OTTAWA, Ontario, April 19, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/
-- Kongsberg Geospatial, an Ottawa-based geospatial technology was
selected as part of the project team which recently secured a
$1.4M contract with the Ohio Federal
Network (OFRN) to lead the development of a contingency management
platform (CMP) for Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight (BVLOS) drone
operations.
The project, called "Interoperability, Resiliency and
Contingency Management" for Ohio UAS Operations is one of six
projects awarded in round four of OFRN's Sustaining Ohio
Aeronautical Readiness and Innovation Next Generation (SOARING)
initiative. The collaborative effort brings together private
companies, including prime contractor CAL Analytics, ResilienX,
TruWeather Solutions, and Kongsberg Geospatial, with higher
education partners - Kent State
University, and The Ohio State
University.
OFRN is a program of the Wright State Applied Research
Corporation, and has the mission to stimulate Ohio's innovation
economy through job and product creation by building statewide
collaborations between university researchers, Ohio-based federal laboratories and
businesses. OFRN's SOARING initiative leverages funding from
Ohio's unique aerospace assets in
overcoming critical technical barriers and business challenges to
enable more widespread adoption of UAS into the national
airspace.
As the prime contractor, CAL Analytics will lead system
integration on the ground in Ohio,
deploying the CMP to two customers: the Ohio Department of
Transportation in Columbus, and
the Air Force Research Lab in Springfield.
"We are really excited about this project, as it will start
layering in some of the safety measures and procedures that are
critical to operationalize routine UAS operations," said
Sean Calhoun, managing director of
CAL Analytics and project lead. "We think this project will put a
nice spotlight on Ohio and all the
great UAS development work that is happening here."
Geospatial software company, Kongsberg Geospatial, will
contribute IRIS UxS: a real-time airspace visualization system for
Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight (BVLOS) mission management that allows
a single operator to manage multiple aircraft. The system combines
live data and live weather from a variety of sensors to create a
real-time picture of the airspace where UAS are being operated.
"For the past few years, we've been working on improving safety
for BVLOS UAS missions through the development of IRIS UxS," said
Company Vice President, Paige
Cutland. "The IRIS system is now actively deployed for a
variety of long-range mission applications including drone
delivery, pipeline inspection and emergency airspace
operations."
The project is a few weeks into the 18-month period of
performance and is expected to wrap up during the summer of 2021
with final demonstrations to take place in both Springfield and Columbus, Ohio.
SOURCE Kongsberg Geospatial