As calls grow for more and more drones to be integrated into the lower atmosphere over populated areas, so grows the need for a safer lower altitude economy, where commercial drones on their way to their disparate flight missions – be it delivery, security, sight-seeing, tactical or public safety – do so in a way that does not endanger the safety of people on the ground, other drones or aircraft in the vicinity.
One drone management platform thinks it has developed such a solution.
Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) services provider ANRA Technologies, the Washington DC-based provider of digital airspace and mission management solutions, has announced the introduction of ANRA VISTA (Visual Interface for Shared Traffic Awareness), a new application that the company claims gives public safety agencies, enterprise drone programs and other drone services providers greater awareness of drone activities in the vicinity of their own operations.
“VISTA presents available flight intent and position information from UAS Traffic Management (UTM) services through an easy-to-understand visual interface, helping operators make better-informed decisions before and during flight,” the company said.
“As drone delivery, Drone as First Responder (DFR) programs, infrastructure inspections and other commercial operations expand, more aircraft from different organizations are sharing the same low-altitude airspace. While UTM services coordinate these operations, drone operators may have limited awareness of nearby activity, particularly when those flights are managed by different organizations.
“VISTA addresses this challenge by making shared UTM information accessible without requiring operators to change their existing aircraft or flight applications. The receive-only application does not connect aircraft to UTM or submit flight plans. Instead, it provides an additional layer of situational awareness that operators can consult before takeoff and while conducting missions.”
ANRA added that their new software VISTA provides several capabilities for organisations operating in shared airspace, which include nearby operational awareness, simple airspace visualisation, preflight and in-flight awareness, as well as operational flexibility.
“As more organizations operate drones in the same airspace, knowing what else may be flying nearby becomes increasingly important,” said Amit Ganjoo, founder and CEO of ANRA Technologies.
“VISTA makes shared airspace information easier to access and understand without requiring operators to change how they fly. It’s a practical way to improve awareness as drone operations continue to scale.”
For public safety agencies, the developer claims VISTA can provide greater awareness of other drone operations near emergency scenes, to help DFR teams make informed decisions while responding to incidents.
Utilities, infrastructure operators and commercial drone programs can also use the application to gain additional visibility into activity around inspections, maintenance missions and other routine operations.