Reliable Robotics, a leader in autonomous aircraft systems, announced a new partnership with NASA under a Space Act Agreement (SAA) to support the integration of large Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS). Through joint collaboration, NASA and Reliable Robotics will address emergent UAS capabilities for air cargo operations and air transportation at scale.

“The path to high-reliability uncrewed aircraft systems is through rigorous testing and validation,” said Shivanjli Sharma, Air Traffic Management – eXploration Project Manager at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “This collaboration underscores both Reliable Robotics’ and NASA’s commitment to advancing autonomous aviation safety and efficiency.” Under the SAA, Reliable will work with NASA to develop three major aircraft autonomy simulation activities: human-in-the-loop detect and avoid (DAA); lost command and control (C2) Link; and interactions as aircraft enter and depart airports. The research will assess the automation required for the safe and efficient integration of large numbers of UAS into national airspace for cargo operations at scale.

“Our joint work with NASA brings us closer to a future where autonomous aircraft integrate seamlessly with, and provide safety benefits to, the national airspace system,” said Robert Rose, CEO and Co-Founder, Reliable Robotics. “By working closely with NASA’s experts and its unique simulation capabilities, we can validate techniques and procedures that will be necessary in the future to improve the safety of UAS and operation of UAS at higher densities across airspaces.”

This comprehensive collaboration will include joint research, data collection, contributions to standards development, test planning, procedures development, system integration, and both human-in-the-loop (HITL) and fast-time simulations. The partnership will facilitate crucial information exchanges between Reliable Robotics and NASA, and comes on the heels of previous joint work to conduct extensive DAA testing to validate the use of existing surveillance radars to detect and avoid aircraft, and to collect surveillance radar data as part of NASA’s broad portfolio of work on Advanced Air Mobility. Additionally, Reliable Robotics is working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to demonstrate a viable, near-term, comprehensive DAA system for UAS in controlled and uncontrolled airspace, through all phases of flight, with the goal of collecting data to validate consensus standards.

Click here to learn more about Satellite terminals listed on SATNow