Airspace surveillance and alerting
Gizmatrix is a multi-node, ground-based surveillance and alerting system. It fuses sensors around a defined operating area into one shared airspace picture and alerts the operator when traffic approaches.
01 / How it works
Five steps, each with what Gizmatrix does and what the pilot does. Detect and avoid is the objective, and surveillance and alerting is the first step toward it.
STEP 01 / 05
STEP 02 / 05
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The remote pilot in command “is directly responsible for and is the final authority as to the operation” (14 CFR 107.19(b)).
02 / Simulated training
Each scenario plays in the Gizmatrix console on simulated data. Runs are training, not evidence.
03 / Foundation
Low-altitude airspace is getting busy. Public-safety programs, commercial delivery fleets, and recreational pilots increasingly share the same sky below 400 feet, alongside crewed aircraft that may not be broadcasting their position.
First responders want to send unmanned aircraft to an emergency ahead of the engine, and need a clear picture of the airspace around the flight to make the case for it.
The case starts in one place: you cannot manage what you cannot see. Decisions about the airspace should rest on measured evidence, not on assumptions.
01 / Evidence
BVLOS approvals are built on data. Gizmatrix is designed around a multi-node ground-based surveillance system, with COTS ground-based surveillance radar and acoustic sensing, to record the measurements a waiver case needs: detection range, tracking accuracy, and latency.
02 / Alerting
Gizmatrix is designed to alert the operator when a non-cooperative aircraft approaches the operating area, the way a traffic alert does. An explicit maneuver advisory to the served aircraft is the detect-and-avoid objective, and it comes only after the evidence supports it.
03 / Authority
Gizmatrix supplies the airspace picture; you run the mission. Airspace Safety Operators watch the surrounding airspace and pass alerts. The remote pilot in command is directly responsible for and is the final authority as to the operation. The service augments the pilot and does not replace them.
04 / Domains
Air is the first domain. Other unmanned domains are planned.
04 / The Picket Line
Gizmatrix is fed by Picket nodes: ground-based surveillance radar and acoustic sensors placed around a defined operating area, which together form the Picket Line.
In picture 5 / 5Identified 3 / 5All four layers: every track is detected, and the aircraft that broadcast are identified.
Switch layers off to see what each contributes. Orange marks traffic the picture cannot identify. Remote ID is a compliance and identification tool, not a source for air navigation or separation. Sensor layers are capabilities Gizmatrix is designed around.
05 / Who it serves
Public Safety
“Fly to the fire. We’ll watch the sky.”
Starting a Drone-as-First-Responder program should not require your department to become aerospace engineers. Gizmatrix is designed to give your program a monitored operating area and the recorded evidence a BVLOS waiver request draws on. You manage the 911 call. We watch the airspace around it and alert your pilot.
Talk to us about your DFR programcontact@gizmatrix.com
Integration
“Integrating the 400-foot frontier, safely.”
Gizmatrix does not propose a new method of air traffic control, and it does not replace pilot authority. Operations are confined to a defined operating area and begin within visual line of sight. Each step is designed to align with published standards, including ASTM F3442-25, and is documented before the next is requested.
06 / Training and the test range