Blog Post
CAL Analytics to provide statewide UTM/UAS services to Ohio
Sean Calhoun • May 03, 2023
ODOT to leverage CAL’s UTM platform for statewide operations
Columbus, OH – CAL Analytics has been selected by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to provide statewide Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) operation services using CAL’s UAS Service Supplier (USS) platform. This agreement is the culmination of a multi-year build-up of CAL’s UTM service platform that started in 2019 with a $1.4M award from the Ohio Federal Research Network (OFRN) to develop an interoperable and resilient contingency management system for Ohio UAS Operations. Through this work, Ohio continues its leadership in the innovation, research, development and utilization of UAS technology. CAL’s USS will provide ODOT a wide array of services, including a centralized monitoring and management capability of statewide infrastructure, such as communications, navigation and airspace surveillance equipment, critical for UAS Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight operations. Additionally, CAL will provide ODOT with enhanced operational planning and situational awareness for its extensive statewide utilization of UAS for Visual Line-of-Sight operations.
“Ohio and ODOT in particular, has been on the forefront of embracing UAS technology, so we are very excited to have our USS platform provide the basis for statewide utilization,” said Dr. Sean Calhoun, Managing Director of CAL Analytics. “We have put a lot of our system development focus making sure our platform provides a host of performance and safety related features. Our work with NASA and integrating our health and integrity monitoring capabilities into our deployments will ensure statewide systems can scale in a robust and safe way.”
“CAL Analytics technology will help us take support of our uncrewed aircraft operations to the next level. Not only will our remote pilots use it for situational awareness and safety, but we are exploring the ability to expand this service to first responders across the state to better coordinate air support during an emergency,” said Rich Fox, UAS Director – Ohio UAS Center for ODOT.
This agreement between CAL Analytics and the Ohio Department of Transportation is big win for the State of Ohio and the state of UAS ecosystem growth. Ohio is a leader in the Advanced Air Mobility business development aspect of UAS operations and the individuals involved in the OFRN are proud to have played a part in supporting new technology and innovation development,” said Maj Gen (Ret.) Mark Bartman, OFRN Program Executive for Parallax Advanced Research.
Columbus, OH – CAL Analytics, in coordination with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), has launched a low-altitude air traffic management system for drones to support statewide operations. As the number of uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, grows, a robust system for managing the low-altitude airspace where these aircraft operate is necessary to ensure safety. While the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provides air traffic control for traditional aircraft flying in certain airspaces, low-altitude traffic management for drones is the responsibility of individual operators. Currently, drone pilots are required to keep the aircraft within sight to avoid a collision. A UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system enhances safety by enabling sharing of flight details between UAS operators, providing a digital tool for flight planning, and allowing operators to eventually operate beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) while continuing to minimize the risk of collision. “The introduction of this vital capability continues Ohio’s tradition of innovation in the aviation community while prioritizing safety,” said Rich Fox, director of the Ohio UAS Center at ODOT. “As we collaborate with others at the newly opened National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence, we expect this to be the first of many industry-leading activities coming out of that state-of-the-art facility.” Following several state sponsored research efforts to determine the best way to develop and deploy traffic management for uncrewed aircraft in Ohio, this system, implemented by CAL Analytics, provides interoperability where any user can enroll to share and receive flight information. As drone technology continues to advance, traffic management will be a key enabler of BVLOS operations, which currently require special permission from the FAA once stringent safety requirements are met. “We couldn’t be more thrilled to continue our collaboration with ODOT by deploying this discovery and synchronization services to fully realize this first of a kind operational UTM capability throughout the state of Ohio,” said Dr. Sean Calhoun, managing director of CAL Analytics. “This realization is the result of a lot of industry development, including the essential work from The Ohio State University research team and sponsored research from the Ohio Federal Research Network (OFRN). We are looking forward to working with the various interested stakeholders throughout the state and the FAA to learn from this system and to start scaling UAS operations throughout Ohio.” ODOT and the City of Hilliard will be the first organizations to enroll in the system and begin exchanging information as they look to leverage UAS as a tool for everything from inspection and traffic monitoring to onsite situational awareness for first responders, such as police and fire department dispatches. “Hilliard is excited to leverage this and other airspace services that Ohio has established to enable our first responder drone operations” says Deputy Police Chief for Hilliard, Ron Clark. “These services will be critical for us to achieve FAA approval and operate our drones in a safe and effective manner.” In the coming years, more advanced and BVLOS drone operations will increase in Ohio, which means multiple operators may be flying in the same area to deliver medical supplies, perform emergency services, conduct infrastructure inspections, and even deliver commercial packages. For safe and successful scaling of commercial drone operations, it’s imperative that pilots have situational awareness for strategic deconfliction. While both private and public organizations can enroll in the traffic management system, this resource is particularly valuable for other state agencies and local governments across Ohio. These services are available at no cost to any operator or fleet manager that requests access and goes through the onboarding process. To learn more or request access, please contact CAL Analytics at info@calanalytics.com.
