The nation’s six unmanned aircraft system test sites now have blanket authorizations to fly drones and no longer have to seek authorizations for each type of aircraft flown, according to new Federal Aviation Administration regulations.
The new regulations streamline the approval process for UAS research by the test sites. They also allow those with only a recreational- or sport-pilot certificate to conduct test-site operations. Previously, the rules required operators to have a private pilot’s license. A third-class medical certificate also is no longer required. Now an operator only needs a valid driver’s license to satisfy the medical requirement.
The FAA expects this improved access for the test sites will provide more opportunities for research that may help the agency integrate UAS into the nation’s airspace more quickly and easily.
Under the new regulations, drones under 55 pounds operated by test sites may fly during the day up to 200 feet above ground level anywhere in the country, except in restricted airspace or near airports and heliports.
The new Certificates of Waiver or Authorization (COAs) also let the test sites fly various types of UAS under a single COA, making it easier for them to conduct research missions. Previously, the FAA required authorization for each type of UAS the operators wanted to fly.
Brian Wynne, president and CEO of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), praised the FAA announcement. “This new policy will make it easier for the test sites to perform the research needed to safely integrate UAS into the national airspace system. It is an exciting time for the unmanned aircraft systems industry and policies like this help further advance UAS innovation.”
When Wynne testified at the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology earlier in the year, he specifically called for a comprehensive industry-government UAS research plan, more resources for the federal government to coordinate UAS research and intellectual property protections for the companies that participate in UAS R&D.
According to Wynne’s take on the new policy, things are heading in the right direction. “This new policy, the Center of Excellence designation and the Pathfinder Program announced earlier this month, along with ongoing industry and government research efforts, all point to a future where the possible will become reality,” he says.
“Today’s FAA announcement is great news for the future of Nevada’s UAS Test Site effort,” says Tom Wilczek, aerospace and defense industry specialist for the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development. “Nevada has been working diligently to get companies up and flying UAVs on our test sites, and the ability for us to implement public aircraft operations that fly under 200 feet … will significantly speed up the ability to test on our Nevada sites and move this emerging industry into commercial flights.”
The expanded operational parameters for the test sites are similar to those the FAA implemented in March for civil UAS operations authorized under a Section 333 exemption.
The six UAS test sites are the first public operators to receive this type of “blanket” airspace access across the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii. The sites may still fly outside the “blanket” COA parameters if they receive or retain separate COAs specific to the airspace requested for those operations.
A number of large companies are making bids to acquire Nokia’s HERE digital mapping company. At least one analyst believes the interest is fueled by future autonomous ambitions. In other location industry news, a new location-based analytics product hits the market.
Signaling the need to control a major location industry segment, Nokia’s HERE digital mapping company is attracting big-name suitors for as much as $3 billion. According to published reports, the bidders include Uber, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Chinese search engine giant Baidu — and even Facebook.
However, at least one industry insider believes the hoopla for HERE, which is found in a majority of in-dash navigation units worldwide, is being driven by the continued interest in autonomous vehicles.
“Google has been openly working on the concepts required to support AVs for several years and Apple has a skunkworks where they are working on prototypes for an Apple AV. The German luxury car makers realize the bind they could find themselves in — as do all vehicle manufacturers — if Google is able to produce a popular AV-oriented OS that is preferred by owners of AVs over an OS produced by the vehicle manufacturers,” said Mike Dobson, TeleMapics principal, who writes about the topic at www.telemapics.com. “I suspect that Google is really focused on an operating system for autonomous vehicles that can help promote Google’s interest in advertising, but will produce a prototype car to show how the system should work, although avoiding large-scale production. Apple, on the other hand, may be considering producing a vehicle that runs on their OS. So while Google is regarded as a more immediate concern for the automobile industry, the company may also become the vehicle manufacturers’ best friend and trusted supplier, if Apple enters the autonomous vehicle market as a vehicle manufacturer.”
While Dobson believes Uber, which bought mapping company deCarta in March, is playing with fire by bidding for HERE, he says they are clearly concerned what the world of autonomous vehicles might mean for their business. “Within 10 years, Uber will be producing its own fleet of AVs. While owning a map company might be beneficial to them, they might be better off licensing map databases,” he said.
Facebook Not a Good Match
Dobson said that while Facebook, rumored to also be a bidder, can afford the billions to buy HERE, there does not appear to be a significant strategic advantage for them in doing so. “While (Facebook) is experimenting with geographical databases, it is unclear to me that they would significantly benefit from owning a spatial database, as opposed to licensing the data, although their concern may be driven by a fear that the data might not be freely licensed after the company is acquired, say, by a competitor,” he said.
