Tag: GuardianUTM

Altitude Angel powers BVLOS flights in India with Sagar Defence

The Sagar Defence Spectre UAV. (Photo: Sagar Defence Engineering)

Altitude Angel, an unmanned traffic management (UTM) technology provider, is partnering with Mumbai-based Sagar Defence Engineering Ltd. in BVLOS trials supported by India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Together, Altitude Angel and Sagar Defence have been selected by India’s DGCA to carry out beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) drone operations. The results of the trials will help define India’s regulatory framework for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in routine UAV deployment.

Altitude Angel’s GuardianUTM platform will enable BVLOS drone flights around a multitude of real-life scenarios including medical and cargo delivery, surveillance operations, survey & mapping, and search & rescue operations.

The Union Government has recently begun the process of granting regulatory permissions to the operation of drones for commercial purposes.

On participating in the BVLOS trials Richard Ellis, Altitude Angel’s chief business officer, said, “The potential for UAV use in India is immense so we’re excited to be partnering with Sagar Defence on these BVLOS trials. The ability to fly safely and securely BVLOS will unlock the potential of drones not just in India, but across the world. With Sagar, we’re very much looking forward to showcasing our proven technology to demonstrate the amazing use-cases of drones.”

Mridul Babbar, Sagar Defence’s business development head added, “Sagar Defence Engineering and Altitude Angel, two highly skilled teams, coming together for the BVLOS trials is a very strong partnership and one we’re thrilled to be part of. The combination of our UAVs and Altitude Angel’s world leading UTM platform will undoubtedly help advance the prospects of BVLOS flight across India and beyond.”

The BVLOS trials are scheduled to take place from August through to October 2020.

The trials will further build on trials Altitude Angel has been involved in this year. The company served as the lead and umbrella UTM for the Lake Kivu Challenge, part of the African Drone Forum, which took place on the shores of Lake Kivu, Rwanda, in January.

July 6, 2020
Altitude Angel, Inmarsat offer air traffic management for UAVs

Altitude Angel and Inmarsat are collaborating to develop and deliver advanced flight tracking and management capability for UAVs.

According to the companies, they will build on Altitude Angel’s GuardianUTM platform to jointly develop a “pop-up UTM” capability that can be deployed anywhere it is required to manage beyond visual line of sight UAV flights, without the need for ground-based communications infrastructure. By utilizing Inmarsat’s global network of satellites and leveraging its experience in air traffic management communications, Altitude Angel’s pop-up UTM can be accessed rapidly and deployed worldwide, the companies added.

The pop-up UTM will be developed initially to address the unmanned traffic management needs of blue light emergency services and first responders who need aerial surveillance rapidly with little notice. The companies plan to release a commercial, industry-focused product soon after. Through this technology, emergency services will be able to remotely manage UAVs, increasing their range of safe operations in mixed airspace of manned and unmanned vehicles.

“The ability to almost instantly ‘pop-up’ safe, secure and fully operational UTM platforms in any environment, at any time, will give first responders, blue light services and aid organizations a valuable tool that could save countless lives,” said Phil Binks, head of air traffic management at Altitude Angel. “Altitude Angel and Inmarsat, in developing ‘pop-up UTM,’ will be able to bring connectivity, clarity and automated air traffic control services for UAVs in even the most challenging of circumstances.”

Altitude Angel is an aviation technology company delivering solutions which enable the safer integration and use of fully automated drones into airspace. Inmarsat is a British satellite telecommunications company, offering global mobile services.

June 26, 2020
Altitude Angel demonstrates UAV traffic management in Europe
Safely integrating autonomous drones into global airspace is the goal of Altitude Angel.

The company has completed its involvement in the Gulf of Finland (GOF) U-Space project, declaring the trials to have been a “huge success” and an “amazing showcase” of its unmanned traffic management (UTM) technologies.

The GOF U-space demonstrations are funded by the SESAR Joint Undertaking for European sky air traffic management research.

In July and August, advanced drone operational demonstrations took place across Estonia and Finland, showcasing use cases that involved both manned and unmanned aircraft in shared airspace. The demonstrations relied on systems such as Altitude Angel’s GuardianUTM O/S to remain safe.

GuardianUTM, the company’s core system, is already helping drones operate in controlled airspace. It powers the UK’s national UTM system, operated by NATS, the UK’s main air navigation service provider.

Altitude Angel was a key UTM partner for the trials, providing services that included integration to the FIMS (flight information management system) for the transport of flight plans, telemetry/position reports, AIM (geofencing/volume reservations), as well as alerts and registration data to-and-from the drone operators and manned aviation which were involved in the trials.

Altitude Angel was able to demonstrate its UTM platform across a number of scenarios that varied in scope and range, and included:
- urban drone fleet operations with police intervention,
- long-distance multisensory inspection flights over forests,
- urban drone operations in controlled airspace,
- powerline inspection in rural areas, maritime search and rescue, and
- international parcel delivery.
The demonstration series concluded with an urban Volocopter air taxi flight around Vantaa International Airport, Helsinki.

“We’ve been working with the SESAR team for over a year on this project. It’s been a great few months in Finland and Estonia supporting the live demonstrations which have been huge success and an amazing showcase of our world-leading UTM technologies,” said Simon Wynn-Mackenzie, Altitude Angel’s head of products.

“Not only did the scenarios give us another opportunity to demonstrate our production UTM platform in another real-life environment, they went a long way to showing the public how drones can be used in a positive and socially beneficial way on a daily basis,” Wynn-Mackenzie said.

“Our only disappointment was that we were not able to demonstrate our world-first Conflict Resolution Service which we unveiled in July, as the trial scenarios had already been agreed. However, we’ll be looking to showcase our constantly evolving platform and several new services very soon,” he said.

Other UTM demonstrations. In November 2018, Altitude Angel led the team behind Operation Zenith, which gave a view of the future of air traffic management and drone integration into busy, complex airspace, demonstrating how by using the right technology, it’s possible to safely integrate unmanned traffic into controlled airspace and open the skies to commercial airspace worldwide.

Altitude Angel’s developer platform is open and available to all.

The U-space initiative. The GOF U-space project, with a broad consortium of 19 members, demonstrates Europe is on course with its implementation of U-space, an initiative that aims to ensure safe and secure drone traffic management, taking into account the rapid growth in the use of drones.

The GOF concept enables shared situational awareness for all aviation stakeholders. The success of the project is based on deep air traffic management experience of all consortium members, including three world-leading UTM technology vendors and two air navigation services providers, developing interoperability and data-sharing solutions that are aligned with SESAR’s overall U-space architecture.

The U-Space project has received funding from the SESAR Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Connection Europe Facility (CEF) programme under grant agreement SJU/LC/343-CTR.
August 29, 2019