UAS Central is bringing key government stakeholders, academia and industry partners to Central New York to deploy and validate the necessary UAS Traffic Management (UTM) infrastructure, safe systems and universal standards for the emerging drone industry. We are supporting the launch of the Autonomous Systems Policy Institute that focuses on consumer adoption of all autonomous systems, including UAS.
The UAS Secure Autonomous Flight Environment (U-SAFE) initiative is a state of New York-funded program that will help accelerate the integration of low-altitude, small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS).
U-SAFE will deploy and validate the necessary UAS Traffic Management (UTM) infrastructure, safe systems and universal standards for the emerging drone industry. Project U-SAFE will create a low altitude (below 1200 feet) air traffic control system for safe drone operation.
The rapid innovation of drones has led to an endless list of beneficial civilian applications of unmanned aircraft systems, including food and medical delivery, infrastructure inspection, search and rescue, and agricultural monitoring.
A state-supported 50-mile unmanned traffic management drone corridor runs from Central New York to the Mohawk Valley. The first-in-the-nation corridor is the most advanced drone testing corridor in the nation. With the needed infrastructure now in place, companies are able to test both unmanned aerial systems platforms and UTM technologies in real-world settings, generating data that will inform the industry and regulators, taking us one step closer towards the routine commercial use of drones.
As standards for UAS become defined, UAS service suppliers (USS) and supplemental data service providers (SDSPs) will need the performance of their services and products validated to those standards to assure safe and effective flights. National UAS Standardized Testing And Rating (NUSTAR) acts as an independent third party to validate UAS technology to industry standards. NUSTAR as the gold standard for verification of conformity with government and industry standards. In building NUSTAR, we expect to develop means of compliance with evolving standards and provide an environment for testing and verification that industry leaders will seek out for standards verification.
Finally, a UAS Center of Excellence within the Central New York and Mohawk Valley regions will be a partnership between the UAS industry, academia, New York State agencies and Israeli companies to advance the UAS industry and contribute to the economic development of the region.
New York and Israeli companies will use the new Center of Excellence to focus on advancing technologies, which will bring Israeli technology and R&D to the New York drone market and open Israel’s markets to New York state UAS companies.