NASA’s first-of-kind tests look to manage drones in cities
NASA’s first-of-kind tests look to manage drones in
cities
By SCOTT SONNER May 23, 2019
RENO, Nev. (AP) — NASA has launched the final stage of a
four-year effort to develop a national traffic management system for drones,
testing them in cities for the first time beyond the operator’s line of sight
as businesses look in the future to unleash the unmanned devices in droves
above busy streets and buildings.
Multiple drones took to the air at the same time above
downtown Reno this week in a series of simulations testing emerging technology
that someday will be used to manage hundreds of thousands of small unmanned
commercial aircraft delivering packages, pizzas and medical supplies.
“This activity is the latest and most technical challenge
we have done with unmanned aerial systems,” said David Korsmeyer, associate
director of research and technology at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain
View, California.
An autonomous drone took off Tuesday from the rooftop of
a five-story casino parking garage and landed on the roof of another out of
view across the street. It hovered as onboard sensors adjusted for gusty winds
before returning close to the center of the launchpad.
Equipped with GPS, others flew at each other no higher
than city streetlights but were able to avoid colliding through onboard
tracking systems connected to NASA’s computers on the ground.
Similar tests have been conducted in remote and rural
areas. The Federal Aviation Administration has authorized individual test
flights in cities before but never for multiple drones or outside the sight of
the operator.
The new round of tests continuing this summer in Reno and
Corpus Christi, Texas, marks the first time simulations have combined all those
scenarios, said Chris Walach, executive director of the Nevada Institute of
Autonomous Systems, which is running the Reno tests of unnamed aerial vehicles,
or UAVs.
“When we began this project four years ago, many of us
wouldn’t have thought we’d be standing here today flying UAVs with advanced
drone systems off high-rise buildings,” he said.
The team adopted a “crawl, walk, run” philosophy when it
initiated tests in 2015, culminating with this fourth round of simulations,
said Ron Johnson, project manager for unmanned aircraft systems traffic
management at NASA’s Ames Research Center.
“We are definitely in the ‘run’ phase of this development
here in Reno,” he said.
The results will be shared with the FAA. The agency
outlined proposed rules in January that would ease restrictions on flying
drones over crowds but said it won’t take final action until it finishes
another regulation on identifying drones as they’re flying — something industry
analysts say could be years away.
Critics assert that the FAA has stymied the commercial
use of drones by applying the same rigid safety standard it uses for airlines.
“There can be a lot of Silicon Valley mentality where
people don’t want to wait. So, we’re trying to strike a balance between
unleashing entrepreneurship and ensuring we’re doing it safely while trying to
accelerate acceptance of drones in public,” Johnson said.
Amazon and FedEx are among the companies that hope to
send consumer products by drone by 2020. Drone delivery company Flirtey began
testing delivery of defibrillators for cardiac arrest patients last year in
Reno under FAA oversight.
Johnson said cities present the biggest challenges
because of limited, small landing areas among tall buildings that create
navigation and communication problems.
He said it became apparent early on that the travel
management plans for drones would have to be completely automated because FAA
air traffic controllers can’t handle the enormous workload.
The system is being tested with the help of 36 private
partners, including drone manufacturers, operators, software developers and
other third-party service providers, Johnson said.
The system uses software on the ground that communicates
flight plans and positions to other software systems. The drones are equipped
with programs for landing, avoiding crashes, surveillance, detection and
identification, optical cameras and systems similar to radar that work with
lasers.
Huy Tran, director of aeronautics at NASA’s Ames Research
Center, said her supervisors at NASA headquarters were surprised to hear they
had be testing drones in Reno.
“They said, ‘Are you crazy?’” she said. “We hope (the
test in) Reno shows drones can be flown and land safely.”
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