Project Orion advances next-generation UTM by combining autonomy research with real-time hybrid simulation and field-validation infrastructure for dense, cooperative, and safety-critical airspace operations.
A New Approach to Cooperative Airspace
Future airspace systems will require more than high-level traffic planning. They must support dense, dynamic, and safety-critical operations involving autonomous vehicles that coordinate in real time under uncertainty. Project Orion addresses this challenge by developing technologies for next-generation UTM alongside the validation infrastructure needed to test them credibly.
OUR SOLUTION
From Vision to Testable Reality
TECHNOLOGY
What distinguishes Orion is not only its focus on autonomous cooperative airspace, but the infrastructure behind it. Orion combines distributed simulation, live field integration, operational digital twins, and real-time synchronization to enable realistic evaluation of autonomy and coordination strategies before and during deployment. This allows new UTM concepts and cooperative autonomy methods to be tested under conditions that are difficult to capture with conventional simulation alone, including dense traffic, degraded communications, dynamic urban constraints, and mixed operational environments.
CORE CAPABILITIES
1. Next-Generation UTM
Developing technologies for dense, coordinated, and scalable airspace operations beyond conventional traffic management assumptions.
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2. Hybrid Simulation and Field Testing
Linking live operations with distributed real-time simulation to evaluate system behavior under realistic and evolving conditions.
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3. Operational Digital Twins
Reconstructing mission-relevant environments and syncing real and simulated worlds to support credible testing, development, and validation.
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4. Cooperative Autonomy Evaluation
Testing coordination, tactical response, perception, and autonomy performance in scenarios involving uncertainty, communication constraints, and operational complexity.
