Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

NASA Selects Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi to Test Drones in Urban Traffic Management

  • 02/19/19

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX – As more drones take to the skies, whether for business, leisure, emergency response, or package delivery, we need to make sure safety and efficiency are two key priorities.  

To ensure that safety, NASA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) project selected the Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence & Innovation at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi to test drone traffic management. The Island university is one of only two test sites selected nationwide.

“The Lone Star Team is proud to have been selected by NASA to work on such critical testing efforts,” says Mike Sanders, acting executive director of the Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence & Innovation. “This series of tests is a critical step in enabling the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems within an urban environment. We look forward to working with NASA’s Ames Research Center, the City of Corpus Christi and its first responders, the Corpus Christi International Airport, the Port of Corpus Christi, as well as the many partners across Texas and the United States.”

The Lone Star team plans to start testing this summer and will focus on drone communication, collision avoidance, safe landing, services that support UAS operations, and safety in an urban landscape.

This year marks the fourth and final chapter in a series of testing drone technology, with each year increasing in complexity, according to NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.

“Our (program) represents the most complicated demonstration of advanced UAS operating in a demanding urban environment that will have been tested to date,” says Ronald Johnson, NASA UTM project manager. “For the commercial drone industry to really advance, they need to see the results of this testing to understand the opportunities and challenges posed by flying in an environment where communications, GPS navigation, micro weather, tall buildings, and community acceptance all present hurdles to everyday, safe operation.”

NASA’s UTM project works closely with the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct field demonstrations of small unmanned aircraft systems to fully and safely access low-altitude airspace in support of civil and business opportunities.

The UTM project is under the Airspace Operations and Safety Program within the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, with researchers at NASA’s Ames, Glenn, and Langley research centers.

For more information about Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence & Innovation at A&M University-Corpus Christi, please visit http://lsuasc.tamucc.edu or contact Communications Specialist III Michelle Villarreal Leschper at 361/825-4039.

For more information about NASA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management, visit www.nasa.gov/ames/utm.

Featured

  • Rethinking K-12 Schools as a Continuous Learning Experience

    Most students move through three or more separate facilities during their K-12 journey, yet the built environments they encounter at each stage have traditionally been designed in isolation, with little continuity in spatial language, learning philosophy, or physical resources. Each new school is a reset with different layouts, learning models, expectations, and ways of moving through a building. The next generation of school design is making the case that the first day of kindergarten and the last day of high school can and should feel connected through common support systems and infrastructure in the physical environment.

  • Planning with Clarity: Using AI to Make Better Campus Decisions, Not Just Better Designs

    Higher education leaders are being asked to make increasingly high-stakes decisions about campus facilities amid greater uncertainty than ever before. Social and economic pressures, shifting enrollment, and evolving learning models compete with growing deferred maintenance needs to strain even the most robust infrastructure budgets.

  • Virginia Tech Tops Out New College of Engineering Building

    Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., recently celebrated the topping out of Mitchell Hall, which will soon stand as the largest College of Engineering building on campus, according to a news release. The university partnered with Skanska on the 285,500-square-foot facility, which has an expected completion date of winter 2028.

  • Children walking along bright school corridor with motion blur

    How Next-Gen Design Is Reshaping the Student Experience

    The environments where students learn play a crucial role in shaping their growth in and out of the classroom. By centering design on well-being, flexibility, and purpose, districts can ensure their facilities remain vibrant community assets for many years to come.