Collaboration will provide critical data to the FAA to enable scaled BVLOS UAS operations
WASHINGTON, DC and LEXINGTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / February 12, 2024 / The Commercial Drone Alliance (CDA), an independent 501c6 non-profit organization led by key members of the commercial drone industry, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL), a Department of Defense federally funded research and development center, today announced a collaboration to open doors for safe and scalable commercial drone operations.
The joint research will focus on further developing a nationwide database of aircraft traffic density, a free, open-source tool created by MIT LL. Insight gathered through the collaborative research will enable risk-based analysis of uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations and enable integration into the U.S. National Airspace. This new joint research builds upon research investments previously made by NASA and the FAA.
"The potential benefits of commercial drone operations beyond the visual sight of the operator are significant - from responding to disasters, inspecting our nation's infrastructure, delivering medical supplies, and so much more. But the regulatory approval processes have been hampered by a perceived lack of data that accurately characterizes the national airspace," said Lisa Ellman, CDA's Executive Director. "The Commercial Drone Alliance is pleased to collaborate with MIT Lincoln Laboratory to provide this data to federal regulators and the wider industry so that scaled BVLOS operations can become a reality in the United States."
MIT LL has helped shape the nation's security, defense, and technology over six decades of research and development. The CDA regularly engages with the federal government and represents leading U.S.-based commercial drone companies, making it well-positioned to support and inform collaborative research with MIT LL. These two leading organizations will address high-priority capability gaps and barriers to enable the integration of BVLOS UAS operations.
"MIT Lincoln Laboratory's mission is to turn concepts into reality through innovative research and development enabled by state-of-the-art facilities, such as New England's fastest, most powerful supercomputing center. We've been spearheading the transition of these capabilities to the community as open-source software projects that are expected to accelerate safe UAS operations," said Andrew Weinert, Technical Staff, Surveillance Systems Group, MIT Lincoln Laboratory. "We look forward to working closely with the Commercial Drone Alliance to provide much-needed data to the entire commercial drone industry, enabling operations in the United States while providing global leadership to support worldwide operations."
About the Commercial Drone Alliance
The Commercial Drone Alliance is an independent non-profit organization led by key leaders in the commercial drone and advanced air mobility industries. The CDA brings together commercial drone end-users, manufacturers, service providers, advanced air mobility companies, drone security companies, and vertical markets including oil and gas, precision agriculture, construction, security, communications technology, infrastructure, newsgathering, and filmmaking. The CDA works with all levels of government to collaborate on policies for industry growth and seeks to educate the public on the safe and responsible use of commercial drones to achieve economic benefits and humanitarian gains.
Learn more at www.commercialdronealliance.org.
About the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory
MIT Lincoln Laboratory is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) administered by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under Air Force Prime Contract FA8702-15-D-0001. It researches and develops a broad array of advanced technologies to meet critical national security needs. What sets MIT LL apart from many national R&D laboratories is its focus on building operational prototypes of the unique systems they design. Lincoln Laboratory has received 86 R&D 100 Awards over the past 14 years.
Learn more about the air traffic control research at https://www.ll.mit.edu/r-d/air-traffic-control.
Learn more about open-source aircraft traffic tools on GitHub: https://github.com/mit-ll/traffic-density-database and https://airspace-encounter-models.github.io.
Media Contact:
Joel Richman
Escalate PR
[email protected]
SOURCE: Commercial Drone Alliance