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Partnership with Oklahoma State University to develop safe uncrewed aircraft traffic management capabilities

OneSky recently announced Echodyne as a new member of the OneSky Future of Flight Program. This is a coalition of stakeholders in the advanced air mobility (AAM) industry working towards scalable AAM operations.

As MatrixSpace has developed a name in the industry, their engineers have developed a ground-breaking product.  Today, they've launched a radar  – small, lightweight, and incredibly powerful.  The ability to detect the size, precise location, and the movement of objects could be a game changer for advanced drone operations and airspace awareness systems.

ANRA Technologies will partner with RI&S and other program participants, including Virginia Tech, SkyGrid and Tomorrow.io, to test technologies that will support scalable, safe and compliant BVLOS drone operations at low altitudes.

ANRA Technologies was selected by Raytheon Intelligence & Space (RI&S) to provide its SmartSkies suite of technology solutions to support simulation and live drone flight operations at Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership UAS test site at Virginia Tech. The testing is part of a larger project to safely integrate Unmanned Aircraft Systems into the National Airspace System and advance Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations.

Vigilant Aerospace Detect and Avoid Drone Safety System Wins NASA's Commercial Invention of the Year Award

Using software to handle tasks to assist people is not a new concept – look at our computers, cell phones or electric cars.
Advanced Air Mobility, or AAM, aircraft intend to apply that same idea with new software algorithms and hardware such as sensors and radars. Technology like this could enable vehicles to operate without a pilot, or if a pilot is in the loop, increase the safety. Use cases include helping the vehicle avoid bad weather, other aircraft, and safely take off and land.

Cambridge Pixel has launched a new software-based radar tracker designed for manufacturers and integrators of deployed E-scan (electronic scan) radars. E-scan radars can be steered electronically and do not require a mechanically rotating antenna, thus reducing the radar cross-section and infrared signature of an installation and making it more ergonomic and robust for deployment in ground-based security surveillance applications or in air defence.

DroneShield Limited, an Australian/US company that produces and markets technology to counter unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and Allen-Vanguard, a US-owned provider of systems design to thwart improvised explosive devices (IED), have teamed up in a partnership that combines the two firms' product-development and marketing efforts.

Echodyne has entered into a partnership with Northrop Grumman Corporation that will expands upon existing efforts to integrate Echodyne radars into select Northrop Grumman advanced defense and security solutions. The initial work will focus on counter-UAS (unmanned aerial systems) solutions, where the high performance and low SWaP size, weight and power) footprints of Echodyne's radars are expected to provide a significant advantage.

Bell Textron announced today (Feb. 2) its Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) has successfully demonstrated a ground-based Detect and Avoid (DAA) flight. The test was part of Bell's NASA Systems Integration and Operationalization (SIO) project to demonstrate the unmanned aircraft's systems integration with ground radar and its ability to meet requirements for navigating airspace and avoiding traffic, "a critical component needed for future Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) vehicles," according to Bell's announcement.

The public ledger consensus service from Richardson-headquartered Hedera helped "gather, store, and order" millions of data points in the trial, which was sponsored by the U.K. government.

Working with London-based aviation tech firm Neuron Innovations, Hedera helped advance the case for the safe sharing of long-distance airspace by commercial, military, and government drones.

North Dakota's Statewide UAS Network, Vantis, has released a Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking multiple unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to support operational testing of beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights (BVLOS) on the network. Proposals are due by December 31, 2021, at 2:00 p.m. CT.

Archaeologists using new drone-sensing technology have found evidence of an enormous, horseshoe-shaped trench hidden beneath a Kansas ranch. The rounded earthwork, which may be part of the largest pre-Hispanic settlement north of Mexico, appears to be what's known as a council circle.

The evolution of LiDAR, is similar to other technologies that often surprise the layman: as early as 2018, some observers predicted improved LIDAR performance at lower prices that sounded like the stuff of science fiction, but in early 2020, leading player Velodyne put a LiDAR sensor on the market for $100.

Live flights and testing of components are scheduled to begin this month at the unmanned aircraft test site in Rome, N.Y., in the second phase of a federal program to develop a high-density air traffic control system for drones.

AiRXOS CEO Ken Stewart, who has more than 25 year of leadership in the tech space, recently sat down virtually with Inside Unmanned Systems to discuss the evolution of next-generation unmanned traffic management and drone certification.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), a global leader in Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, announced today that they will partner with Asia Air Survey to hold a series of validation flights for the Japan Coast Guard featuring GA-ASI's SeaGuardian® beginning in mid-September.

As interested parties across the drone and air taxi space eagerly await the widespread implementation of unmanned traffic management and related enabling technologies such as remote ID, Robert Hammett, CEO of OneSky Systems, joined Avionics International and other news outlets for a wide-ranging discussion.

The College of Aeronautics and Engineering at Kent State is procuring a new Air Traffic Control (ATC) simulator for fall 2020 from UFA Inc., a world-leading provider of cloud-based, advanced ATC simulation.

AirMap has partnered with the Swiss ANSP to provide drone pilots with official aeronautical information via skyguide's new geo-awareness applications. The partnership will allow for skyguide users to access up-to-date airspace and active airspace schedule information.

Vigilant Aerospace Systems has signed a new patent license agreement with NASA covering the use of radar in detect-and-avoid and unmanned traffic management systems, including in the company's FlightHorizon family of products.

