MSU-led unmanned aircraft alliance investigates ground collision scenarios

STARKVILLE, Miss. — The Federal Aviation Administration announced results today [April 28] from a major study to understand the risks of flying small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) over people, and Mississippi’s leading research university was a key contributor to the project.

Scientists at Mississippi State were charged with assessing what could happen if a drone struck a person’s head. They designed advanced, real-world simulations using supercomputing resources at the university’s High Performance Computing Collaboratory.

“We developed and validated human head-UAS computer models to determine the thresholds and severity levels for traumatic brain injury for different injury scenarios,” said Raj Prabhu, the lead investigator for the Mississippi State team and an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering.

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