IMSAR Low-SWaP Sense and Avoid Solution for eVTOL/UAM Platforms

The US Air Force, along with the commercial aerospace industry, are actively engaged in developing electric-powered Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL)/Urban Air Mobility (UAM) platforms capable of responding to disaster events, providing humanitarian aid, and performing logistics missions. IMSAR LLC, in partnership with Brigham Young University (BYU), proposes to provide a reliable, multi-functional Sense and Avoid (SAA) sensor solution that will allow these eVTOL/UAM platforms to safely perform Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations and to safely operate within the National Airspace System (NAS), even in densely populated, urban areas. Specifically, IMSAR proposes to use its high-Technology Readiness Level (TRL), low-Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP), multimode radar systems to further develop and test BYU’s already demonstrated avoidance algorithms and strategy. The proposed system will enable the host platform to avoid Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), other aircraft, birds, and ground obstructions by using multiple data inputs from the radar sensor and/or an onboard camera. IMSAR and BYU propose to use a crawl, walk, run approach that begins with a commercial-multicopter-mounted radar system for initial testing and eventually transitions to IMSAR’s high-performance, multimode radar system for eventual integration into an eVTOL/UAM platform as a payload sensor.