Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:This is the final report, as this project is closed. The target audience for the SKY-C2 system resulting from the projectis the forest wildland fire management community and the public they serve. Details about the technical and operational capabilities of the system, and how it might be used, are provided in the final technical report. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Skyward implemented various strategies to raise awareness for the SKY-C2 system. The company broadened the potential demonstration audience by giving presentations to the Tactical Fire Remote Sensing Advisory Committee (TFRSAC) and presenting the system concept to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Additionally, Skyward collaborated with various organizations and commercial entities in the wildland fire management community, such as NIFC, the CoE, CALFIRE, Bridger Aerospace, Overwatch Imaging, Atlas United, and Courtney Aviation, to identify requirements and expand the audience for the SKY-C2 system. These efforts were aimed at establishing doctrinal strategies for integrating surveillance and reconnaissance assets into wildland firefighting operations and gathering requirements that influenced the development of the SKY-C2 system. The company also partnered with AFRL and the State of Ohio's UAS Center through the Ohio Department of Transportation to demonstrate the capabilities of the SKY-C2 system to the Department of Defense and State of Ohio, further expanding the audience and obtaining valuable feedback to inform the development of the system. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The following are summaries of accomplishments. Full details of these goals can be seen in the final technical report. Goal #1: The SKY-C2 system successfully completed its development and individual integration testing by August 2021. However, the original schedule did not allow for final full-system integration testing and demonstration due to COVID-19 setbacks, leading to a one-year no-cost extension being requested. The program faced delays in acquiring necessary authorizations such as the AFRL Certificate of Authorization and the FCC Special Temporary Authority license. The authorizations were eventually granted in August 2022, allowing for full systems integration testing. The system was tested and demonstrated successfully, resulting in praise from AFRL. The demonstration was well received by attendees from government, industry, and academia and resulted in several follow-up communications. Goal #2: Skyward took various steps to increase awareness of the SKY-C2 system. The company presented the system to various organizations and committees, including the Tactical Fire Remote Sensing Advisory Committee and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. They also collaborated with organizations in the wildland fire management community to gather requirements and expand the audience for the system. Additionally, Skyward demonstrated the capabilities of the SKY-C2 system to the Department of Defense and State of Ohio with the help of AFRL and the State of Ohio's UAS Center through the Ohio Department of Transportation, and received valuable feedback to improve the development of the system. These efforts were aimed at promoting the integration of the SKY-C2 system into wildland firefighting operations. Goal #3: As per Section 4.1.1, a final demonstration of the SKY-C2 system was conducted at the conclusion of August 2022. Over 300 individuals, representing a diverse range of commercial entities, government agencies, and academic institutions, both within and external to the forest wildland fire management community, were invited to attend. Only a single demonstration was held during the project, as the process of obtaining authorization for BVLOS flight operations was not completed until August 2022. Additional demonstrations are being planned and the system is currently being evaluated for potential applications in other research and development programs that require the capabilities provided by the SKY-C2 system and BVLOS flight conditions. Goal #4: Skyward's initial commercialization strategy was to sell the SKY-C2 system to government entities and commercial vendors for use in forest wildland fire management. However, they realized that the personnel operating the system would need specific training and certifications, which Skyward lacked. So, the focus shifted to service vendors who already had the necessary qualifications and were involved in providing aerial surveillance support for fire management. This narrow target audience limited the potential customer base and the competition for contracts was intense. Skyward then hired Mr. Jason Woodall as commercialization manager and he expanded the market potential for SKY-C2 by establishing relationships with various other industries. Over the years, Skyward transformed from being an engineering services company to one that performs internal R&D and is focused on product development and commercialization. The company has joined the Dayton Region Entrepreneurial Signature Program for assistance in commercialization and growth and is receiving support from the MilTech National Government Partnership Intermediary. The SKY-C2 program remains a primary area of focus for Skyward. Goal #5: Skyward was a new player in the forest wildland fire community with extensive knowledge and experience in the field of reconnaissance and surveillance assets. During Phase I, Skyward established contacts and gathered information from various sources in the fire services, government, and vendors. However, Skyward faced challenges due to being perceived as a commercial vendor and their novel SKY-C2 concept was met with hesitation. Despite this setback, Skyward was selected for a Phase II SBIR and developed the SKY-C2 system prototype. To ensure the system met the community's needs, Skyward continuously gathered technical and operational requirements from the fire community during Phase II. As a result, the SKY-C2 system has a VTOL capability and can fly above 5,000 feet AGL, avoiding the fire traffic area. The system was also aligned with emerging practices by integrating new tools such as ATAK, which helped Skyward meet its goals and objectives of delivering a technically feasible and operationally relevant system.