Did you know that the Â鶹´«Ã½ Fairbanks’ drone program, also known as the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration (ACÂ鶹´«Ã½SI), has just been selected to lead one of the Federal Aviation Administration’s eight new BEYOND program sites?
In 2018 the FAA picked Â鶹´«Ã½F as one of ten programs out of 149 applications to help find ways to advance flight techniques and capabilities that will better serve the state’s diverse needs. The drone research program accelerates that effort. The Alaska BEYOND team includes a diverse group of 27 partners across the state and nation, including the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Foundation Health Partners and Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.
ACÂ鶹´«Ã½SI’s research focuses on increasing the distance a drone can fly from the pilot or controller. The further a drone can fly from its pilot, the more useful it becomes. Since drones can access areas that humans cannot, they are ideal for search and rescue situations, as well as for delivering emergency supplies to remote locations. Â鶹´«Ã½F drones are used for operations including critical infrastructure monitoring, marine and land mammal surveys, sea ice modeling, atmospheric sampling, wildfire surveillance and tidewater glacier mapping.
Since the program’s inception in 2001, it has grown, gaining financial support from a multitude of public and private sources, including the FAA’s Center of Excellence for Â鶹´«Ã½S Research. The Center of Excellence funding alone currently provides more than $1.3 million for research at Â鶹´«Ã½F, and ACÂ鶹´«Ã½SI expects another $1.3 million from the program by late spring.