The problem with the automotive consortium and Uber that have surfaced in the quest for HERE, the company once called Navteq — and acquired by Nokia for more than $8 billion in 2007 — is that none are data companies — with the background and nuances of creating spatial databases,” Dobson said.
“From my perspective, that means none of the current bidders are ideal candidates to manage the company. Like Nokia, these companies may not actually know what to do when they win the auction,” he said. “During the eight years that Nokia has owned HERE, the mapping asset has been devalued and improperly positioned for growth. I do not know how much more mismanagement the team at HERE can take before the company and its navigation databases becomes non-competitive.”
Dobson says that Uber, Facebook, Baidu, and the German car manufacturers do not yet understand the expense of upgrading and maintaining HERE’s mapping database for the demands of the autonomous vehicle market. “Buying HERE for ‘internal’ use only would be a significant mistake, so any potential buyer is going to need to continue to sell data to all channels, even those owned by potential competitors. This simple reality will cause any of the buyers who have surfaced so far a lot of heartburn in the future,” he said.
Dobson says the clear winner for the future of HERE is the German automotive consortium of Audi, BMW and Mercedes, with its reported alliance with Baidu. “I do not regard this combo as an optimal owner, but the mix of interest may help keep HERE at the forefront of producing high-accuracy navigation databases — although the extent of map coverage may be a casualty of this ownership team,” he said.
New Location Analytics Product Hits the Market
A new location analytics product is hitting the market in a more and more crowded indoor-positioning field. The differentiator, says Cloud4Wi about its new Fogsense product, is that the unit constitutes the location industry’s smallest Internet of Things Wi-Fi device that is tailored to retail outlets, coffee shops, restaurant chains and shopping malls with presence analytics and location-based services.
The device, which contains Broadcom’s WICED chip, will feature Bluetooth low-power technology in the new version in (the fourth quarter), said Elena Briola, Cloud4Wi’s chief marketing officer. The new BLE version will enable Apple iBeacon and location-aware mobile applications.
“We not only track the position of visitors and customers in the venue, we aggregate this data in valuable analytics and we provide applications to deliver targeted localized services based on these analytics,” she said.
The device is also USB-powered, allowing businesses to scale its integration with both single and small venues, where Fogsense receives power from laptops and point-of-sale (POS) devices, the company said.
“Customers increasingly expect Wi-Fi to be available wherever they go. Businesses can collect valuable data about their customers, better understand their behavior and deliver more personalized marketing initiatives,” Briola said.
Like many location analytics companies, Cloud4Wi believes the new product will enable businesses to design push-targeted, localized marketing and advertising messages based on an assessment of the customer’s behavior at the venue.
The company evokes the much-quoted ABI Research statistics that more than 1 million location retail deployments will occur by 2020.
The Robotics in Action drone flying area at the AUVSI show.
The AUVSI show in Atlanta, held May 4-7, drew significantly more attention from TV media this year, as several of the major networks provided live coverage from the show floor. NBC’s Today morning show opened with a live shot of a drone hovering in front of an opening house door, as if patiently waiting to deliver a package from Google or Amazon — the potential good side of drones for consumers.
Then their coverage recalled the DJI drone crashing onto the White House front lawn in the early morning hours (perhaps an unfortunate loss of user control, but an odd time and place to be out flying a drone), and airline pilot reports of lighted drones appearing above nighttime final approach paths — the bad side of drones in common usage.
The Connex wireless system.
Then Brian Wynne, president and CEO of AUVSI, provided a positive insight on the latest forecasts of UAV’s contributing $82 billion to the U.S. economy. Wynne’s estimates included the generation of more than 100,000 new high-paying technical jobs within 10 years’ time. But in an effort to urge faster progress towards regulations, Wynne also suggested that for every day of delay in Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rulemaking to allow open use of drones, the U.S. loses $27 million daily in economic impact.
There was similar encouraging coverage by Fox News from the Atlanta Convention Center show floor, followed by Brian Wynne again pitching for rapid introduction of commercial drone use in the U.S. Fox chose to broadcast from the Robotics in Action drone flying area, and to feature real-time, zero latency HD video transmitted via Amimon’s Connex wireless system. A good demo over live TV, and Amimon’s chance to tell the world about its wireless transmission system that can transmit HD video over up to half-a-mile away with zero latency — good news, incidentally, for Fox, NBC, CNN and other news gatherers.