In this recent op-ed by SkySkopes president and CEO Matt Dunlevy notes we need to remind ourselves during theses unprecedented times of the silver linings: society is going to pull through this mess and we have things to look forward to; one of them is with unmanned aircraft systems.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Volpe Center published a report discussing the use of blockchain for unmanned aircraft systems or drones. However, as drones can be customized for specific needs, there is a need for a trust layer that monitors the use of drones.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has honored a team of researchers from Oklahoma State University with the University Leadership Initiative Award.

The COVID-19 pandemic has sidelined a large-scale tornado field study involving several universities, including the University of Oklahoman, federal weather offices and dozens of researchers until next year.

Oklahoma lawmakers appear to be considering this year, for the first time, how the state can play a role in a future autonomous economy. Two proposed measures would encourage testing of autonomous vehicles, one more directly than the other.

Fishermen have always relied on the understanding of the elements to guide them: the water current, its temperature, the direction of the wind and its humidity are important information used to locate fish. Now, drones are bringing some fishfinding technology back above the water.

Edmonton International Airport VP Steve Maybee details how by welcoming UAS into its airspace, an airport's operations will need to adapt and evolve.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is planning to ask industry how manned aviation can interact with remote identification signals emitted by drones as part of its roadmap to integrating unmanned aircraft into the national airspace.

A collaboration between one of Britain's major radar companies and a group of drone researchers is improving the nation's unmanned aerial traffic systems.

An official with the Ohio Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center on Monday that the Springfield, Ohio-based center is helping lead the way for unmanned aircraft operations across the country.

The FAA will undoubtedly require Urban Air Mobility drones to broadcast their ID and position via drone remote ID gear as well as manned aircraft ID such as Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast and transponders. But is the FAA doing enough with manned aircraft to ensure that they'll behave themselves when the sky fills with passenger drones?

Unmanned vehicle control expert Lockheed Martin Canada CDL Systems and Canadian UAVs, a Calgary, Alberta-based military-grade unmanned aviation services company, recently signed a memorandum of understanding to build a solution that could enable BVLOS unmanned operations in Canada and beyond. 

From its ground breaking in 2015 until now, Grand Sky has seen continued growth, expansion and milestones, and is No. 1 on the Herald's Top 10 business stories of the past decade.

RedTail LiDAR Systems of Fairmont, West Virginia, recently demonstrated the value of its precision-ag UAS technology by sharing some UAS Christmas spirit with a near neighbor, the Mt. Zion Nursery.

Things are looking up as the drone industry is expected to reach $100 billion by 2020 and even up to $1.5 trillion by 2040 according to Morgan Stanley. 

Commercial UAV Expo, with record-breaking numbers of both exhibitors and attendees, opened last week in Las Vegas. In his keynote address, NASA Administrator James Bridenstine presented a vision of the future to the show's global audience, one that included a UAS management traffic system and urban air mobility.

AiRXOS recently concluded real-world flight operations for the FAA's first phase of the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management Pilot Program (UPP). The UPP, established in 2017, was designed to identify the initial set of industry and FAA capabilities required to support UAS Traffic Management (UTM) operations.

The Electric Power Research Institute expects a future state where utilities use unmanned aerial systems to support the next generation of inspections and assessments.

The Kansas Department of Transportation received the green light from the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct a unique drone flight. This flight will be performed beyond the visual line of sight, meaning it will fly past the operator's ability to monitor it from the ground.

Over the last month or so, the unmanned aircraft systems test site in Rome has received a number of boosts from state and federal contracts, company partnerships and other investments. The progress those developments have made at the UAS test site at the Griffiss International Airport showing progress that helps the city and the surrounding area, said Rome Mayor Jacqueline Izzo.

A team of partners in the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program have conducted a Beyond Visual Line of Sight drone operation without human visual observers, the group announced recently.

When it comes to new technology, the Air Force has its eyes on small businesses and startups. The Air Force and Northeastern University recently hosted a Unmanned Aircraft System Pitch Day at their collaborative innovation campus in Burlington, Mass.

In an effort to make conventional aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) get along, NASA has embarked on the latest in a series of flight tests using specially adapted drones and manned "intruder" aircraft. The purpose is to demonstrate the effectiveness of new technologies and help develop new regulations that will allow UAVs to integrate into the US National Airspace System.

Raytheon, which develops the technology used by air traffic controllers to coordinate national airspace, has signed a strategic pact with AirMap, a company that oversees the largest unmanned aerial systems tracking network in the U.S., to quickly and safely integrate drones into national airspace monitoring technology. 

Meteorologists have finished a month-long field study tracking and gathering data from severe storms as part of the Targeted Observation by Radars and Unmanned Aerial Systems (TORUS) Project . They hope to learn more about how tornadoes form by studying the conditions present when they do,

Measuring the height of Brazil's towering rainforests can be a tall order. But an international team of researchers say they are working together to turn unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, into efficient, low-cost data collectors that can monitor the progress of forest restoration.

For the first time in almost a decade, meteorologists from across the Midwest will track and intercept tornado birthing grounds as part of a large-scale collaborative research project.
The TORUS Project, or Targeted Observation by Radars and Unmanned Aerial Systems, will deploy at a moment's notice over the next month and again during the 2020 storm season. It includes a research teams with professors, students and equipment from the University of Oklahoma.

A new high-tech radar system called SkyVision, developed by Ohio's Department of Transportation and the Air Force Research Laboratory, will allow drones to fly beyond the visual line of sight.