The new collaboration combines UNLV’s research and testing facilities with Terbine’s software, Terbine CEO David Knight wrote in an email to Government Technology. UNLV will contribute resources through its Advanced Engineering Building, including a drone aviary stocked with a fleet of drones of various sizes, launch pads and industrial-grade systems that allow them to operate and communicate. The university will also provide outdoor test sites across southern Nevada for land, air and marine trials.
“The technology that we will develop working with UNLV is intended to ensure that machines and people are working together in harmony, supported by secure real-time data and adaptive AI,” Knight said in a public statement.
The problem that UNLV and Terbine intend to solve is about logistics and interoperability: Warehouses may rely on robots to move goods internally, but those systems don’t usually connect to trucks or drones that handle transport outside the building. There have been efforts to bridge some of these gaps in places like Ohio and Indiana, where limited truck platooning pilots put a human driver in a lead vehicle that controls a second truck following behind. Drone deployments are also growing, for uses like mapping natural disaster fallout or responding to emergencies, but typically operate as standalone systems rather than feeding into a larger logistics chain.
Instead of treating each autonomous system as an isolated machine, Knight said in an email, the project between UNLV and Terbine envisions a coordinated ecosystem where one type of machine can easily hand off to another, and vehicle convoys can form dynamically to improve safety and efficiency. In June, Terbine announced its own software platform, STRATA, designed to facilitate this kind of synchronized system using agentic AI. The platform is being rolled out in phased deployments, according to the June news release.
“The technology that we will develop working with UNLV is intended to ensure that machines and people are working together in harmony, supported by secure real-time data and adaptive AI,” Knight said in a public statement.
In addition to the shared resource, according to a news release this week, the collaboration includes a promise to seek federal grants, state grants, projects and industry partnerships. Federal agencies like the Department of Transportation and Department of Defense are expected to issue grant opportunities for automated mobility projects beginning Oct. 1, Knight said. By pairing a Research 1 university with a newer tech company, the teams aim to compete for Small Business Innovation Research programs and National Science Foundation funding.
