A research unit of Virginia Tech specialized in UAV traffic management (UTM) is leading a second phase of trials under Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) aegis aiming to advance work establishing effective, safe, and reliable systems for orchestrating flights of numerous drones sharing the same airspace.

The Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP )was chosen to lead one of the two teams in the FAA’s new UTM Field Test conducting trials of traffic systems to manage low-altitude flight of UAVs. This second phase of testing follows the FAA’s earlier UTM Pilot Program and marks the sixth major federal contract Virginia Tech has secured for researching drone air traffic networks.

The effort will involve MAAP partnering with Texas A&M University Corpus Christi’s Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence, along with companies developing various technological systems that must be integrated in a unified UTM network. To pull that off, data…

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Source: dronedj.com