The highlights from OAIRE’s recent trip to AUVSI’s annual Xponential conference in Detroit

The Association of Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International recently hosted its annual Xponential conference in Detroit, bringing together leaders in uncrewed systems, robotics and autonomous technologies.

The Oklahoma Aerospace Institute for Research and Technology attended the event to develop relationships and assess how OAIRE, Oklahoma State University, and the state of Oklahoma could further cement their positions as leaders in the industry.

After returning to Stillwater, Dr. Jamey Jacob, executive director of OAIRE, and Jeremy Fernandez, OAIRE’s Emerging Aerospace Collaboratory manager, shared their key takeaways from the event and how OAIRE is uniquely positioned to help shape the future in vital areas of autonomous vehicles.

Cargo delivery

Jacob: Right now industry is waiting for the Federal Aviation Administration to release a set of rules to govern beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) operation of unmanned vehicles, known as Part 108.

As it stands now, operators must fly under 400 feet and maintain a visual line of sight with their vehicle to operate within regulations, unless an exemption or waiver is received. The Part 108 rules will break down those barriers and allow operators to be a mile away or 100 miles away and still have a legal means of operating their vehicles. This is what is necessary to make the industry economically viable for practical applications. Imagine if Amazon or Doordash could only deliver to you if you live within visual site of a warehouse or Taco Bell.

However, that requires a lot of systems and integration with detect-and-avoid capabilities. That's been one area that we've been really focused on with our research at the Osage and Choctaw Nation test sites, and more recently, the Cherokee Nation Hospital, testing medical supply delivery under these BVLOS rules.

Once these rules are in place, I think Oklahoma is really ahead of the game in terms of what we’re doing and how these systems integrate into the BVLOS environment.

Counter UAS

Jacob: Counter UAS applications are another really big sector that we saw at AUVSI. We've been doing research and testing in this area for years on the defense side, both at home and abroad. However, these capabilities are becoming more prevalent on the civilian side for critical infrastructure, such as airports and power plants.

As these systems get out into the airspace, how do you protect the airspace? If folks are trying to use these unmanned systems for nefarious scenarios, whether you're trying to deliver illicit drugs into a prison or you're trying to create chaos in a stadium full of people, you have to have these counter UAS systems operating to be able to detect, identify and defeat these threats.

In fact, in a few months, OAIRE will be hosting a Counter UAS Summit in Oklahoma City, which will bring together leaders from the defense industry, Homeland Security, the National Guard, police, etc., to discuss new developments in counter UAS and how we continue to keep airspace safe.

Emerging Aerospace Collaboratory

Fernandez: One phrase perfectly sums up the goal of the Emerging Aerospace Collaboratory: None of us are as strong as all of us.

The purpose of this consortium is to help create a collaborative environment where industry leaders can connect with each other to help solve problems in a faster, more efficient way. For instance, if a vehicle manufacturer is looking for U.S.-made electric motors, we can use our network of industry partners to connect the manufacturer to a consortium member that can provide the motors needed; challenges meet solutions.

We currently have 60 active members of the consortium and over 700 others in our network of industry partners we can connect to others.

Xponential provided a great environment to further develop relationships with other industry leaders, and we even have a few that have begun the onboarding process to join the consortium.

The consortium is a great resource for our partners, but it also provides OAIRE access to potential partnerships or research collaborations that can help develop new solutions to advanced air mobility challenges.

Hybrid propulsion

Jacob: The final thing I think worth mentioning is hybrid propulsion. So, there's a lot of talk about the electrification of vehicles. All the large-scale advanced air mobility platforms are electric. And those are great drivers for both innovative configurations and the democratization of the airspace, but they're not very practical because of the energy density of batteries — batteries take up a lot of space and weigh a lot in comparison to their energy output. This hybrid propulsion area is one we've been working on for a while now, well over a decade. How do we take hybrid propulsion systems that use hydrocarbons or hydrogen, like you see in some hybrid cars, and place them in unmanned vehicles, especially aircraft?

There's been renewed interest in this now that leaders see new applications for unmanned vehicles on the horizon and the framework for BVLOS governing rules being worked on, but recognized now that we need to have more practical energy solutions. Hybrid propulsion capabilities are something else we have a headstart on, as far as research and testing, and something that's going to be a renewed focus for us moving forward, particularly working with OSU faculty and the Hamm Institute.