The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected Anzen Unmanned for a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programme.
The project combines Anzen’s Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) systems and Uncrewed Traffic Management (UTM) experience with OneSky’s UTM product that is designed to overcome current operational limitations in airborne wildland fire and emergency response operations.
NASA’s SBIR programme is known as “Expeditionary BVLOS Infrastructure and UTM for Airborne Wildfire Response”
Anzen’s Expeditionary BVLOS Kit and UTM Airspace Assistant will integrate with current wildland fire uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), equipment, and airspace management, supplementing them with additional capability and safety. The Expeditionary BVLOS Kit provides a common foundation for UAS BVLOS operations and airspace surveillance, offering cooperative and uncooperative aircraft surveillance, including detection, tracking, and alerting; micro-weather surveillance and alerting; local and wide-area communications; and BVLOS UAS operations in all phases of wildland fire management (pre-, active-, and post-fire). The UTM Airspace Assistant is an operations centre on-premise UTM system that uses the kit’s airspace surveillance, weather surveillance, and communications to provide a composite airspace picture; provide a composite micro- and macro-weather picture including real-time and predictive weather; assist in identifying and mitigating conflict; and automate the management of UAS operations.
The combination will work to support both integrated and independent BVLOS UAS operations in all phases of wildland fire management. Independent UAS BVLOS operations enable individual operations or when wide-area communications are not available. When wide-area communications are available, the Expeditionary BVLOS Kit will provide its surveillance data to the UTM Airspace Assistant for incorporation into a composite situational awareness picture supporting manned and unmanned air operations management.
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