Virtual Reality demonstration gives unique and never before seen view of tomorrow’s skies, enabled by Altitude Angel’s GuardianUTM and ARROW technologies
Altitude Angel, UTM (Unified Traffic Management) technology provider, has chosen industry expo Airspace World as the venue to premiere a new generation of simulation modelling which puts the airspace manager at the very heart of the flight.
A year in the making, the simulation is a ‘first of its kind’ for the UTM/ATM industry and will give ANSPs, U-Space regulators, and airspace managers a ‘virtual insight’ into what future airspace – one where crewed and uncrewed aircraft share the same skies safely and securely - and its digital management, enabled through Altitude Angel’s technology and platform, looks like.
Using a real-world use case of a Skyfarer drone making a critical delivery between two UK hospitals as its backdrop, the simulation is a digital twin of what the future will look like when Altitude Angel’s GuardianUTM platform and its ARROW ground-based DAA (Detect-and-Avoid) technology – which is the foundation technology behind the Skyway drone superhighway - is fused with real-world airspace data in real-time, which can be experienced through a virtual reality headset and 3D.
Before getting airborne, the passenger will have the ability to see the flight being planned and the operation submitted, via the GuardianUTM platform Approval Services and Strategic Deconfliction functions. Once in flight, the simulated environment fuses airspace data with real-time flight plans, managed by GuardianUTM, which performs real-time tactical deconfliction on simulated drones, just as it would in real life.
Passengers experiencing the simulation will be able to choose from which aspect of the scenario they wish to experience; that of a delivery drone, as a pilot in a GA aircraft or HEMS/blue light helicopter responding to an emergency, or in a UAM eVTOL craft flying alongside the delivery drone.
Richard Parker, Altitude Angel, CEO and founder, said: “Our immersive simulator is a first for the UTM/ATM industry. We’re taking airspace managers out of the control tower and placing them right in the heart of the flight. From here, they’ll be able to look out of a cockpit window and see tactical deconfliction of a drone flight in real-time or even experience the flight from the drone’s perspective. The experience will also give airspace regulators a unique opportunity to see and understand what tomorrow’s skies will look like, which we hope will allow them to realise what can be achieved within current regulation as well as help inform and shape future regulation.”
