Electronic Products & Technology

uAvionix and Trace’s Draganfly team up to improve drone safety

Stephen Law   

Electronics

New software allows drone operators to safely navigate same airspace as manned aircraft

Silicon Valley-based uAvionix Corp., a leader in aircraft sense and avoid and Saskatoon-based Draganfly Innovations Inc., longest-running manufacturer of multi-rotors, maker of the first civilian drone to be credited with saving a life, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Trace Intelligent Systems, announced the successful integration of uAvionix’ Ping ADS-B receiver with Draganfly’s auto-pilot and Surveyor ground station.

uAvionix and Trace's Draganfly

Integrated on the vehicle itself, the system presents new ways to improve drone and aviation safety by providing the ability to detect full size aircraft and automatically avoid a potential collision. This is the first step in integrating drones in the national airspace using the existing ADS-B infrastructure. The Ping network uses live aircraft traffic without relying on a connection to the internet or cellular networks.

“We are thrilled to be working with sUAS pioneer, Draganfly Innovations. Their continued passion to integrate new technologies that provide a robust user experience is unsurpassed. This step further demonstrates their commitment to lead the way towards a safer airspace,” says Adam Paugh, uAvionix’ director of business development.

Advertisement

“Draganfly has been looking for a solution to ‘sense and avoid’ for some time,” comments Draganfly president Zenon Dragan. “The integration of Ping went very smoothly and our Surveyor ground station came alive with nearby traffic. We were surprised to see even non-cooperative traffic broadcast from our local ground station radar, which makes this system a comprehensive solution to sensing full scale traffic.”

This is the first of many steps that uAvionix and Draganfly will take jointly to improve drone and aviation safety.

 

Advertisement

Stories continue below

Print this page

Related Stories