How do you keep small drone aircraft safe in the world’s busiest national airspace? One idea is to have them use cellphone networks to feed data back to an air traffic control system made just for drones.
A startup called Airware is working with NASA on a project exploring how to manage the swarms of commercial drones expected to start appearing in U.S. skies. The four-year program will create a series of prototype air traffic management systems and could shape how widely commercial drones can be used. Airware’s main business is selling control software and hardware to drone manufacturers and operators.
The plan is for the program to evolve from something very basic, and internet-based, to something much more complex and integrated:
Later phases of the project will build more sophisticated systems that can actively manage drone traffic by sending out commands to drones in flight. That could mean directing them to spread out when craft from multiple operators are flying in the same area, or taking action when something goes wrong, such as a drone losing contact with its operator, says Jonathan Downey, CEO of Airware.
If a drone strayed out of its approved area, for example, the system might automatically send a command that made it return to its assigned area, or land immediately. The commands could vary depending on the situation — such as how close the drone is to a populated area — or the size and weight of the aircraft. . . . Ultimately, NASA wants its system to do things like automatically steer drones out of the way of a crewed helicopter that unexpectedly passes through.
This sounds ambitious, but ultimately workable. We especially like the fact that this takes a technological, rather than a regulatory, approach to the problem. The commercial potential of drones will never be realized if operators have to file a flight plan for every commercial flight, and remain in contact with ATC while in flight.
Another report on the project can be found, here.