NASA is creating its own air traffic control system for drones
NASA is creating its own air traffic control system for
drones
The control system will be entirely automated, and will
be first used for agriculture next year.
Tue 11:28 AM 13,136
NASA IS DEVELOPING an air traffic control system for
drones as companies like Google and Amazon experiment with unmanned delivery
services.
The space agency is working on a management system for
all low-flying aircraft – ones that fly around 400 to 500 feet off the ground –
which will monitor and direct anything that comes into this airspace, according
to the New York Times.
The management system will be for all unmanned aircraft
and unlike a normal air traffic control room, it will be entirely automated,
using computers and algorithms to figure out where they can and cannot fly.
The system will check for other low-flying traffic, help
smaller unmanned vehicles avoid buildings and obstacles, and scan for weather
conditions that might cause problems for drones like wind since drones weigh so
little.
The first applications for the system will be in sparely
populated areas and will focus on areas like agriculture such as monitoring
crops or remote oil pipelines. This is expected to happen sometime next year.
Last week, Google revealed Project Wing, its programme
which sees drones being used to deliver goods and supplies to people in the
Australian outback. However, it’s expected that it will be another few years
before it’s launched officially.
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