This year, it also seems that the terminology battle with the U.S. media over the common usage of the term drone or drones, rather than the more accurate UAV or UAV, has been conceded. So now we can talk about drones no matter how much it pains us to do so.
But the FAA is not standing still. Well over 200 Section 333 exemptions have now been granted to allow commercial UAS applications to undertake or investigate revenue-generating business. FAA representatives came to the show to let people know they are working hard to progress towards the safe use of drones in U.S. airspace. Through a media-only press-conference, the FAA announced the B4UFly smartphone app to inform recreational drone operators if it’s safe to fly. Features include:
A clear “status” indicator that immediately informs operators about their current or planned location.
Information on the parameters that drive the status indicator.
A “Planner Mode” for future flights in different locations.
Informative, interactive maps with filtering options.
Contact information for nearby airports.
Links to other FAA UAS resources and regulatory information.
The app will access the user’s location to automatically generate this information. There is also a planning mode for what data could be available for a potential future location to which you may be preparing to go.
But the main news from FAA Administrator Michael Huerta at the press conference was about the Pathfinder program, which involves three U.S. companies undertaking research with the FAA to expand unmanned aircraft operations in the United States. Each project has a key element where boundaries are being stretched to gain experience and to develop new capabilities to overcome restrictions for UAVs.
CNN (Cable News Network) will use visual line-of-sight (LOS) drone newsgathering in urban areas. There have previously been heavy restrictions in most of the Section 333 exemptions on operating in populated areas. So, it would seem that care will be taken in how news coverage will be generated around and over people, but the news will still be working to get the live overhead video we are now seeing more often on TV.
PrecisionHawk and BNSF Railway will investigate operations in rural areas, flying outside LOS. This is big news, as most UAV operators want to extend their areas of operation much further than visual LOS. In particular, Amazon has been most critical about LOS restrictions — the retailer wants package delivery to be virtually automated. But more on that later.
Beyond visual LOS, investigations in largely unpopulated areas by PrecisionHawk and BNSF could result in safe technology and procedures that could be commonly used in populated area for other operators. This is clearly the FAA’s desire, and of course, its intent is also to deflect earlier criticism of lack of progress in this area.
Onto Amazon. The company filed a UAV delivery patent with the U.S. Patent Office, where drone deliveries would be navigated by pulling location data from a customer’s smartphone — and real-time routes and directions would be constantly updated to guide the delivery process.
Amazon’s Prime Air “Delivery Drone.”
Amazon smart aircraft could interact between each other, passing on traffic and weather conditions. Delivery options for the consumer include a tool to deliver packages to your home, workplace or even to vacation locations.
Various safety precautions and caveats appear to have been appropriately addressed in the patent. Use of a number of sensors, including, radars, acoustic sensors and an infrared camera, are outlined in the patent to ensure safe navigation and landing. The patent also proposes a number of different types of unmanned aircraft with different shapes and weight for its delivery system.
And then on Tuesday, May 12, just after the AUVSI convention had wound down and left Atlanta, two U.S. senators jointly proposed a new bill that could expedite the commercial introduction of drones.
The senators believe the U.S. is falling behind other countries when it comes to creating rules for commercial drones. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) introduced the Commercial UAS Modernization Act, which would set temporary rules for those who want to fly commercial unmanned aircraft systems before the FAA establishes permanent laws regarding drone use.
Sen. Corey Booker
The Commercial UAS Modernization Act outlines basic rules for commercial use around registration, certification, insurance, tests and safety. Operators would be required to keep the drones under 500 feet, fly only in daylight, and operate within visual line of sight (LOS). However, the proposal also creates a deputy administrator position that would be able to make an exemption for a commercial drone operator for beyond visual LOS and for “heavier unmanned vehicles.”
“Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Deputy Associate Administrator, in consultation with the Administrator, shall expedite and expand exemptions from the interim operating restrictions otherwise applicable to unmanned aircraft under section 337,” the act reads.
Sen. John Hoeven
When I talked with Sen. Hoeven this week, he emphasized that this bill seeks to accelerate the commercial use of drones in the U.S. and to make more use of the UAV test centers that the FAA has set up. These centers are capable of doing more, and can be the points that prospective drone operators visit to register their craft and take knowledge and proficiency qualification tests.
The bill gives tight timescales to the FAA to set up accessible locations to achieve registration and set up these operator qualification programs. In addition, the bill establishes a new deputy administrator position responsible for the safe integration of UAS in U.S. airspace, while also streamlining regulations that currently slow the industry’s ability to innovate new aircraft technologies.
