ANRA Reminisces About 2022

by Leida Mejia on January 11, 2023

ANRA Technologies’ story this year was one of exciting progress, momentum and growth. For this year in review, we curated the most significant product news, partnership announcements, project initiatives, industry activities and media coverage that support our core mission of powering uncrewed aircraft operations at scale.

In 2022, ANRA became a truly global company with offices in Washington DC, London, Tallinn, and New Delhi. We look forward to another banner year as we continue our growth and hope you will join us for the ride!

Top Product News

ANRA Launches Aussie SORA-Mate App project with Hover UAV: ANRA and Hover UAV recently partnered to design and test SORA-Mate, a mobile and desktop risk assessment tool that streamlines BVLOS approvals in Australia. Based upon the JARUS Specific Operational Risk Assessment (SORA) framework, SORA-mate will leverage ANRA’s extensive family of airspace and mission management services to comply with Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) requirements for complex drone operations. Drone operators will get approvals faster, CASA workload will lighten, and all stakeholders will have a common framework to assess risk and improve aviation safety. SORA-Mate’s simplified process will significantly benefit the Aussie drone community. Complete details of the project are available in the press release here.

New York Power Authority: After a rigorous selection process, ANRA won a contract to provide Mission Manager software for the New York Power Authority (NYPA), the largest state-owned energy company in the US. This five-year contract will allow ANRA to provide technology enabling NYPA to utilize robotics for use cases ranging from transmission line inspections to power restoration after a disaster. ANRA’s software will allow NYPA to manage its robots safely, reducing risk for frontline employees that might be exposed to hazardous conditions when using traditional methods of inspecting NYPA infrastructure and monitoring equipment. This technology takes a giant step forward in shared situational awareness across the enterprise and with government stakeholders, increasing expectations for reduced response time and improved workflows for everyday projects and emergency response.

Top R&D, Testing, Evaluations, and Demonstrations News

ANRA Gets Airborne in Europe and US. ANRA was a partner in a European Union consortium funded by the SESAR Joint Undertaking (JU) to conduct research for Urban Air Mobility in project AMU-LED. This was the first time an electric Vertical Takeoff and Land aircraft was managed using ANRA’s airspace management technology (U-space) during live flight operations. ANRA is the only airspace management company supporting operations for the world’s two largest UAM test efforts, the EU’s Very Large Demo and NASA’s National Campaign.

ANRA Scores FAA Broadcast Remote ID Project: ANRA won a contract to demonstrate the ability to collect, aggregate, and retransmit Broadcast Remote ID (B-RID) messages in a USS network. This FAA-funded project will test and validate advanced air traffic management functions for UAS to operate safely in conformance with the FAA Remote Identification Final Rule requiring remote identification of uncrewed aircraft in the US airspace. ANRA is undertaking this project in partnership with the University of Nevada – Nevada Autonomous and uAvionix. For more information on the project, read our blog post here.

Port Security: The Virginia Institute for Space Flight & Autonomy (VISA) and the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) selected ANRA for the Port Security and Emergency Response Unmanned Systems (UxS) Demonstration Project. The team led by ANRA Technologies and veteran-owned business TRIAD Drones and non-profit AIRT offered a UxS (Air, Sea, and Land) Port Mission Manager with an integrated and distributed common operating picture for this project. ANRA solution was powered by a single software platform called SAFEport, connecting UxS for Port Security and Emergency Response (PS&ER) missions.

U-ELCOME: ANRA Technologies is proud to be selected by Europe’s Single European Sky’s ATM Research (SESAR) for a Joint Undertaking Digital Sky Demonstrator to accelerate the market uptake of solutions for greener aviation and urban air mobility (UAM). ANRA is a partner in an EU consortium for a project called U-ELCOME that will conduct demonstrations in various operational environments and locations across Spain, Italy, and France over a span of three years. The demonstration activities will address the air traffic management system interface to ensure safe and fair access to airspace for all airspace users.

ANRA wins FAA Project for Ground-Based Sense and Avoid: ANRA was selected to be the UAS Traffic Management provider for an FAA project at Virginia Tech to conduct research related to drone traffic management, integrating the Skylar radar from Raytheon Intelligence & Space. For this project, ANRA FUSION consumed data feeds from the Skyler AESA radar and data transmitted from cooperative aircraft flying within the USS network to develop a well-defined and known airspace environment. ANRA partnered with RI&S and other program participants, including Virginia Tech, SkyGrid and Tomorrow.io, to test technologies that supported scalable, safe and compliant BVLOS drone operations at low altitudes. Read more about it in this article published by Unmanned Airspace.

FAA SETIS: ANRA is on two winning teams (Small and Large Businesses) for the SETIS portfolio (Systems Engineering and Technical Innovative Solutions). SETIS provides a broad range of research, service analysis, strategic planning, systems engineering, technical, financial, and programmatic support services, and other aviation-related support services that will enable the FAA to accomplish its modernization, Mission Support, and other aviation-related mission objectives. The SETIS contracts were awarded in June 2022 and run through 2032 if all options are exercised.

Future of Flight Challenge Phase 3: ANRA Technologies was awarded two United Kingdom Research and Innovation contracts for Future of Flight Challenge Phase 3. ANRA and consortium partners will support projects CALEUS and BLUEPRINT over the next two years. This effort will transform how the UK connects people, delivers goods and provides services by accelerating the acceptance of these vehicles into service by encouraging businesses to share knowledge and resources.

SHEPHERD: ANRA is pleased to be a partner on project SHEPHERD, a two year project funded by the EASA European Union Aviation Safety Agency public contract “Horizon Europe Project: UAS standard.” The main objective of SHEPHERD is to build upon the work performed by the AW-Drones Project and complement the analysis previously performed to technically assess the suitability of the standards listed by AW-Drones.

Top Company News

ANRA gets a letter from Pete Buttigieg: ANRA Technologies Founder and CEO, Amit Ganjoo, was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, via a signed letter, to the Advanced Aviation Advisory Committee (AAAC). Formerly known as the Drone Advisory Committee (DAC), the AAAC provides the FAA with independent advice and recommendations to safely and efficiently integrate uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) and advanced air mobility (AAM) technologies into the National Airspace System (NAS). For more information on the AAAC and Amit’s appointment, you can read the blog post here.

Beyond the Beachhead – Establishing a Permanent EU Base of Operations: ANRA established ANRA Technologies OÜ, a new Public Limited-Liability Company in Tartu, Estonia. Based in the European Union, it will expand on our UK presence, enabling ANRA to continue developing its UAS technologies within a regulatory environment supportive of cooperative autonomous aircraft research, with a common goal of implementing routine uncrewed commercial aircraft operations at scale. For complete details, read the blog post here.

Top Webinar and Podcast Appearances

Europe’s U-space UTM Regulations – What Does it Mean?

Drone Radio Show with Amit Ganjoo

December 12, 2022

Drone Delivery: is Europe ready?

Drone Talks Academy

March 21, 2022

Top Media Coverage

ANRA Wins Contract for Broadcast Remote ID Demonstration

Inside Unmanned Systems

November 16, 2022

NYPA has a new tool to manage transmission inspection robots and drones