Echodyne to Provide Radar Tech for NASA UAS Traffic Mgmt Program

Echodyne will provide its radar platform to two organizations for a demonstration of unmanned aircraft system missions and related technologies in urban areas as part of NASA's UAS Traffic Management initiative.

Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence and Innovation at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems Unmanned Aviation Safety selected Echodyne-built radars for inclusion in the program's Technology Capability Level 4 flight tests, the company said Tuesday.

NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration seek to help industry understand the potential risks of urban drone operations through the UTM program. The space agency said data from the demonstrations can help inform traffic management procedures and safety policies for flying drones over populated locations.

“We are proud to have worked with the NASA UTM team and FAA test sites for the past several years and are pleased our radar performance brings us back for increasingly more challenging mission parameters,” said Eben Frankenberg, CEO of Echodyne. 

The company's offerings include the ground-based EchoGuard sensor and EchoFlight airborne sensor.