Reliable Robotics has completed a series of simulations and flight tests to demonstrate its autonomous technology.
The US autonomous aircraft firm said it has demonstrated successful integration of remotely piloted aircraft systems into congested airspace as part of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Urban Air Mobility Airspace Management Demonstration (UAMD).
Funded by the FAA through Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), the demonstration included a week-long series of flights in Northern California.
“The flight tests conducted by Reliable Robotics highlighted the ability for new aircraft systems to interact with third-party service providers and seamlessly integrate into future airspace environments, and provided critical data for future operations,” said Diana Liang, enterprise portfolio manager at the FAA.
The test construct demonstrated Reliable’s ability to execute vectoring, airspeed diverts, and fly under various simulated weather conditions in simulated Class B airspace.
Reliable shared aircraft telemetry through the company’s control center to OneSky, a third-party service provider, who in turn transmitted the data to the FAA’s NextGen Integration & Evaluation Capability (NIEC) research lab.
FAA air traffic controllers participated in the test and provided the FAA NextGen programme office with critical validation and insights for its Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Concept of Operations 2.0.
“Collaborating with the FAA on demonstrations like this will help enable the future of mobility and the evolution of our airspace to accommodate new aircraft systems,” said Davis Hackenberg, vice president of government partnerships at Reliable Robotics.
“Watching our system successfully operate in a live test environment is exciting, and we are proud to help pave the way for future integration of large uncrewed aircraft.”
The company’s autonomous flight certification plan was recently formally accepted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