In essence, the bill takes the core elements of the FAA’s past Section 333 approvals — less the requirement for a private pilot’s license — and makes them law. Operators would no longer need to ask the FAA for an exemption.
I asked Sen. Hoeven if the FAA has responded to the proposed bill, and he said he would be meeting with FAA Administrator Michael Huerta on May 14. “This follows their rules,” the senator said, so his message is let’s move forward together.
So, it would seem that momentum is at last gathering to overcome what would seem to be a lengthy period of FAA intransigence, including new innovative efforts by the agency itself to find ways to move forward more rapidly. Innovation in UAV technology, products and applications has been going on at a rapid pace, and the pent-up demand seems to be spilling over.
With more than 4,000 comments in hand for the FAA to deal with on its proposed rulemaking for small UAVs, it’s doubtful we’ll have any FAA regulations any time soon. So the Section 333 exemptions will probably continue, unless they are not totally overwhelmed by the new rules proposed by Senators Hoeven and Booker, who hope to see their bill approved sometime this year.
Two U.S. senators have jointly proposed a new bill that could expedite the commercial introduction of drones.
The senators believe the U.S. is falling behind other countries when it comes to creating rules for commercial drones. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) introduced the Commercial UAS Modernization Act, which would set temporary rules for those who want to fly commercial unmanned aircraft systems before the FAA establishes permanent laws regarding drone use.
Sen. Cory Booker
The Commercial UAS Modernization Act outlines basic rules for commercial use around registration, certification, insurance, tests and safety. Operators would be required to keep the drones under 500 feet, fly only in daylight, and operate within visual line of sight (LOS). However, the proposal also creates a deputy administrator position that would be able to make an exemption for a commercial drone operator for beyond visual LOS and for “heavier unmanned vehicles.”
“Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Deputy Associate Administrator, in consultation with the Administrator, shall expedite and expand exemptions from the interim operating restrictions otherwise applicable to unmanned aircraft under section 337,” the act reads.
Sen. John Hoeven
When GPS World talked with Sen. Hoeven this week, he emphasized that this bill seeks to accelerate the commercial use of drones in the U.S. and to make more use of the UAV test centers that the FAA has set up. These centers are capable of doing more, and can be the points that prospective drone operators visit to register their craft and take knowledge and proficiency qualification tests.
The bill gives tight timescales to the FAA to set up accessible locations to achieve registration and set up these operator qualification programs. In addition, the bill establishes a new deputy administrator position responsible for the safe integration of UAS in U.S. airspace, while also streamlining regulations that currently slow the industry’s ability to innovate new aircraft technologies.
In essence, the bill takes the core elements of the FAA’s past Section 333 approvals — less the requirement for a private pilot’s license — and makes them law. Operators would no longer need to ask the FAA for an exemption.
GPS World asked Sen. Hoeven if the FAA has responded to the proposed bill, and he said he would be meeting with FAA Administrator Michael Huerta on May 14. “This follows their rules,” the senator said, so his message is let’s move forward together.
After a rigorous competition, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has selected a Mississippi State University team as the FAA’s Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (COE UAS). The COE will focus on research, education and training in areas critical to safe and successful integration of UAS into the nation’s airspace.
The team brings together 15 of the nation’s leading UAS and aviation universities that have a proven commitment to UAS research and development and the necessary resources to provide the matching contribution to the government’s investment.
“This world-class, public-private partnership will help us focus on the challenges and opportunities of this cutting-edge technology,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. The Department of Transportation oversees the FAA. “We expect this team will help us to educate and train a cadre of unmanned aircraft professionals well into the future.”
The COE research areas are expected to evolve over time, but initially will include:
detect and avoid technology
low-altitude operations safety
control and communications
spectrum management
human factors
compatibility with air traffic control operations
training and certification of UAS pilots and other crew members, in addition to other areas.
“This team has the capabilities and resources to quickly get up and running to help the FAA address the demands of this challenging technology over the next decade,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta.
The FAA expects the COE will be able to begin research by September 2015 and be fully operational and engaged in a robust research agenda by January 2016.
Congress appropriated $5 million for the five-year agreement with the COE, which will be matched one-for-one by the team members.
In addition to Mississippi State University, the other team members include: Drexel University; Embry Riddle Aeronautical University; Kansas State University; Kansas University; Montana State University; New Mexico State University; North Carolina State University; Oregon State University; University of Alabama, Huntsville; University of Alaska, Fairbanks; University of North Dakota; and Wichita State University.
