We wanted to know more about some of the speakers and panelists at his year’s AUVSI EXPONENTIAL, which takes place May 8 – 11 in Dallas. Next up is Tyler Collins, VP of Airspace Services – LATAS at PrecisionHawk , who will be presenting a session on BVLOS and the FAA Pathfinder Program.
Tyler heads product development and partnership initiatives for PrecisionHawk’s LATAS platform, a low altitude traffic and airspace safety platform, which has received significant interest as a means to encourage widespread adoption of UAVs through the FAA Pathfinder Program and the NASA UTM project.
1. It looks like you wanted to get into the UAS industry already when you were at university – what sparked this interest ?
Aviation has fascinated me ever for as long as I can remember. This amazement drove me to go to university to study professional aviation flight with the dream of becoming an airline pilot. While I was at Indiana State University, the school introduced the first collegiate UAS program. At this time UAS was still a very new concept, but as a technologist I became fascinated with the intersection of aviation and computers. I was sold.
2. Are you a hobby drone flyer yourself ?
Growing up I used to fly remote control airplanes. Imagine a model airplane with an 8 foot wingspan powered by a weed eater engine. I built these with my father and flew them on the weekend. I guess this modelling and remote piloting naturally set me up to work in the drone world.
3. What services does Precision Hawk provide ? Who would be a typical client ?
PrecisionHawk provides end to end platform to the enterprise markets. We primarily focus on the agriculture, energy, construction and insurance markets where we can provide direct business value through our aerial technology. This enterprise focus is what actually drove us to focus on safety during flight. Drones now outnumber manned aircraft in the US nearly 5:1. We have to ensure that we safely integrate drones into the airspace. This has led to the development of our LATAS system, which has the capability to serve as a foundational component to a future drone air traffic control system.
4. What is the FAA Pathfinder programme and what is your involvement in it ?
The FAA Pathfinder program was started in 2015 to create three private public partnerships with the drone industry with the mandate of safely enhancing the operations that drones can conduct. PrecisionHawk was selected to focus on flying drones in an extended visual line of sight construct. Meaning that you cannot see the drone while it’s flying. We are using tracking technologies like LATAS to mitigate risk during flight operations so we can get to a point where anyone can fly drones at long distances and beyond line of sight.
5. Tell us about the presentation on BVLOS you will be making at AUVSI Xponential
I am presenting a background on the work that we have done over the past two years of the Pathfinder program. We have conducted a significant amount of research while flying drones beyond line of sight. I will be discussing the next steps that we are taking under Pathfinder and how we believe we can safely enable this advanced operations for others in the industry and how the FAA can set standards around beyond line of sight flight.