Michigan Awards $1.7 Million to 12 Drone Projects, From Organ Delivery to Police DFR

Michigan is putting state money into commercial drone work. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office announced $1.7 million in grants for 12 advanced air mobility (AAM) pilot projects. Most are in Detroit, with others in Ann Arbor, Traverse City, Battle Creek and the Upper Peninsula town of Calumet. The projects include organ transport, power line inspection, a drone-as-first-responder program and new airspace management tools. For Part 107 pilots, the list is a good guide to where paid drone work is heading.

Who got funded

The Office of Future Mobility and Electrification, part of the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, chose the projects through the Michigan Mobility Funding Platform, which NextEnergy runs. The individual awards are:

• Blueflite, $245,000 (Ann Arbor): drone organ delivery trials with M-Air, the University of Michigan’s outdoor flight lab. Blueflite also got $70,000 in Detroit to test a vertical tube system that moves packages from rooftop drop points to the right floor.
• Lamarr AI, $230,000 (Detroit): AI-assisted thermal scans of about 2 million gross square feet of downtown buildings, checking façade safety and energy loss.
• ResilienX, $200,000 (Battle Creek): its ORION-X platform, starting with a drone-as-first-responder program for the Battle Creek Police Department.
• CENSYS Technologies, $170,000 (Traverse City): power line inspections by drone.
• General Orbit, $150,000 (Detroit): magnetic navigation for drones flying where GPS is degraded or jammed.
• Wolverine Radar, $136,000 (Detroit): satellite-based hazard warnings for drone route planning.
• Birdstop and ESSPI, $110,000 each (Detroit): Birdstop will use drones on self-charging perches to count open truck-parking spots around the clock. ESSPI will build real-time oversight for medical drone deliveries.
• Future Flight Global, $104,000 (Detroit): working with TruWeather Solutions and Bedrock Detroit to add street-level wind data to the city’s digital twin for mission planning.
• Westwood AI, $100,000 (Calumet): AI-assisted drone data capture for land and infrastructure surveys.
• Airspace Link, $80,000 (Detroit): a UAS traffic management service as Detroit’s low-altitude airspace gets busier.

Several Detroit projects will run inside the city’s Transportation Innovation Zone. The state says the awards carry out Executive Directive 2025-4, the AAM strategy Whitmer launched in July 2025. That strategy is designed to line up with the federal drone executive orders issued in June 2025.

Why it matters beyond Michigan

None of these grants is large on its own. Together, though, they show where state governments expect drone jobs to come from. Inspection, public safety, medical logistics and airspace services make up most of the list. Package delivery to consumers is a small part of it, which is notable while the big delivery companies face local pushback in places like Massachusetts.

The grants also lean on the federal integration push that’s still incomplete. Several projects involve long-range or automated flights, and those depend on BVLOS approvals. The FAA’s Part 108 BVLOS rule has been under White House review since July and isn’t final yet. Until it is, projects like these need waivers, exemptions or other case-by-case FAA approvals.

What this means for drone pilots

• Inspection skills are in demand. Thermal building scans, power line work and infrastructure surveys made up a large share of the money. Pilots who can fly close to structures and deliver clean, repeatable data have an advantage.
• DFR programs need pilots and visual observers. Battle Creek joins a growing list of police departments building DFR programs, and those programs depend on trained remote pilots, whether officers or contractors.
• Learn how the airspace tools work. UTM services, wind modeling and GPS-denied navigation are being tested in Detroit now. Knowing how they connect to LAANC and future BVLOS rules will help you bid on this kind of work.
• The certificate comes first. Every commercial operation on this list starts with a remote pilot certificate. If you want to bid on work like this, our Part 107 course is the place to start.

The state hasn’t published timelines for each project. Watch for flight activity in Detroit and Battle Creek over the coming months.

Sources: Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity; sUAS News; mlive; Crain’s Detroit Business; Reginfo.gov (Part 108 review status).

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