Six universities across the United States are slated to receive a total of $3.3 million in federal grants for research, education and training involving drones, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao says.
In an announcement last Thursday, Chao said that the grants were designed to aid the development of “a greater array of innovative strategies to more effectively deploy drones during emergency response situations.”
The money is being awarded through the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) Air Transportation Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), as drones are sometimes called.
The program, also known as the Alliance for System Safety of UAS Through Research Excellence (ASSURE), is a cost-sharing partnership involving members of academia, government and industry. It allows the FAA to work with members of the center and others on research in airspace and airport planning and design, the environment and aviation safety.
The United States has 1.65 …
