Robert Briggs is the chief engineer at Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP), an FAA-designated UAS test site and the lead of Virginia’s team in the BEYOND program. At MAAP, Robert leads engineering efforts including research in detect and avoid, uncrewed aircraft (UA) traffic management, and other enabling technologies for widespread UA operations. Robert led the development of MAAP’s operations over people (OOP) means of compliance (MOC) which became the first FAA-accepted OOP MOC in December 2021.

Robert joined MAAP in 2018, after working at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division as an uncrewed systems test engineer. Robert’s experience with research and testing covers a variety of uncrewed systems including, aerial, surface, ground and underwater vehicles. Before his work with the Navy, Briggs earned his master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering at Virginia Tech, where his thesis research focused on the novel design of a self-mooring autonomous underwater vehicle.

Robert is a member of the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International and contributor to several standards organizations, including ASTM and RTCA.