DOC NIST - Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS)-Stakeholder Workshop - MRAS

The Department of Commerce (DOC), through the General Services Administration (GSA), is conducting market research to support the Public Safety Communications Research Division (PSCR) under the Communications Technology Laboratory. The primary goal of this initiative is to advance technological developments in public safety communications, specifically focusing on Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS). The PSCR's UAS Research Program aims to foster innovation by engaging with public safety entities, government bodies, academia, and industry stakeholders. This collaborative approach seeks to address critical communication challenges faced by first responders during emergencies such as natural disasters and search-and-rescue operations.

The work being requested involves organizing a stakeholder workshop and conducting live flight-testing demonstrations. The purpose of these activities is to evaluate and enhance UAS communication capabilities for public safety applications. The workshop will gather insights from stakeholders who have firsthand experience with communication failures when using UAS in emergency scenarios. These discussions will inform the development of standardized, repeatable test methods that assess UAS performance against simulated communication sources.

In addition to stakeholder engagement, the project includes live flight testing using PSCR's established test methods. This testing will focus on various technological aspects such as payload versus flight time, flight endurance, image detection capabilities, non-cellular data relay systems, and secure navigation software. Other critical areas include indoor flight operations, 3D mapping technologies, wireless data gathering techniques, and optimizing data transmission methods like LTE or Wi-Fi. By addressing these areas, the project aims to overcome current technological and regulatory constraints that affect long-range communications and spectrum management.