has announced its participation in the deployment of Vantis, North Dakota’s statewide Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) infrastructure and network led by the Northern Plains UAS Test Site.
As a strategic partner to Thales’ TopSky Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) platform, uAvionix is deploying terrestrial command and control (C2) infrastructure and a cloud-based C2 service, enabling centralized management, coordination, and C2 handoffs which will enable BVLOS missions across the key-site deployment area of McKenzie County, ND.
The C2 service leverages uAvionix’s microLink Airborne Radio Systems (ARS) and skyStation Ground Radio Systems (GRS) developed to ASTM standards. microLink and skyStation are dual-architecture MIMO digital frequency hopping radios which enable intelligent make-before-break (MBB) transitions from one GRS to the next in long-range operations, enhancing the overall safety case. With Vantis as the launch customer, the C2 service monitors overall system performance, the health and signal strength of each radio on the network, location monitoring and tracking, and centralized control.
“Thales is excited to partner with uAvionix in North Dakota to deploy a BVLOS C2 network infrastructure and service,” said Frank Matus, Director of Digital Aviation Market Development for Thales. “uAvionix achievements in the areas of surveillance and TSO avionics is instrumental in addressing the command and communications challenges faced by the emerging UAS industry in North Dakota and across the national airspace system.”
In addition to the C2 service, uAvionix is also contributing to the overall low-altitude airspace surveillance picture through the deployment of its pingStation networkable ADS-B receivers.
Source: Press Release