Kongsberg Geospatial wins EOAMS contract
Kongsberg Geospatial has received a contract to produce an Emergency Operations Airspace Management System (EOAMS) for evaluation by Canadian government agencies for safely managing UAS at emergency and disaster scenes, the company announced on 18 September.
The contract was awarded under the Canadian Safety and Security programme as part of a project for Defense R&D Canada’s Centre for Security Science.
EOAMS is a portable display that interfaces with different local sensors, including radar and Automatic Dependence Surveillance–Broadcast receivers to give a clear picture of the airspace around disaster areas.
The systems is designed to enable first responders to safely use UAS to survey the area, without risking collision with other emergency aircraft, including water bombers or rescue and police helicopters. It would also provide a warning to first responders if unapproved UAS approach the area.
The new EOAMS will be based on Kongsberg Geospatial’s IRIS UAS airspace visualisation system. IRIS was developed for air traffic management display systems and for supporting flight operations for military UAS systems such as the US Navy Triton. The system has been developed for safely operating UAVs beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) and has been adopted by the FAA ASSURE group for use in research toward developing regulations for commercial BVLOS operations in the US.
Ranald McGillis, president of Kongsberg Geospatial, said: ‘With the EOAMS project, we have the opportunity to introduce some really exciting capabilities in a portable system that will help first responders use UAVs in new and effective ways to support emergency response efforts.’
The Canadian government is expected to begin EOAMS flight operations testing in the summer of 2018.
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