AIRO Advances Air Collision Avoidance Technologies Through MACADA Initiative With Subsidiary Jaunt Air Mobility Canada

AIRO Group has con­firmed its active role in the MACADA (Matu­ri­ty of Col­lab­o­ra­tive Avoid­ance Devel­op­ment Approach) ini­tia­tive, a strate­gic research and devel­op­ment effort focused on enhanc­ing air col­li­sion avoid­ance sys­tems for eVTOL air­craft and Unmanned Aer­i­al Vehi­cles (UAVs).

The project is car­ried out as a col­lab­o­ra­tion between Thales Cana­da, Ver­tiko Mobil­ité and Jaunt Air Mobil­i­ty Cana­da, which is an AIRO Group sub­sidiary ded­i­cat­ed to advanc­ing safe and sus­tain­able urban air mobil­i­ty.

MACADA address­es key chal­lenges in inte­grat­ing advanced air­craft into shared air­space, includ­ing con­nec­tiv­i­ty, nav­i­ga­tion plan­ning, infor­ma­tion shar­ing, and oper­a­tional pre­dictabil­i­ty.

The ini­tia­tive is designed to mature a sys­tem capa­ble of detect­ing, nav­i­gat­ing, and avoid­ing air con­flicts, with a strong empha­sis on:

• Ener­gy man­age­ment opti­miza­tion
• Real­is­tic oper­a­tional sce­nario sim­u­la­tions
• Hard­ware pro­to­typ­ing
• Flight test­ing to val­i­date sys­tem per­for­mance

Eric Côté, Pres­i­dent of Jaunt Air Mobil­i­ty Cana­da, said: “We are incred­i­bly proud to be part of the MACADA ini­tia­tive. This col­lab­o­ra­tion with Thales Cana­da and Ver­tiko Mobil­ité reflects the strength of Cana­di­an aero­space inno­va­tion and our shared com­mit­ment to advanc­ing safe inte­gra­tion of new air­craft into the nation­al air­space.

“By devel­op­ing smarter detect-and-avoid sys­tems, we’re help­ing pave the way for opti­mized, shared air­space that ben­e­fits not only the indus­try but the gen­er­al pub­lic. This work com­ple­ments our efforts on the mid­dle-mile, medi­um-lift car­go drone we announced ear­li­er this year—another exam­ple of how Jaunt is con­tribut­ing to a more con­nect­ed and effi­cient future for air mobil­i­ty.”

This project advances the INSAT pro­gram by strength­en­ing its core pil­lars: air­craft archi­tec­ture, sys­tems inte­gra­tion, and oper­a­tional sup­port.

The col­lab­o­ra­tive team com­bines world-class exper­tise in avion­ics, aero­space sys­tems, and detect-and-avoid tech­nolo­gies, and togeth­er, are dri­ving inno­va­tion and ensur­ing seam­less inte­gra­tion and oper­a­tional readi­ness for next-gen­er­a­tion avi­a­tion solu­tions.

Cap­tain Joe Burns, CEO of AIRO, said: “MACADA rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant step for­ward in ensur­ing safe and effi­cient inte­gra­tion of UAVs and eVTOLs into shared air­space. This ini­tia­tive is not just about solv­ing a tech­ni­cal chal­lenge; it’s about lay­ing the ground­work for a ful­ly inte­grat­ed Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) ecosys­tem.

“Col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts like MACADA exem­pli­fy our com­mit­ment to inno­va­tion and our belief that mean­ing­ful progress in AAM requires part­ner­ships across indus­try and gov­ern­ment. This project is yet anoth­er piece of the puz­zle as we build a safer, smarter, and more sus­tain­able air mobil­i­ty future.”

As a key con­trib­u­tor to AIRO Group’s AAM strat­e­gy, Jaunt Air Mobil­i­ty Cana­da con­tin­ues to advance its mis­sion of deliv­er­ing safe, qui­et, and effi­cient air­craft for urban and region­al mobil­i­ty. Par­tic­i­pa­tion in MACADA rein­forces Jaunt’s com­mit­ment to inno­va­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion in shap­ing the future of flight.

Dr. Chir­in­jeev Kathuria, Exec­u­tive Chair­man of AIRO, added: “The MACADA ini­tia­tive marks anoth­er mile­stone in the advance­ment of AIRO’s elec­tric air mobil­i­ty busi­ness unit.

“It is incum­bent upon com­pa­nies in this space to help pave the path to safe operation—not just through tech­nol­o­gy, but through the frame­works that sup­port it. Our col­lec­tive team brings decades of expe­ri­ence work­ing close­ly on NextGen tech­nolo­gies, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion path­ways, and the inte­gra­tion and oper­a­tional par­a­digms that bring new trans­porta­tion sys­tems to life.”

Through a ver­ti­cal­ly inte­grat­ed mod­el and a dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed tech­nol­o­gy port­fo­lio, AIRO deliv­ers solu­tions across four high-growth seg­ments: Drones, Avion­ics, Train­ing, and Elec­tric Air Mobil­i­ty.