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:During this reporting period our audience expanded further as we continued to take action toward commercialization goals, took further steps toward preparations for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) testing and demonstrations, and examined new strategies for improving upon the SKY-C2 system. In terms of commercialization, our main focus remains on the highest levels of the U.S. Forest Service's (USFS) UAS program and our contacts at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). We've been in contact with the USFS's UAS manager, Mr. Dirk Giles, as well as Sean Triplet and others at NIFC. Our goals concerning Mr. Giles are to keep the USFS appraised of our developments and schedule as we work toward demonstration of the system and eventual commercialization. We've also continued to maintain contact with Brad Schmidt at the Center of Excellence for Advanced Technology Aerial Firefighting (CoE), as the CoE maintains the Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK) server for the USFS. Use of ATAK by the USFS is a new development that occurred during the course of this project. We are planning to transition to ATAK after the close of this program as a replacement for the Firefighter Search, Track, and Recovery (F-STAR) System which was developed as part of this project. In addition to contacts within the fire community, we've continued to maintain contact with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United States Air Force (USFS), the United States Navy (USN), The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), commercial agencies supporting forest wildland fire management (e.g., Atlas United, Bridger Aerospace), commercial security agencies (i.e., Garda World), and nonprofit organizations. A primary objective of this program is to test and demonstrate system capabilities under BVLOS conditions through a Federal Aeronautical Administration (FAA) approved Certificate of Authorization (COA) at a sanctioned BVLOS range. The Springfield-Beckley Airport maintains such a range in partnership with the Ohio Department of Transportations (ODOT) Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Center. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB) holds a current COA which permits flights under BVLOS conditions. Mr. Richard Fox, the Airspace Manager for the Ohio UAS Center, is our primary point of contact for the range. With Mr. Fox's assistance, we have already conducted test flights under FAA Part 107 rules within Visual Line of Sight (VLOS). However, we still require approval from AFRL in order to make use of their COA. So, we are working through Mr. Jason Wierzbanowski, who is the AFRL Flight Test Specialist managing submission, review, and approval of our test plans and Air Worthiness documentation. We're also in contact with the Federal Communications Commission, as we've recently learned that we'll need a Special Temporary Authority (STA) license in order to operate the SKY-C2 system radios and sector antenna. At this point, we've nearly completed the AFRL application process and hope to conduct final tests and a system demonstration in March of 2022. Changes/Problems:Nearly every component of the system was manufactured and/or delivered late due to production and supply chain issues resulting from the COVID19 pandemic. This pushed back component delivery, system integration, and testing by almost a year. Additionally, approvals for flying at the Springfield-Beckley BVLOS range have not been completed after nearly a year in the process. This is primarily due to an almost 2-year government shutdown at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB), which caused delays for all AFRL programs. Our program, which is considered a lower priority, was one of the last to enter the review process after the government began processing applications. Due to the various delays, we were required to submit an application for a one year no-cost extension to our Phase II SBIR. Fortunately, we were approved, and are on track to test and demonstrate within the next 2-3 months. One final hold-up may be the acquisition of an FCC license to operate our radios at full capacity, but we are actively working to accomplish this within the next month. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Two Skyward employees attended aircraft systems training during this reporting period. Skyward's primary pilot also acquired their FAA Part 107 pilot's license and Class-3 medical certificate. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Skyward presented a project update at the Spring 2021 Tactical Fire Remote Sensing Advisory Committee (TFRSAC) meeting. