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A research unit at Virginia Tech specializing in UAV Traffic Management (UTM) is leading a second phase of testing under the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that aims to create an efficient, safe and reliable system for coordinating flights of multiple drones. Airspace.
Virginia Tech’s Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP) has been selected to lead one of two teams testing the FAA’s new UTM field test traffic systems to control the flight of low-altitude UAVs. This second phase of testing follows the FAA’s earlier UTM pilot program and marks the sixth major federal contract Virginia Tech has received to test unmanned air traffic networks.
The effort has MAAP partnering with Texas A&M University’s Corpus Christi Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence to develop a variety of technology systems that will be integrated into a unified UTM network. To eliminate that, data from different sources must be transferred seamlessly across multiple software platforms and hardware from different companies.
Read more: The FAA has announced field tests of a new UTM unmanned platform
Among those currently parting ways with MAP are ANRA Technologies, Collins and OneSky, as well as Google’s drone delivery sister Wing. AerospaceLink, ATA LLC, Raytheon and Streamline Designs are providing software, hardware and other technology assets to test the project’s unmanned UTM network. Both the FAA and NASA provide takeoff monitoring and advisory input.
“You need a variety of participants in this type of research to make sure that a comprehensive industry perspective is taken into account,” said MAAP associate director John Coggin, who oversees UTM’s major UTM pilot programs. “As with any serious problem, you get the most meaningful results when as many stakeholders as possible give you input.”
But this latest test of the MAAP UTM program will require an effective airspace navigation program to fully wing the large-scale unmanned aircraft pressure that is about to be launched.
“We’re quickly getting to the point where we can postpone traffic management as a non-issue,” Coggin said. “We’re moving from a state where we don’t want UTM to a state where we definitely want UTM. Research like this, which helps implement evidence-based and safety-first approaches, is how to navigate that big gray area between ‘they don’t need it’ and ‘they should have it.’
ReadIreland is to host an EU-backed project to develop a drone UTM system.
The new UTM project focuses on critical public safety and medical drone flights, how to responsibly provide information about the needs of UAVs, and using information for security and law enforcement from trusted, integrated systems with advanced cybersecurity assets.
To accelerate that work, MAP-led testing will use its rural test site at Kentland Farms, two facilities in urban Corpus Christi, and Wing’s Christianville, VA, commercial drones to conduct UTM tests under live conditions.
“These flight tests are critical in the further development of UTM – the ability to take practical concepts and test them in complex ‘real world’ environments,” said Mike Sanders, executive director of the Texas Test Site. “We are thrilled to be part of the MAAP team and to contribute to the depth and breadth of the testing environment through our continued work at UTM.”
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