Altitude Angel and Inmarsat to offer air traffic management for unmanned aerial vehicles

Altitude Angel, the world’s leading UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) technology provider, and Inmarsat, the world leader in global mobile satellite communications, today announced a collaboration to develop and deliver advanced flight tracking and management capability for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones.

The two companies will build on Altitude Angel’s GuardianUTM platform to jointly develop a ‘Pop-Up UTM’ capability that can be deployed anywhere it is required to manage Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) UAV flights, without the need for ground-based communications infrastructure. By utilising Inmarsat’s sector-leading global network of satellites and leveraging its substantial experience in Air Traffic Management (ATM) communications, Altitude Angel’s Pop-Up UTM can be accessed rapidly and deployed worldwide.

The Pop-Up UTM will be developed initially to address the unmanned traffic management needs of blue light emergency services and first responders who need aerial surveillance rapidly with little notice, with a commercial, industry-focussed product to follow soon after. Through this technology, emergency services will be able to remotely manage UAVs, increasing their range of safe operations in mixed airspace of manned and unmanned vehicles.

Anthony Spouncer, Inmarsat Aviation’s Senior Director of UAVs & UTM, said: “We are excited to partner with Altitude Angel on this ground-breaking technology, which allows UAV flights to operate quickly, efficiently and safely. Inmarsat is uniquely positioned to act as a catalyst for the safe and rapid growth of the UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) sector due to our state-of-the-art global satellite network, decades of experience in keeping aircraft safe through communications, navigation and surveillance services, and relationships with ATM providers worldwide. We also bring first-hand experience of working with international aid organisations to deliver emergency communications in remote areas.”

Phil Binks, Altitude Angel, Head of Air Traffic Management, added: “The ability to almost instantly ‘pop-up’ safe, secure and fully operational UTM platforms in any environment, at any time, will give first responders, blue light services and aid organisations a valuable tool that could save countless lives. Altitude Angel and Inmarsat, in developing ‘Pop-Up UTM’, will be able to bring connectivity, clarity and automated air traffic control services for UAVs in even the most challenging of circumstances.”

In order to provide emergency services and first responders with the ability to have a single source point-of-truth where UAVs and piloted aviation can be co-ordinated on the same platform, Altitude Angel is able to adapt existing services to work on higher latency/lower bandwidth networks and enable ‘mode switching’ to ensure a robust communications link with deployed vehicles is always maintained.