Airspace Awareness
The URSA Platform
Powerful analytical tools to ensure safety in our skies.
The Risks
URSA's Airspace Awareness Platform + NMAC (AAP-NMAC)
URSA's Airspace Awareness Platform + NMAC (AAP-NMAC) was developed to support FAA research into unmanned UAV activity in the low-altitude National Airspace. Led by Associate Professor Ryan Wallace of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the ASSURE A50 project used AAP-NMAC to produce the first of three annual reports for the FAA on this topic.
AAP-NMAC uses what is commonly known as counter UAS (CUAS) data as the primary source for UAV behavior and metadata. URSA's vendor and source agnostic ability to unlock valuable insights from often expensive CUAS data is unique in the industry and puts us on the leading edge of efforts to focus on broader airspace awareness issues.
Wallace, R.J., Terwilliger, B.A., Winter, S.R., Rice, S., et al. (2022). Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) Traffic Analysis: Initial Annual Report [Grant No. A11L.UAS.91]. ASSURE, Federal Aviation Administration.
The Platform
URSA's Airspace Awareness Platform (AAP)
The ever-increasing number of Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles (UAV) within the national airspace creates a significant and growing risk to public safety. URSA's Airspace Awareness Platform now gives everyone the critical insights needed to monitor UAV activity and create safety and security — both on the ground and in the sky.
If you have access to CUAS data that is sitting idle, please reach out and let us unlock insights from it that likely support more stakeholders than initially imagined.
UAV Behavior Insights for Everyone
URSA's Airspace Awareness Platform (AAP) provides everyone with easily accessible, objective insight into the who, what, where, when, why, and how of drone behavior. Initially used exclusively by the FAA, URSA's AAP is now available to regulators, investigators, journalists, and manned aircraft operators.
Answer Critical Safety Questions
- Number of sUAS operating within and outside of Part 107 rules
- sUAS traffic evolution over time
- sUAS flight patterns and altitudes
- Estimated registration rates for sUAS
- Percentage of detected traffic not required to register with FAA and other regulatory bodies
- Actual and forecasted economic potential of drone tracks by location, across the NAS, and over time
- Traffic risks associated with sUAS operations
The ability to answer these questions, and many more, is now available to anyone via a self-service platform, consulting relationships, or via integration into other platforms.
URSA NMAC Analytics
Insights to Prevent UAV Near Mid-Air Collisions
NMACs may be the greatest risk UAVs pose to public safety. URSA's NMAC analytics replaces subjective analysis with the objective data and visualizations needed to assess, understand, and act on problematic and unlawful UAV behavior.
Currently pilots, while in flight, visually identify and evade conflicting sUAS and then report estimates of range, altitude, and other associated flight information — with few to no tools for measurement or examination. URSA's NMAC provides comprehensive, court-admissible NMAC data sets, graphic representations, and analytical capabilities designed to ensure safety in the sky and on the ground.
Vendor agnostic, AAP-NMAC fuses UAV track data with manned aircraft track data to clearly identify and categorize close approaches and near midair collisions.
Identify and Classify sUAS–Aircraft Encounters
- Areas of encounter risk
- Lateral and vertical encounter separation distances
- sUAS operator compliance with operational and altitude restrictions
- Land use, weather, time of day, and GIS layers relating to critical infrastructure
What others are saying
Testimonials
“URSA provides the analytics that feeds an evidentiary chain that enables administrators to address issues. This information is absolutely necessary for safety in the national airspace and also for the protection of critical infrastructure.”
“URSA provided a streamlined method of combining and analyzing multiple types of data from a variety of sources, enabling us to better understand potential safety implications of sUAS operations in low-altitude airspace.”
“URSA’s work is groundbreaking.”
“URSA allows us to break down problems individually and look at each component rather than just relying on evaluating data independently — we can see how it all interacts together.”
Download the Report
ASSURE sUAS Traffic Analysis: Initial Annual Report
In order for the FAA to maintain the safety of the NAS and accommodate new types of UAS operations, it is important to monitor the effectiveness of existing UAS regulations and forecast future UAS integration needs. URSA conducted a one-year study of UAV activity in the Houston metropolitan area from August 2021 through August 2022.
Get in Touch
Interested in URSA's airspace awareness capabilities? Let us know.
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