Thales and Kelly Hills Unmanned Systems are deploying a beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) network in Kansas to support agricultural drone operations.
Kelly Hills Unmanned Systems was awarded a USD 3 million contract by the Kansas Legislature in February to develop BVLOS technology for agricultural use. The network, developed with the Kansas Department of Agriculture, will initially support applications including crop spraying, scouting, fertilising and seeding. The companies say the project will also demonstrate how BVLOS operations can be scaled to other applications across the US national airspace system.
Thales will provide the airspace management infrastructure through its TopSky platform, which is used in more than 100 countries and manages approximately 40% of the world’s airspace.
The network is designed to allow agricultural drones to operate over extended distances without direct visual observation, while incorporating detect-and-avoid technologies to support safe operations around people, property and other aircraft.
The project builds on Thales’ work with North Dakota’s Vantis system, which supports BVLOS UAS operations. Thales recently announced its work on a secure FAA data enclave for UAS flight data as part of the North Dakota programme.
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(Image: Thales)