Vigilant awarded grant by OAIRE to develop distributed detect-and-avoid system

Vigilant Aerospace Systems has been awarded a USD500,000 grant as part of a nearly USD1 million project to work with the Oklahoma Aerospace Institute for Research and Education (OAIRE) at Oklahoma State University to develop a distributed version of its detect-and-avoid system.

“The grant is provided by the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST),” says the company in a press release. “Vigilant Aerospace also won an OCAST grant in 2019 to work with OSU integrating new radars into its collision avoidance system.

“The project addresses the challenges posed by the increasing number of uncrewed aircraft operating in the National Airspace System, including inspection and delivery drones, first responder drones, and larger air taxi and cargo drones. While these autonomous vehicles offer significant societal and economic benefits, they require new airspace management paradigms to ensure safe integration into the existing airspace and air traffic.

“Vigilant Aerospace provides the software and networked sensors and radars to allow uncrewed aircraft to safely fly long distances and beyond the visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) of the pilot – which is essential to enabling the next generation of aviation.

According to Dr Jamey Jacob, OAIRE executive director: “The ability for drones and larger autonomous vehicles to detect and avoid collisions with other aircraft is critical for the future of aviation and for multiple efforts throughout the nation. Projects like this keep Oklahoma at the forefront of the industry, while supporting innovative local businesses. This initiative has far-reaching impact as a wide range of autonomous aircraft take to the air.”

The OCAST grant is provided through its highly competitive Oklahoma Applied Research Support (OARS) program, which supports businesses developing innovations and technologies that create new jobs and diversify Oklahoma’s economy.

The project also received support from the US Economic Development Administration (EDA) as part of the USD38.2 million Build Back Better grant awarded to a Tulsa-based coalition to support new aerospace initiatives in Oklahoma. Projects include the Skyway Range Flight Corridor, a 114 nautical mile drone corridor and one of the most ambitious advanced air mobility projects in the nation. The new corridor serves as the perfect platform for Vigilant’s distributed airspace management system to enable true BVLOS flight.