PENDLETON — Oregon’s UAS Accelerator has chosen seven startups as the first cohort of technology innovators.

The selection was made during a month’s time and the task was to whittle down the original unmanned aerial systems 25 applicants to seven finalists, according to Joseph Wyno, executive director of the Oregon UAS Accelerator.

“The hard part was getting the 25 excellent startup proposals down to seven,” he said. “That’s where we employed the expertise of our business and investment mentors to come in and determine how business-ready and how investor-ready they were.”

The finalists also had to show they were ready to employ the knowledge and expertise of Darryl Abling, manager of the Pendleton UAS Range, and the range team to test their innovation. Of the seven, two are from Oregon.

The seven that made the cut are Zing Drone Solutions of Sarasota, Florida; Phenix Solutions of McMinnville; Cloud UAS Payloads of Cambridge, Massachusetts; Zepher Flight Labs of Bingen, Washington; Aerial Industries PTE of Singapore; Cyphra Autonomy of Fenton, Missouri; and Rangair of Beaverton.

Wyno said the selection process included an AI algorithm that did a first pass, “to see if they actually meet the minimum criteria for the accelerator, then we engaged them in an interview process with our mentors.”

Proposals to match capability

He said part of the selection process was to make sure the project would match the technical capabilities available at the range.

“It’s my feeling we are the most capable range in the country to support a startup, and that’s why I think we’re synergistically aligned in how we can accelerate the startups to get them ready for the real world,” Wyno said.

Wyno provided details about the proposal from Rangair in Beaverton.

”They are pioneering airborne broadband Wi-Fi solutions for connectivity and modern tools for safety

teams in remote areas,” Wyno said.

“When we have a wildfire, for example, and firefighters get into remote areas, it’s very typical for them to not have any Wi-Fi connectivity or communication, which is critical in a situation like that.”

Wyno said Rangair has an innovative solution to fly drones equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity and broadband above those areas, “and it beams the Wi-Fi down to all the emergency services embedded to fight fires in that area.”

Joel Mulkey, Rangair Founder and CEO, said the Pendleton range will provide his company with just what he needs to develop and prove the technology.

“We need to fly between 4,000-8,000 feet above ground to get the right coverage out to folks where you’re working,” he said, “and you can’t test at those altitudes in any area legally, except on a test range. This will allow us to go out and fly at actual altitudes we’ll be operating in for our production use case, and run all our aviation and network tests that we need to.”

Mulkey’s company has three people, including himself.

“We’re excited,” he said. “This is pretty new.”

Drone designed as ‘copter

The other Oregon company chosen to participate, Phenix Solutions, of McMinnville, designs, develops and manufactures heavy-lift unmanned aircraft systems, company President and CEO Brian Riese said.

Riese said his Ultra 2XL aircraft is styled on a helicopter and is designed to lift up to 1,500 pounds.

“It will allow us to accelerate our flight testing,” Riese said about spending the summer at the Pendleton test range. “The attributes of the Pendleton range that are attractive to us are the facility and infrastructure to support that testing, and for our flight test staff it’s a nice environment for us to not only conduct those tests but to capture the data and the results so we can continue the progress in the flight testing regime of the Ultra 2XL.”

Wyno said an overarching goal of the program seems to be social as well as technical. The seven teams will be sharing much of the same work space and can help each other with problems that might arise.

“We hope they will build a bond of brotherhood among each other,” Wyno said. “To encourage that, we will have a session to bring together all our cohorts every week to talk about, ‘Here’s what I’m challenged with this week.’ We hope to have them potentially solve their challenges for each other.”

“I think it’s a real opportunity to share ideas, and share experiences,” Riese said. “Our approach at Phenix Solutions is a high tide raises all ships, and I’m looking forward to being a participant in this, learning from the others, and potentially assisting other companies in their development, if they would like that. I think that’s the whole intent and purpose behind establishing a cohort grant program such as this.”

“We’re going to be a bunch of folks working on adjacent problems, dealing with similar challenges,” Mulkey said. “When you’re part of an accelerator cohort like this, we’re going to help each other with our problems.”