SINGAPORE – Ecuador-based company Latitude Aerospace Solutions (LAS) and Singapore-based drone navigation software company Airspace Localization & Avoidance
System (ALAS) have entered into a partnership to establish the first UAS Traffic Management (UTM) System in South America, primarily for disaster relief.
Aiming to utilize ALAS as a tool for the fleet management of UAVs, LAS CEO Mr. Jorge Pantoja said, “from our experience in the field and the increasing popularity and availability of unmanned aircraft to the public, we think that ALAS with its UTM system brings a tool that will aid countries, like Ecuador, to manage their airspace during a natural disaster where the use of consumer and professional drones overlap.”
LAS, a drone manufacturer, operator and services provider, plays an important role in Ecuador and the region when a natural disaster strikes. “With ALAS, we are able to simultaneously navigate our fleet of drones across different regions in a safe and efficient manner and, therefore, provide better services in scenarios such as the recent earthquake”, he continued. Given the recent occurrence of a severe 7.8 magnitude earthquake in April this year, affecting the regions of Manta, Pedernales and Portoviejo in Ecuador and accounting for more than 600 casualties, the use of UAVs for the inspection of disaster sites will contribute significantly to future disaster relief work.
Dr. Jaime Rubio Hervas, the CTO of ALAS, elaborated on the technical features of ALAS. “ALAS is a one-stop information awareness platform, which helps drone operators to navigate their fleet of vehicles to ensure they perform their missions safely and efficiently, avoiding other vehicles and obstacles along the way. Moreover, ALAS provides real-time tracking of all vehicles sharing the airspace as well as additional features for fleet management. LAS will make use of ALAS for path planning and real-time tracking, thus, enabling an optimized use of the airspace and providing with better services to the community.”
“With ALAS, we will be better equipped for such disasters in the future”, Mr. Pantoja added. LAS has previously clinched the top prize at the Entrepreneur League organized by the National Financing Corporation (CFN) of Ecuador amongst 4189 participants whilst ALAS have been successfully demonstrated to 60 delegates from 20 different civil aviation authorities at the AsiaPacific RPAS Symposium held last month of May in Singapore.