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to support BVLOS flight operations and UAS Traffic Management other types of RPAs being controlled by air
(UTM) research. The BVLOS “super corridor” stretches up to 100 navigation service providers (ANSPs).
miles.
Stringent FAA requirements have ensured that
In May 2019. Embraer announced that EmbraerX, its disruptive waivers for BVLOS operations have so far been
business subsidiary, is working on an Urban Air Traffic Management largely limited to military use. That, however, is
(UATM) concept for the urban air mobility industry. Atech, an set to change.
Embraer subsidiary, develops air traffic control systems used in
multiples countries around the world. L3Harris is also involved in In January this year, Commercial drone provider
the project. In October last year, the company said that it had set American Robotics became the first company
up a new company -Eve Urban Air Mobility Solutions, Inc. (Eve) – approved by the FAA to operate automated
to accelerate its proposed Urban Air Mobility (UAM) ecosystem. A drones without human operators on-site. With
key project that the company will work on is the development and the approval, the company will be able to deploy
certification of the company’s eVTOL aircraft. its Scout drone system with acoustic Detect-
and-Avoid (DAA) technology that enables
Thales is another player in the field and is working on different proj- drones to maintain a safe distance from other
ects with a variety of partners, including the FAA, New York, North aircraft. The Scout System consists of three
Dakota, the U.S. Air Force, CAAS and DSNA (France) to Dakota primary components: Scout, an autonomous,
to enable Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) UAS operations. AI-powered unmanned aircraft with advanced
imaging payloads, ScoutBase – a weather-
Readying for the Future proof base station that serves as the nerve
China, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Poland, New Zealand, South center and communication hub for Scout, and
Africa and Switzerland, for instance, have moved to incorpo- ScoutView, a secure web portal and API which
rate UAVs into the airspace beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) enables remote interaction with the system,
operations. In September last year, UK Research and Innovation data, and resulting analytics anywhere in the
announced that it is funding a project to demonstrate BVLOS world.
operations in non-segregated airspace in the UK. The consortium
working on the project includes ANRA Technologies, Plane Finder, “With these approvals, American Robotics is
Trax International and uAvinonix. ushering in a new era of widespread auto-
mated drone operations,” says Reese Mozer,
The U.S. is treading cautiously. The Federal Aviation Administration CEO and co-founder of American Robotics.
(FAA) is working on developing the country’s UTM system in coop- “Decade’s worth of promise and projection are
eration with NASA, other federal partner agencies, and the industry. finally coming to fruition. We are proud to be the
The system is intended primarily to mitigate the risk of collision first company to meet the FAA’s comprehen-
among small, unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS), a subset of RPAS, sive safety requirements, which had previously
that fly below 400 ft in uncontrolled airspace. UTM concepts also restricted the viability of drone use in the com-
will segregate the participating sUAs from manned aircraft and mercial sector.”

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