that these technologies are effectively adapted, deployed, and sustained within local contexts.

This collaboration also aligns closely with the broader vision of the DAKFLOW initiative, which seeks to build smarter, data-driven mobility ecosystems in Africa. 

As part of this effort, engagement is advancing with the Korea Transportation Safety Authority (KOTSA/TS), a highly respected institution that has played a pivotal role in shaping South Korea’s transport systems across road, rail, and public transit. KOTSA’s expertise in nationwide traffic data collection, GIS-based analytics, and integrated planning frameworks provides a proven model for linking traffic intelligence with safety, policy, and long-term system development.

The DAKFLOW initiative continues to evolve as a bold, collaborative effort to redefine urban mobility through data, technology, and local engagement. Led by Senegal Flying Labs in partnership with the Laboratory of Urban Transport Systems (LUTS) at EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) and WeRobotics, and supported by the EPFL Tech4Dev Fund, the project is built on a clear ambition: to equip decision-makers with practical, data-driven tools to better understand and manage how people and vehicles move through rapidly growing cities like Dakar. By combining drone imagery, geospatial intelligence, and artificial intelligence, DAKFLOW is addressing one of the most pressing challenges in urban Africa — the lack of reliable, real-time mobility data.

Following a highly successful Exploration Phase (June–September 2025), the initiative has now reached an important turning point. This initial phase focused on listening, learning, and co-creating with local stakeholders to ensure that the project is firmly grounded in Dakar’s realities. A key milestone was the co-creation workshop held on July 16, 2025, which brought together a diverse range of actors — from public institutions to transport operators and technical agencies — to collectively assess challenges, validate needs, and shape the project’s direction. This process not only clarified priorities but also built a strong foundation of trust, alignment, and shared ownership across the ecosystem.

With this groundwork in place, DAKFLOW is now transitioning into its Prototyping Phase — a critical step focused on testing, validating, and refining solutions in real-world conditions. This phase will move beyond concept design into hands-on implementation, where technologies and methodologies will be applied directly within Dakar’s complex and dynamic transport environment.

Key priorities of the Prototyping Phase include:

• Testing drone-based data collection systems to capture accurate, high-resolution mobility patterns
• Applying AI and advanced analytics to process and interpret traffic flow, congestion points, and behavioral trends
• Validating methodologies in a local context, ensuring they reflect the operational realities and constraints of Dakar
• Adapting solutions to the human dimension of mobility, including informal transport systems, user behaviors, and institutional practices. 

This phase is where theory meets reality — where innovation is challenged, refined, and made truly applicable.

Importantly, DAKFLOW remains deeply rooted in its multi-stakeholder approach, continuing to engage key partners such as Conseil Exécutif des Transports Urbains Durables (CETUD), Dakar Dem Dikk, ONAS, ANACIM, ANASER, SENTER, the City of Dakar (DST), DIT, and AGEROUTE. Their ongoing involvement ensures that the solutions being developed are not only technically sound but also institutionally relevant and socially accepted.

At the same time, the initiative is expanding its global outlook. Engagement with KOTSA is progressing, bringing valuable expertise in integrating traffic data, safety systems, and long-term transport planning. This collaboration has the potential to further strengthen DAKFLOW by connecting global best practices with locally tested innovations.

DAKFLOW is now entering its most dynamic phase — transforming insights into action. By rigorously testing technologies, refining methodologies, and embedding solutions within the local context, the initiative is laying the foundation for scalable, data-driven mobility systems that can reshape not only Dakar, but cities across the region.

By bringing together KOTSA’s institutional and analytical strengths, Mobility One’s UAV-based data acquisition and AI platforms, and Senegal Flying Labs’ on-the-ground implementation capacity, this initiative is laying the foundation for a new generation of intelligent, connected mobility solutions in West Africa. The goal is clear: to move toward systems that are not only technologically advanced, but also efficient, safe, and responsive to the needs of growing urban populations.

Importantly, this partnership is already transitioning from strategy to execution. Several collaborative support programs have been identified, and upcoming engagements — including planned discussions with KOTSA — will focus on advancing pilot projects, strengthening technical cooperation, and building local capacity through training and knowledge exchange. The emphasis is on delivering results quickly while establishing a strong foundation for long-term impact and regional scalability.

Ultimately, this MOU represents more than a partnership—it is a shared commitment to shaping the future of innovation in Africa. By bridging continents, technologies, and expertise, Senegal Flying Labs and Mobility One are creating new pathways for economic growth, smarter infrastructure, and safer communities.