UAH wins FAA grant to help drone responses in disasters

HUNTSVILLE — Efforts to better coordinate drone responses to natural and human-made disasters have landed the University of Alabama in Huntsville a three-year, $828,070 grant. It is the second largest in a group recently awarded by the Federal Aviation Administration.

“This is a continuation of work UAH began with the FAA in disaster response starting a few years ago,” said Jerry Hendrix, director of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program at the Rotorcraft Systems Engineering and Simulation Center at UAH. “Our progress to date has defined new first responder UAS operating procedures for disaster support, and we have begun exercises in these new procedures and checklists in mock events in Alabama, Vermont, North Carolina and New Mexico.”

UAH will collaborate with Kansas State University, New Mexico State University, the University of Vermont and North Carolina State University. The work will focus on procedures to integrate UAS operators from the departments of Interior and Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Local and state disaster preparedness and emergency response organizations will also be involved to ensure proper coordination during emergencies.

The FAA provided funds to five universities in total in this third round of Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence (ASSURE) grants, which brings the total to 20 grants valued at $21 million for fiscal year 2022. UAH is a charter member of ASSURE.

“This grant is a result of the leadership of ASSURE at Mississippi State University and their continued confidence in UAH,” Hendrix said.

Researchers will perform additional rounds of exercises and events to drill down into extensive coordination details for the disaster response process, Hendrix said.

“The results will help inform requirements, technical standards and regulations needed to enable disaster preparedness and emergency response and recovery operations for UAS,” Hendrix said. “This research will also develop a database with data collected during the project to be analyzed to produce various key performance measures and metrics that characterize overall pilot proficiency in a flight environment.”