Indiana State Universityand Raleigh, North Carolina-based PrecisionHawk have signed a research and development partnership that aims to advance the unmanned aerial systems industry from multidisciplinary perspectives. ISU says that the university-business collaboration will focus on safety, education, training, and algorithm development for PrecisionHawk’s DataMapper aerial data software.
“PrecisionHawk is a strategic partner for Indiana State,” said Robert English, dean of Indiana State’s College of Technology. “Together we make a strong team in research and development of flight crew training, UASapplications, and data analysis. We see this collaboration as a foundation for the future of our students, the state of Indiana and the nation.”
Patrick Lohman, vice president of partnerships at PrecisionHawk, said the company has a longstanding relationship with Indiana State that “creates the perfect environment to explore the next frontier in aviation and beyond line of sight unmanned vehicle operations. PrecisionHawk is fortunate to boast a number of ISU alumni on its team, and we look forward to enhanced collaboration around our data and safety initiatives.”
The partnership will explore and pursue the following areas:
- Airspace deconfliction
- Advanced mission planning algorithm development
- Environmental monitoring
- Opportunities within PrecisionHawk safety initiatives, includingLATAS, its low altitude traffic and airspace service platform
- Development of analytics clusters and full-spectrum analytics support
“Indiana State is proud to be stepping forward with PrecisionHawk in this partnership to further the applications of unmanned systems,” said Richard Baker, associate professor and chair of the aviation technology department and director of the university’s unmanned systems initiative. “We will work to strategically address issues across the entire spectrum of data collection, analytics, and safety for unmanned aerial systems.”
IUS notes that the university will provide access to airspace, indoor flight facilities, unmanned aerial vehicles, and flight crews. PrecisionHawk will provide access to its software platform, DataMapper, algorithm licenses, desktop orthomosaic processing, and the ability to test its safety services platform, LATAS.
