Inside Unmanned Systems provides actionable business intelligence to decision-makers and influencers operating within the global UAS community. Features include analysis of key technologies, policy/regulatory developments and new product design.
Issue link: https://insideunmanned.epubxp.com/i/470284
34 unmanned systems inside 1 Virginia Autonomous technology the team ReseaRch centeRs the mid-atlantic aviation Partnership, led by Virginia tech, is the combined effort of Virginia, maryland and new Jersey. Virginia tech, University of maryland, Rutgers University, national Institute of aerospace, Liberty University, new Jersey Institute of technology, Rowan University, the Richard stockton college of nJ, Virginia state University VirginiA tech leAds the Mid-Atlantic Avia- tion Partnership (MAAP), a coalition comprising Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey that is not only able to support research in unmanned aircraft but autonomous land and marine systems as well. Vir- ginia Tech has more than a decade of experience with Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs), active Certificates of Authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and airspace at its Kentland Experimental Aerial Systems Labora- tory. The school also has offers of airspace from NASA's Langley Research Center and Wallops Flight Facility as well as $2.6 million in funding in hand from the state of Virginia. To support the FAA, the group will focus on researching failure mode testing and the operational and technical risks specific to unmanned aircraft systems. New Jersey's Rutgers University has done a tremendous amount of re- search for the FAA in the past, said will soon demonstrate how a UAV can work with the award-winning Robotics Assisted Bridge Inspec- tion Tool (RABIT) to assess the underside of a bridge. The University of Maryland brings to the team data comput- ing expertise, airspace along the coast and a long-standing cooperative relationship with the Naval Air Warfare Center at Patuxent River. University re- searchers are able to tap into both the Warfare Center's facilities and the cutting-edge research being done there, said Matt Scassero, director of the University of Maryland UAS test site, without the limits potentially facing users of other Defense Depart- ment resources. The center is a major range and test facility base, explained Scassero, and as such is encouraged to share its assets with civilian researchers—and not just the airspace "but all the infrastructure and telemetry that goes with it." MAAP will be able to offer unmanned aircraft as well as 2 Spring 2014 Spring 2014 Virginia Tech FAA test sites Burruss hall is a landmark on Virginia tech's campus. With research and development expenditures of $496.2 million in 2013, the school is the state's leading academic research institution. Photos courtesy of Virginia Tech