Insitu demos UAS situational awareness system

17th January 2018 - 08:30 GMT | by The Shephard News Team

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Insitu has demonstrated its ground-based airspace situational awareness system designed to help UAS operators detect nearby aircraft in flight, the company announced on 9 January.

Insitu, in collaboration with Boeing’s Phantom Works, designed, developed, and tested the airspace situational awareness system in Australia under a government-sponsored programme.

Insitu designed the system as one of the optional ‘layers’ of safety to enable broad-area, beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) capability for commercial UAS operations. It provides airspace situational awareness for UAS operators, to detect and avoid ‘non-cooperative’ traffic during flight operations.

The system incorporates radio over internet protocol to expand its ability to communicate with air traffic control and local traffic in the operations area.

Using mobile or fixed infrastructure, the system combines Airborne Dependent Surveillance-Broadcasts and transponder returns to provide a common operating picture enabling UAS operators to view real-time information about the local airspace.

By remotely detecting and tracking other airspace users, the system immediately sends the air traffic information back to a ground control station and assists operators in safely operating UAS over extended ranges.

Insitu’s UAS enabling-technologies are expected to benefit a variety of sectors including mining, oil and gas operations, search and rescue and environmental management.