Reliable Robotics detect‑and‑avoid tests

Reliable Robotics has been flying FAA-backed tests to show an automated Cessna Caravan can spot nearby aircraft and stay clear of them near an airport. (faa.gov) That problem is central to autonomous flight: a detect-and-avoid system is the aircraft’s version of “see and avoid,” the long-standing rule that pilots watch for other traffic and maneuver away. The Federal Aviation Administration says detect-and-avoid research helps build regulations, procedures, and certification paths for drone and uncrewed operations in the national airspace system. (faa.gov) In this project, Reliable Robotics tested a ground-based detect-and-avoid setup around Hollister Municipal Airport in California under a Federal Aviation Administration Broad Agency Announcement contract that ran from September 2024 through September 2025. The final report says the work assessed terminal-area operations, where aircraft are climbing, descending, and mixing with airport traffic. (faa.gov) The company’s test aircraft was a Cessna 208B Caravan, and the system combined a Collins Skyler radar, Reliable’s ground control systems, a Sagetech detect-and-avoid processor running Airborne Collision Avoidance System Xr, and a uAvionix C-band command-and-control radio. The Federal Aviation Administration report says the architecture fused cooperative traffic, such as transponder-equipped aircraft, with non-cooperative traffic from radar feeds. (faa.gov) Reliable flew 56 planned encounters over eight test days, and 52 of them reached the intended close point of approach for usable data. The Federal Aviation Administration said the flights covered en route, boundary, and terminal scenarios and included both crewed intruder aircraft and small uncrewed aircraft systems. (faa.gov) The immediate target was not passenger service. The Federal Aviation Administration report says the data was meant to validate technical standards work, including updates tied to Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics DO-365C and minimum operational performance standards work for Airborne Collision Avoidance System Xr. (faa.gov) That standards work matters because airport airspace is the hard part for autonomy. The General Aviation Manufacturers Association said in a 2024 roadmap that remotely supervised aircraft will need communications, navigation, surveillance, and separation tools that work from entry into service, not only in cruise flight but in busy terminal environments. (gama.aero) Reliable has been building toward that case for several years. In 2023, the company said it flew an uncrewed Cessna 208B Caravan with a remote pilot supervising from a control center about 50 miles away, and in 2024 it announced a National Aeronautics and Space Administration contract for more airport-area demonstration flights and contingency-management testing. (aerotime.aero) (reliable.co) The company has also framed the Federal Aviation Administration detect-and-avoid campaign as certification groundwork for larger uncrewed and optionally piloted aircraft. Reliable said the flight-test data is intended to support certification of Airborne Collision Avoidance System X-based detect-and-avoid systems onboard uncrewed aircraft in the national airspace system. (reliable.co) The result is narrower than a launch announcement but more useful to regulators: a set of airport-area encounters, flown under Federal Aviation Administration oversight, that can be used to argue an automated aircraft can recognize traffic and keep its distance in the same airspace other aircraft already use. (faa.gov)