Revolution Aerospace (RevAero) Australia achieved a significant milestone in UAS Traffic Management (UTM) on March 21, 2024. After 15 months of collaboration between RevAero and Thales Australia, the team demonstrated a suite of strategic and tactical deconfliction scenarios within a collaborative, synthetic UTM ecosystem. Completing the research, development, and integration between RevAero and Thales is a key preparatory activity for a live trial of long-range middle- and last-mile cargo delivery by drone, scheduled to take place in the Whitsundays in June 2024. The Whitsundays trial will showcase end-to-end drone cargo delivery, featuring a variety of drone types, delivery distances, and scenarios in uncontrolled airspace, with the UTM system as key enabling technology used throughout.

The UTM demonstration conducted in Brisbane, was provided to local, state, and federal government agencies, as well as a diverse range of industry representatives including key Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). One of the more advanced technological developments is the routing and scheduling algorithms developed by RevAero, which coordinate and deconflict thousands of operations across multiple UTM Service Suppliers, while accounting for real-world factors such as delays before and during flights and maximising efficient use of the airspace.

RevAero’s UTM capability also incorporates constraint management and conformance monitoring services, which work seamlessly with RevAero’s low Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) Detect and Avoid (DAA) payload, designed to deconflict UAV from crewed aircraft. This allows RevAero to demonstrate real-time dynamic rerouting and tactical deconfliction, not just for UAV-UAV conflicts, but also conflicts between crewed aircraft and UAVs operating in close proximity within a UTM ecosystem.

Throughout the event, RevAero and Thales dived into the challenges encountered across a variety of UTM use cases, expanding on the utility of the innovative solutions that have been developed by the team. The enthusiastic participation and insightful enquiries from the guests underscored the potential application of RevAero’s system in solving their unique challenges.

Drone based e-commerce is already on our door-step and expected to scale within the next 5-10 years. And UTM will be critical for coordinating the movements of the thousands of movements per hour which comes with scale. While most UTM providers can show-case a drone flying from A-B, and basic capabilities such as platform and pilot registration and conformance monitoring, real progress will only happen when thousands of movements can be deconflicted before and during flight, without assuming away real-life challenges such as the accuracy which different drones can maintain their assigned track, and delays in take-offs or arrivals. RevAero and Thales have really pushed the technological boundaries on this front, and I am excited to see where we can take these important developments.
- Dr Terrence Martin, CEO and Co-Founder, Revolution Aerospace

Advanced UTM services are a necessary enabler for dense BVLOS operations into the very near future. As a global leader in UTM thought leadership, we’re excited to put that leadership into play with fully functional services. Our team has done some amazing work and we’re looking forward to offering our solutions in a commercial capacity in the very near future.
- Kristian Cruickshank, CTO and Co-Founder, Revolution Aerospace

Implementing drone-based cargo delivery for remote and regional Australian communities requires more than advanced drones. It requires a unified effort from corporations, governments, and regulators to build a supportive ecosystem. Along with our drones Revolution Aerospace is developing UTM and DAA systems that will help shape this future.
- Guy Morris, Project Director - EATP

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