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Response: During the next period, we will accomplish the following: Complete our application and gain approval to fly under AFRL's COA on the Springfield-Beckley BVLOS range. Acquire an FCC STA license to operate our radios. Conduct final integration testing under BVLOS conditions. Hold a combination live/virtual demonstration event for members of the forest wildland fire community and other potential customers and supporters. Demonstrate all of the capabilities planned for development within the scope of the project, as well as any additional complimentary technologies Skyward has developed. Continue to expand marketing efforts. Draft the final technical report for this program.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal #1: All aspects of the system are fully developed and integrated and were successfully exercised both on the ground and under two separate integration-test events at the aircraft manufacturer's facility, as well as follow-on events. The first test involved flying the aircraft via the Radio Control (RC) hand unit within Visual Line of Site (VLOS), while the ground station sat 12km and then 25km away. The Persistent Systems radios, which act as the primary data channel, were tested at 2.222 GHz frequency, 5/10/20MHz bandwidth, and 5W/10W power. All data was passed from the aircraft to the ground station (and back), camera control was tested, and data visualization was verified at all bandwidth and power settings. It was assessed, based upon data throughput at all levels, that the configuration could be operated at Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) distances anywhere from 30km out to 50km. The second test event occurred during aircraft systems training. All of the same parameters were run with similar results. The F-STAR system was separately tested by the manufacturer (Spectra Research) and again during the second round of integration-testing at the aircraft manufacturer facility. The first tests were conducted with the F-STAR antenna and two beacons on the ground. Three separate events involved distances of 0.5km, 0.7km, and finally 1.6km. All three events included occlusion by trees, terrain, and structures. The beacons successfully transmitted position and unit data at all three distances, as well as communicating when the beacons were switched to emergency mode. The second test, at the aircraft manufacturer site, were unsuccessful. The F-STAR antenna was mounted on the aircraft, and the beacons were placed 100m apart on the ground and tilted toward the aircraft. The beacons were acquired after take-off, which was confirmed within the Pursuer Common Operating Picture (COP) software, but signal was lost after ~0.5km and not regained until the aircraft was within ~0.5km. It is assessed that the aircraft mounting configuration caused signal attenuation at the antenna. The mounting system has been redesigned, but we have not had an opportunity to test the system to confirm whether or not this approach has fixed the issue. Given that we plan to replace the F-STAR system with ATAK, this is a less critical issue. None the less, we will test the F-STAR system once we have access to the Springfield-Beckley BVLOS range. Goal #1/Objective #1: Our primary objective was to conduct final system testing under BVLOS conditions and then demonstrate the system to appropriate audiences. We have assembled a list of almost 300 participants for our final demonstration. Final testing and demonstration were initially schedule for June of 2021, however; these remain delayed for a number of reasons. Nearly every component of the system was manufactured and/or delivered late due to production and supply chain issues resulting from the COVID19 pandemic. This pushed back integration and testing by almost a year. Additionally, approvals for flying at the Springfield-Beckley BVLOS range have not been completed after nearly a year in the process. This is primarily due to a nearly 2-year government shutdown at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB), which caused delays for all AFRL programs. Our program, which is considered a lower priority, was one of the last to enter the review process after the government began processing applications. Due to the various delays, we were required to submit an application for a one year no-cost extension to our Phase II SBIR. Fortunately, we were approved, and are on track to test and demonstrate within the next 2-3 months. One final hold-up may be the acquisition of an FCC license to operate our radios at full capacity, but we are actively working to accomplish this within the next month. Goal #2: We continue to stay in touch with all of our fire community points of contact at NIFC, USFS, Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), and commercial entities, as well as expanding our contacts within the defense department and other government agencies. However, we've assessed that our mostly likely customers are vendors supplying UAS services to the government, so the majority of our efforts are focused there. Goal #2/Objective #1: We presented a project update at the Spring 2021 Tactical Fire Remote Sensing Advisory Committee (TFRSAC) meeting. Goal #2/Objective #2: We've expanded our audience to nearly 300 people across various government and commercial entities. Our list now includes Congress, new departments within DHS, the Air National Guard, Department of Interior, Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), and a variety of companies and universities. Goal #2/Objective #3: We're finding that fire community leaders are hesitant to work with us in nearly