{"id":37008,"date":"2026-11-02T21:28:41","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T21:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=37008"},"modified":"2026-11-02T21:28:42","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T21:28:42","slug":"michigan-governor-awards-1-7m-to-launch-12-advanced-air-mobility-projects-statewide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/aam-uam\/michigan-governor-awards-1-7m-to-launch-12-advanced-air-mobility-projects-statewide\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Michigan Governor Awards $1.7M to Launch 12 Advanced Air Mobility Projects Statewide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity\u2019s Office of Future Mobility and Electrification<\/a> (OFME) selected 12 projects that will deploy Advanced Air Mobility technologies across Michigan and demonstrate real-world use cases with the potential to scale, ranging in projects from organ and medical drone deliveries to safer powerline inspections and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMichigan is a leader in mobility innovation, focused on the next phase of technologies that improve how people, goods and essential services move,\u201d said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. \u201cThese 12 projects will put advanced air mobility technologies to work in communities across our state, creating opportunities for Michigan businesses, strengthening our innovation ecosystem and helping prepare our workforce for the jobs of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The awards advance Executive Directive 2025-4<\/a>, Michigan\u2019s whole-of-government strategy to expand the state\u2019s Advanced Air Mobility capabilities and support the safe integration and deployment of these technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMichigan\u2019s ability to connect an ecosystem of public and private partners to collaborate on deployments demonstrates our commitment to shared progress,” said Michigan Chief Mobility Officer Justine Johnson. “This collaboration pushes us to continuously challenge what it means to transform the future of mobility globally.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The projects were selected through a competitive process under the Michigan Mobility Funding Platform, which is administered and managed by NextEnergy. These projects will deploy statewide, building on Michigan’s growing network of real-world testing environments and mobility infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selected Projects<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Airspace Link<\/strong> \u2013 $80,000 (Detroit)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deploying an Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management service to improve drone safety and access as Detroit\u2019s low-altitude airspace becomes increasingly active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birdstop<\/strong> \u2013 $110,000 (Detroit)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monitoring truck parking availability 24\/7 with autonomous drones from self-charging perches, sending real-time open-space counts to drivers and freight operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blueflite<\/strong> \u2013 $70,000 (Detroit)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testing Tubular Network\u2019s automated vertical tube system to move packages from rooftop drone drop-off points to their intended floors within the Detroit Smart Parking Lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blueflite<\/strong> \u2013 $245,000 (Ann Arbor)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partnering with M-Air to pilot drone-enabled organ delivery operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CENSYS Technologies<\/strong> \u2013 $170,000 (Traverse City)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demonstrating drone-enabled power line inspections to improve utility infrastructure monitoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ESSPI<\/strong> \u2013 $110,000 (Detroit)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deploying a real-time oversight system for medical drone deliveries within Detroit\u2019s Transportation Innovation Zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future Flight Global<\/strong> \u2013 $104,000 (Detroit)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future Flight Global, in partnership with TruWeather Solutions and Bedrock Detroit, will integrate localized urban wind intelligence with Detroit\u2019s Digital Twin to evaluate its use in drone mission planning, safety risk management and operational decision-making. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

General Orbit<\/strong> \u2013 $150,000 (Detroit)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testing a magnetic navigation system for unmanned aircraft operating in GPS-degraded and GPS-denied environments within the Transportation Innovation Zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lamarr AI<\/strong> \u2013 $230,000 (Detroit)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deploying AI-powered thermal drone inspections across 2M gross square feet of privately owned downtown Detroit buildings to improve fa\u00e7ade safety and energy performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ResilienX<\/strong> \u2013 $200,000 (Battle Creek)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deploying ResilienX\u2019s ORION-X drone services platform in Battle Creek, beginning with a drone-as-first-responder program for the Battle Creek Police Department and with the long-term goal of supporting broader municipal and commercial applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Westwood AI<\/strong> \u2013 $100,000 (Calumet)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testing AI-assisted drone data capture to generate more accurate aerial information for land and infrastructure inspections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolverine Radar<\/strong> \u2013 $136,000 (Detroit) Testing a satellite-derived hazard warning system to improve UAV route planning within the Transportation Innovation Zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe breadth of funded activities demonstrates the real-world value being delivered by the strong public private partnerships that have been built through platforms like Michigan Central\u2019s Advanced Aerial Innovation Region,\u201d said Matt Whitaker, Director, Mobility Innovation Platform, Michigan Central. \u201cThese companies aren\u2019t just running one-off pilots, they are proving that when provided with the proper support and infrastructure, they are able to develop new-to-world capabilities that will bring value to organizations and residents throughout Michigan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDetroit has become one of the country\u2019s leading places to test new mobility technology and with these projects, that leadership now extends into our airspace,\u201d said Konner Petz, Head of Special Projects, City of Detroit Office of Mobility Innovation. \u201cThese pilots show how the state, the city and private partners can accelerate solving challenges with emerging technologies when working toward a shared goal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity\u2019s Office of Future Mobility and Electrification (OFME) selected 12 projects that will deploy Advanced Air Mobility technologies across Michigan and demonstrate real-world use cases with the potential to scale, ranging in projects from organ and medical drone deliveries to safer powerline inspections and beyond. \u201cMichigan is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[142,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aam-uam","category-michigan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37009,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37008\/revisions\/37009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}