Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM)

Telecom giant Verizon’s Skyward affiliate and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have signed accords to test cellular communications in drone operations. Their cooperation will seek to advance development of secure and reliable standards for universal traffic management, beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights, and one-to-many missions.

A Canadian firm has reached a research collaboration agreement with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). The goal, according to a news release, is “to use artificial intelligence in Advanced Air Mobility.”

Canadian Unmanned Traffic Management and fleet management company AirMarket, in partnership with mobility and IT Company Telus, have carried out a successful live demonstration of a system designed to safely operate multiple drones for surveillance, infrastructure monitoring, and more.

UTM provider Altitude Angel has announced it will power AirHub’s enterprise solutions and operations management platform. AirHub’s platform offers drone operators one easy-to-use workflow to plan, execute, and manage missions legally and efficiently.

Altitude Angel has announced its latest product, an airspace management solution for airports to manage drones in the airspace better. The new platform will also allow airports to better equip themselves for the upcoming EASA U-Space Regulations, which are expected to go live on January 1, 2023.

The Indian government is currently exploring the possibility of allowing private airspace controllers for low- altitude drone operations. If approved, this would allow airspace below 1,000 feet to be controlled by private companies rather than a government air traffic controller.

European VC Octopus Ventures has announced it has invested an additional £4 million ($5.3) in British-based UTM provider Altitude Angel. The investment ends the company’s round of Series A funding and brings the funding total for 2020 to £7.05 million ($9.4).

UTM provider Altitude Angel has been shortlisted for two ATM Magazine awards for its partnerships with Inmarsat and LVNL. The company has been working tirelessly over the year to create new partnerships and make drone operations safer with its infrastructure-free UTM network.

Drone mission planning platform Drone Harmony has selected Altitude Angel to provide global map data for the platform. The map data will use the company’s UTM platform to ensure drone missions are safe and stay out of the way of other aircraft.

GUTMA stands for the Global UTM Association. It’s a non-profit consortium of stakeholders in the Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) world. And its new paper, in its own words, “marks a significant milestone in the association’s history.” Let’s find out why.

In a recent eight-day test, 369 drone flights were completed to answer how drones could share the airspace with crewed aircraft most safely and efficiently as possible. As many as 12 drones were flying simultaneously at a test site just outside of Blacksburg, Virginia.

CAL Analytics has launched its drone safety platform and detects and avoids services to improve the safety of drone flights. The platform results from a collaborative effort between CAL Analytics, ResilienX, TrueWeather Solutions, Kongsberg Geospatial, Kent State University, and Ohio State University.

Roads and highways offer clearly defined paths for transport by car or truck. Railroad tracks keep trains on the straight and narrow. But what about the skies? Well, there too commercial aircraft follow clearly defined routes. But what about drones? One startup is already working on mapping out corridors in the sky.

SkySensus has announced that it has been chosen for Canada’s RPAS traffic management trial to commercialize beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drones for future use. The trial will take place in partnership with UTM provider Unifly.

Denmark has begun testing its unmanned traffic management (UTM) platform to improve the integration period needed to get commercial drones into the air. The testing will ensure future drones can safely and reliably integrate into manned airspace and communicate with air traffic controllers.

Ohio-based CAL Analytics recently tested its regional detect and avoid system for drones flying in unmanned traffic management (UTM) environments. The two-day tests demonstrated the system’s ability to prevent collisions between drones and other aircraft in the sky.

Kittyhawk has announced its latest product, Air Control, an Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) platform for enterprise customers and drone operations. The platform allows customers to integrate their own workflows, security, and integrations to make it work for them.

A study undertaken by the FCC to look at what frequency bands drone operations should run on has suggested 5GHz as the magic number. The study was handed over to Congress with the hopes of a rule change to allow the 5030-5091MHz to be used.

Norway’s state-owned airport operator Avinor is rolling out the first Nordic UTM drone system, and Frequentis and Altitude Angel are providing hardware and software support. The system will be placed on two airport towers in support of the Norwegian government’s drone strategy.

Survey and inspection provider, Iprosurv has selected Altitude Angel to implement its flight data into the company’s drone mapping solutions. The partnership will allow Iprosurv’s drone operators to have direct access to a drone safety map and airspace map for risk management and assessment.

Yesterday PrecisionHawk was awarded two US patents for technology it developed for its unmanned traffic management (UTM) system. The two patents allow drones and manned aircraft to avoid each other while in flight.