any capacity. This has been true since Phase I of this project. Because of this, we're unable to easily communicate system employment methodologies directly to potential government customers. Additionally, we've assessed that commercial groups are more likely customers for the SKY-C2 system. So, we've shifted our focus to making sure employment practices are well documented within system technical and training manuals. Goal #4: Skyward hired a commercialization manager to lead commercialization of technologies developed at Skyward. The SKY-C2 system is a top priority. A primary conclusion of research and outreach is that fire management is potentially the most challenging market for commercialization of the system. The government isn't likely to purchase the system, as this is not a common practice, and there are few service vendors available. Of the available vendors, most are building and integrating their own systems or purchasing Class 3 UAS from major manufacturers. Also, due to the limitations of UAS and the stringent rules enforced by the FAA, some vendors are grounding their UAS fleets. We recently learned that Bridger Aerospace, one of the primary commercial service vendors, has halted all UAS operations and is performing services with manned aircraft alone. For this reason, Skyward has shifted marketing of the SKY-C2 system to other markets like commercial security, defense, infrastructure inspection, disaster response and recovery, and law enforcement. We will continue to pursue the fire management market. During the last reporting period we discussed the potential for growth with NOAA due to winning a new Phase I SBIR. We completed the Phase I successfully, but failed to win a Phase II. None the less, NOAA remains a viable customer from a disaster response and relief perspective. Goal #4/Objective #1: We will continue to expand our marketing efforts deeper into the fire management community and into other potential markets as well. Our current strategy involves developing new technologies through Internal Research and Development (IR&D) projects and new SBIRs, which will further enhance the marketability to customers across all markets. Two current projects include the fire detection project mentioned above and an IR&D project focused on developing a field deployable ATAK server and a device to interface cell phones with legacy 2-way radios in order to create a mesh network with existing equipment. Goal #5: Research of current forest wildland fire practices concerning the use of sUAS, and discussions with community leaders, has led us to determine that the community is well ahead of where we expected them to be when we first started this project. While we will stay abreast of developments within the community, we see little opportunity to directly aid the community to with developing broad policies and practices concerning the use of sUAS. Our focus will remain on training and employment methods for any systems we develop.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:During this reporting period our main focus of contact has been with the highest levels of the U.S. Forest Service's (USFS) UAS program. We've been in contact with the first permanently assigned UAS Program Manager, Mr. Dirk Giles. Our goals concerning Mr. Giles are to keep the USFS appraised of our developments and schedule as we work toward demonstration of the system and eventual commercialization. We've also coordinated with Mr. Richard Fox, the Airspace Manager for the Ohio UAS Center under the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), in order to coordinate all test and demonstration related activities which will occur on ranges controlled by the Ohio UAS Test Center. Lastly, we've continued to coordinate with the highest levels of the Division of Forestry under the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) who represent a core of our planned audience during system demonstrations. We've primarily focused on the technical aspects of this project during the first year. We will expand communication beyond our current target audience to other government organizations within fire services, as well as to commercial vendors supporting forest wildland fire management in order to bolster communication efforts. We've also recently won a Phase I SBIR with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is connected to national wildfire initiatives. We will expand our audience to NOAA and their partners, who have said our system could be a valuable asset to the NOAA mission in terms of natural disaster response and relief. Changes/Problems:We experienced a number of challenges that effected our ability to achieve goals for some technical aspects of the system, as well as caused fairly significant shifts in schedule. Fortunately, we we're able to address each of these fairly effectively and find workable solutions in nearly every case. However, our initial system demonstrations will not fully illustrate the original goals of this project. Each issue will be detailed below. Loss of Aircraft Vendor: We learned, after the submission of our Phase II proposal, that our aircraft vendor went out of business (i.e., UASUSA). This was a major setback to the project, as conducting research to find the original aircraft was a major challenge and identifying a new aircraft and vendor required a significant amount of time post award. We vetted numerous vendors and aircraft before making a final decision. Fortunately, we identified a new vendor (i.e., Hybrid Project) with superior manufacturing capabilities and an aircraft that