Columbus, OH – CAL Analytics has been awarded a NASA Phase II-E Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award to deploy their Health & Integrity System (HIMS) to the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Uncrewed Traffic Management (UTM) system. This will be the first-time an In-time System-wide Safety Assurance (ISSA) system will be deployed and integrated into a functioning UTM environment for operations in an urban environment. This initiative is researching ways in which the resiliency and robustness of UTM ecosystems can and should be improved. The primary result of those activities was the formulation of a flexible, service-based architecture for Health & Integrity (H&I) monitoring, assessment, and mitigation of complex, federated System of Systems (SoS). This aptly named Health & Integrity Management System (HIMS) adds another dimension of capability to the UTM architecture wherein it is intended to holistically monitor and respond to the ecosystem, providing continuity between independent UTM services from a system reliability perspective “Being able to evaluate our ISSA implementation in an operational environment that Ohio offers will be a critical step for validating the our various HIMS safety monitors and system interactions what will be key to ensuring a robust UTM ecosystem for safe low-altitude operations,” said Dr. Sean Calhoun, Managing Director of CAL Analytics. “Our HIMS system not only provides various real-time monitoring of key systems, such as surveillance and navigation, but we also provide capabilities assessing the impacts to operations and how to relay that information to operators.” The CAL HIMS system builds off the Resilienx, Inc. FRAIHMWORK platform to realize a scalable ISSA system tailored specifically to UTM applications. The open architecture approach to the ISSA system enables seamless integration of future system monitoring and scalability. The effort builds off Ohio and NASA’s existing AAM National Campaign partnership, which includes System-Wide Safety, and The Ohio State Universities UTM development effort sponsored by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). “Safety is the number one goal at the Ohio Department of Transportation, operational assurance is the most important component in any aviation operation. As we continue to move towards highly automated and remote operations in the airspace, the health of systems and sensors providing information becomes crucial to maintain the safety for transportation on the ground and in the air,” said Fred Judson, UAS Director – Ohio UAS Center for ODOT. “Safety is the key to innovation in aviation. Learning how and when to automate our safety monitoring, assessment, and mitigation functions enables us to design air systems that benefit all of us.” said Dr. Misty Davies, NASA’s Project Manager for System-Wide Safety Project.
(SYRACUSE, NEW YORK) – CAL Analytics is deploying their detect and avoid (DAA) service and contingency management platform (CMP) within New York’s 50-mile Drone Corridor and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) designated uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) Test Site at Griffiss International Airport, managed by NUAIR. The organizations are working jointly on a Technical Assistance program with the FAA to enable and approve a DAA service for low-altitude beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) UAS operations. Current regulations require drone operators to always have a pair of human eyes visually monitoring the airspace in which the drone is flying, limiting the ability to fly long distances. Without being able to see the drone, the system needs the ability to detect and avoid obstacles in the air and on ground to assure the safety of both crewed and uncrewed aircraft. The ability to safely fly BVLOS is the key to unlocking the full potential and economic advantage of routine commercial drone operations like medical and package deliveries. “This upgrade to the 50-mile Drone Corridor between Rome and Syracuse will help integrate detect and avoid technology to further the safe advancement of unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace and unlock the true potential of commercial drone operations,” said Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. “We look forward to the fruit this partnership between CAL Analytics and the FAA will bear at Oneida County’s Test Site, which continues to flourish under NUAIR’s management.” The DAA service will be CAL’s newest UAS traffic management (UTM) service being brought to market and builds off their existing contingency management platform (CMP), which provides a suite of UTM services. CAL’s CMP will offer critical airspace services, including situational awareness from Kongsberg, conflict detection from CAL, health monitoring by ResilienX, and various weather services from TruWeather Solutions to help ensure the safe operation of uncrewed aircraft. “We’re excited to partner with NUAIR and working directly with the FAA to get our DAA service approved for small UAS,” said Dr. Sean Calhoun, managing director of CAL Analytics. “This will go a long way towards validating several of the DAA standards, including those from ASTM-F38 and RTCA SC-147, and opening the skies for safe BVLOS drone operations.” The BVLOS flight operations will be performed by NUAIR who manages operations of the New York UAS Test Site at Griffiss International Airport in Rome, NY, one of just seven FAA-designated UAS test sites in the United States. The CAL technology will provide several key services to enabling safe BVLOS operations within New York’s 50-mile UAS Corridor instrumented with radar, communication networks, including 5G, and other leading-edge technologies that facilitate advanced drone operations. “One of the most important recommendations from the recent BVLOS Aviation Rulemaking Committee was for the FAA to develop a methodology for approving safety-critical UTM services for BVLOS,” said NUAIR Chief Technology Officer Andy Thurling. “NUAIR is working with our partners at CAL Analytics and the FAA to do just that.” NUAIR and its alliance of partners, including CAL Analytics, ResilienX, TruWeather Solutions and more will be showcasing their technologies and latest advancements at the upcoming AUVSI XPONENTIAL conference in Orlando, Florida, April 25-28. The companies are part of the GENIUS NY booth #1761, highlighting leading-edge companies in Central New York and taking applications for the next round of the $3 million business acceleration competition that is GENIUS NY. ### About NUAIR NUAIR (Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance, Inc.) is a New York-based nonprofit with a mission to safely integrate uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) into the national airspace, enabling scalable, economically viable commercial drone operations. NUAIR manages operations of the FAA-designated New York UAS Test Site at Griffiss International Airport, Rome, NY on behalf of Oneida County and is responsible for the advancement of New York’s 50-mile UAS Corridor between Rome and Syracuse, NY. https://nuair.org
