NASA, Reliable Robotics Collaborate on UAS Safety

A California startup called Reliable Robotics is creating “drop-in” autonomy kits to enable remote piloting on older planes. Using two of its experimental aircraft, Reliable Robotics and NASA carried out a flight-test campaign in California. Reliable Robotics orchestrated many contacts between the two planes during the flight tests, while the FAA’s ground-based radars and commercial air-to-air radars tracked the flights and gathered data.

The FAA will be able to create a safety case for DAA systems utilizing PSR data with the aid of NASA’s analysis and characterization of the accuracy of the FAA’s radars, which is being conducted using flight data. According to Reliable Robotics, providing pilots with high-quality PSR data might greatly enhance situational awareness and aid in preventing mid-air crashes.

“We appreciate the close collaboration with the FAA and Reliable Robotics to collect meaningful data from flights to improve our collective understanding of using radar for DAA,” said Brad Snelling, partner chief engineer for the AAM National Campaign at NASA. “These landmark flights will help the entire AAM industry further their understanding and future use of PSR data to enhance aviation safety.”