exceeded all of our original technical requirements. Additionally, the new aircraft comes at a massive cost savings, as the retail price is half that of the original aircraft and we no longer have to cover the cost of design and development. Loss of Software Development Partner: During Phase I we worked with Leidos, Inc. for help with software development on a database and software application that was new to us, but with which they had significant experience. The SPADE database and Pursuer visualization environment are government developed systems that are available to contractors for further development and limited use and distribution. We anticipate that, by the end of Phase II, both will be open source and available for full release, modification and sale by companies. Unfortunately, we learned post-Phase II award that Leidos was not able to continue to support Skyward beyond Phase I. However, the government office responsible for management of the systems connected us with the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI), which is the government's primary developer for SPADE and Pursuer. It took some time to accomplish this, but UDRI is currently supporting us as a subcontractor on this program. Establishing Sub-contracts: We had to establish sub-contracts with our new partners at UDRI and with Spectra Research, inc. who supported us during Phase I. Due to the fact that we learned about the loss of Leidos after the start of the Phase II program, and the time it took to identify a new software development partner, we were not able to begin drafting a contract with UDRI until halfway through the first period of the project. Due to slowdowns related to COVID19 and other factors we were unable to finalize the subcontract with UDRI until May of 2020. Similarly, we were unable to establish a new subcontract with Spectra Research until March of 2020, as we had to redefine the scope of the project due to changes in Spectra's proposed budget, which was double the original quote from Phase I. The time it took to establish these subcontracts set our schedule back by roughly two months. We had built flex into the original schedule, so we were able to adjust. We are currently on track to demonstrate the system in the late spring of 2021 as originally planned. Budget Challenges: As previously mentioned, the projected budget for Spectra Research from Phase I was roughly half of the proposal presented us during Phase II. Additionally, the budget we had defined for Leidos as a result of their support during Phase I was $60K short of the budget requested by UDRI. Lastly, we had projected $10K for communications systems based upon Phase I research, but the total actual cost for radios was almost three times more (~$27K). We saved money in other areas by reducing equipment costs and moving GCS design and development internally, so we were able to purchase the radios and fully fund Spectra Researches proposal. However, we had to completely redefine the scope of work to be performed by UDRI. They will not accomplish all of the original tasks we had laid out for SPADE and Pursuer development, but will focus solely on integrating data from the F-STAR system. We consider this a workable solution, because we will still be able to demonstrate the ability to visualize sensor and aircraft data via other available means. Skyward is committed to seeing all of the SPADE and Pursuer tasks accomplished, so we are dedicating new internal resources to achieve this. The additional development work will not likely be completed in time for demonstration, but we will attempt to meet the schedule. Skyward is also dedicating internal capital for the purchase of the HD45 sensor, as we had previously budgeted only the cost of leasing the system. We now feel that purchasing the system will give us more flexibility for not only system demonstrations, but also for commercialization of the system. SPADE and Pursuer Scope Change: The original project goals for SPADE and Pursuer included: Ingesting Trillium HD45 video data into the SPADE database and displaying the data within the Pursuer geospatial visualization environment. Ingesting aircraft telemetry data into the SPADE database and displaying the data within the Pursuer geospatial visualization environment. Ingesting F-STAR data into the SPADE database and displaying the data within the Pursuer geospatial visualization environment. Display F-STAR data in a clickable pop-up bubble within the Pursuer environment. Provide the ability to update background maps and imagery. Provide post-development system installation, debugging, training and demonstration support. Due to budget constraints, UDRI is only able to provide development support for tasks related to the F-STAR system data, updated background maps and imagery, and post-development support. As mentioned above, Skyward will attempt to accomplish the other development tasks internally during the scope of the project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?None during this period. Skyward pilots will undergo flight systems training during the next period. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Goal #1: Complete all aspects of system design for each system component (i.e., F-STAR system, GCS); acquire remaining hardware components (i.e., HD45 sensor, GCS components); complete manufacturing and assembly of each component requiring these steps (i.e., F-STAR system, GCS); complete integration of all component; conduct integration, ground-based and air-based testing; conduct two demonstrations of the system. Goal #2: Share a report detailing system design and implementation strategies with members of the forest wildland fire management community (to include new contacts within NOAA); present at 2021 Tactical Fire Remote Sensing Annual Conference (TFRSAC). Goal #3: We will test and demonstrate the system during the second period of this project; tests and demonstrations are set on our schedule; we are currently completing all necessary paperwork to fly our aircraft at the Ohio UAS Center's Beyond Visual Line of Site (BVLOS) ranges in Ohio; we've identified our audience for demonstrations, but we continue to seek out opportunities to include new people and organizations. Goal #4: Our new Phase I SBIR with NOAA is the biggest potential growth area for commercialization of the system, as NOAA owns and operates drone systems for missions beyond forest wildland fire management. Based upon current discussions, we expect to win a Phase II for enhancements to the current system and feel that NOAA offers strong commercialization potential. Also, we're planning broad dissemination of a report detailing our system to the forest wildland fire community and hope to present at am upcoming TFRSAC meeting. Goal#5: As stated in the accomplishments section above, Research of current forest wildland fire practices concerning the use of sUAS, and discussions with community leaders, led us to determine that the community is well ahead of where we expected them to be when we first started this project. While we will stay abreast of developments within the community, we see little opportunity to directly aid the community to with developing broad policies and practices concerning the use of sUAS. We will; however, continue to work with the community and outside organizations (e.g., FAA) to ensure the broader community remains aware of both internal and external policy development.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal #1: All aspects of our technical solution are currently in the final stages of design and some are in production. For instance, our aircraft design is complete and the first production prototype is undergoing initial test flights. The ASR technology, now called F-STAR, is in the final stages of design and the units will go into production within the month. Funded elements of the SPADE database design are complete and work is underway; the same is true for the associated visualization software. All hardware has been acquired, with the exception of the HD45 sensor and components of the Ground Control Station. We will acquire these pieces in the next phase of the project. Objective #1: We are on schedule to test and demonstrate the system protype as per our plan. Goal #2: We've established a close working relationship with the UAS Program Manager at the US Forest Service and technical lead at the National Interagency Fire Center. Objective #1: Within the next month we will share an interim technical report with our contacts within fire services in order to keep them up to date on the state of developments. Objective #2: We recently won a Phase I SBIR with NOAA. We are expanding our communication into departments within NOAA that work within the forest wildland fire management community. Objective #3: During this period, we acquired and reviewed all documentation that we could find regarding current policies and practices for the use of UAS supporting the forest wildland fire mission. During the next period we will discuss employment practices for our particular system with community leaders. Goal #3: We will test and demonstrate the system during the second period of this project. Objective #1: Tests and demonstrations are set on our schedule. We are currently completing all necessary paperwork to fly our aircraft at the Ohio UAS Center's Beyond Visual Line of Site (BVLOS) ranges in Ohio. Objective #2: We've identified our audience for demonstrations, but we continue to seek out opportunities to include new people and organizations. Goal #4: We will focus on expanding and implementing our commercialization strategy during the next period. Objective #1: Our new Phase I SBIR with NOAA is the biggest potential growth area for commercialization of the system, as NOAA owns and operates drone systems for missions beyond forest wildland fire management. Based upon current discussions, we expect to win a Phase II for enhancements to the current system and feel that NOAA offers strong commercialization potential. Goal #5: Research of current forest wildland fire practices concerning the use of sUAS, and discussions with community leaders, has led us to determine that the community is well ahead of where we expected them to be when we first started this project. While we will stay abreast of developments within the community, we see little opportunity to directly aid the community to with developing broad policies and practices concerning the use of sUAS. Objective #1: We are involved with the FAA externally regarding some policies related to the use of sUAS for forest wildland fire management. For instance, we recently engaged the FAA concerning the use of ADS-B systems on sUAS and learned that they are considering dropping requirements for ADS-B transmission on sUAS altogether. We also learned that they may allow ADS-B transmitters on some drones in special cases (e.g., wildfire management), but these systems will need special certifications (i.e., TSO certification). We relayed this information the UAS program manager at the USFS. Objective #2: See comments under "Goal #5 above.
Publications
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