The FAA will determine the relationship between the new COE and the six UAS sites the FAA announced last year once the new team develops detailed research plans. The FAA expects COE flight testing to occur at one or more of the existing test sites.
Congress mandated that the FAA establish the COE under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014. Like university think tank partnerships, the agency’s Centers of Excellence bring together the best minds in the nation to conduct research to educate, train and work with the FAA toward solutions for aviation-related challenges.
The Bramor RTK GNSS Post-Processing UAS is designed for surveying and remote-sensing applications that need a quick, high-precision set of results down to sub-centimeter level in the absence of a grid of ground control points. It is equipped with C-Astral high-rate GPS and IMU precision data-logging electronics. The system has both air and ground segments, consisting of a GNSS onboard receiver and ground base station. It has an L1 and L2 GNSS reciever (GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo-ready), plus a survey-grade antenna.
The QuestUAV Aqua Pro is designed for offshore/onshore data-gathering in fields such as environmental, gas and oil, coast guard and security. It is a fixed-wing waterproof UAV based on the QuestUAV 200 airframe.
The Aqua Pro is capable of offshore missions and recovery in both fresh- and salt-water environments. It can withstand pressure differentials induced by rapid temperature changes, and overcome complexities of waterproofing/marine-grade electronics, sensors and avionics. It uses a GPS unit from SkyCircuits.
NovAtel’s GAJT-AE GPS anti-jam technology is designed for military and security weight- and size-constrained airborne and ground unmanned platforms, including UAVs. GAJT-AE provides the null forming antenna control electronics for a four-element controlled reception pattern antenna.
The Riegl RiCopter is an unmanned multirotor UAS, integrating a high-performance and complete LiDAR system, the RIEGL VUX-SYS. The VUX-SYS comprises the VUX-1 LiDAR sensor, the Applanix AP20 IMU/GNSS system, a control unit, and up to four high-resolution cameras.
The Riegl RiCopter can acquire high-accuracy, high-resolution laser scan and image data. The excellent measurement performance of the VUX-1 in combination with a precise fiber-optic gyroscope and GPS/GLONASS receiver results in survey-grade measurement accuracy in fields such as precision farming, forestry and mining. The IMU/GNSS unit provides roll and pitch accuracy of 0.015 degrees and heading accuracy of 0.035 degrees. Riegl is a maker of laser scanners, and using a high-end unmanned airborne platform allows data acquisition in dangerous and hard-to-reach areas.
The eBee RTK by senseFly is a fully autonomous survey-grade mapping drone with a built-in L1/L2 GNSS receiver capable of receiving corrections from most leading brands of base station. This ensures high positional accuracy without the need for ground control points, so the aerial photography can produce orthomosaics and 3D models with accuracy down to 3 centimeters. It has 226 channels and tracks GPS L1, L2, L2C; GLONASS L1, L2, L2C; and SBAS.
Artist’s concept of the proposed Airborne Swarm Protection Shield over a GDELS armored vehicle (image courtesy of Sky-Watch).
General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS) has signed a Memorandum of Interest (MOI) with Danish UAV company Sky-Watch in Støvring, which allows the two companies to explore potential areas of cooperation within next-generation applications of UAV technology in the battlefield.
“Sky-Watch is constantly striving to be at the forefront of the rapidly developing UAV technology,” said Michael Messerschmidt, Sky-Watch chief business development officer. “We offer our vast accumulated know-how within sensor fusion to our partners, in the pursuit of finding new ways to solve tomorrow’s challenges. We constantly rethink and redefine the value proposition, of our own as well as our partners’ ideas and concepts and I believe that we can identify some very exiting avenues of cooperation with General Dynamics European Land Systems.”
Sky-Watch offers the Huginn X1 multi-purpose Quadrotor UAV deployed all over the world and is developing the Muninn X1, a next-generation fixed-Wing VTOL UAV. The future of UAVs in the battlefield will be explored by Sky-Watch Labs, the research and development arm of Sky-Watch, in cooperation with partners such as the Technical University of Denmark on a variety of projects.
With regard to the acquisition of new Armored Personnel Carriers (APC) for the Danish Army, General Dynamics European Land Systems is prepared to take its partnerships with Danish industry to the next level and explore business in adjacent markets like the one of Sky-Watch. GDELS has signed Industry Cooperation agreements with 40 Danish companies of all sizes across the country, and has already defined projects in excess of 3,7 billion kroner covering all of the technology areas defined in the Danish Government’s Defence industry strategy.
“Throughout the past 20 years, GDELS Industry Cooperation program has been one of the catalysts for the development of the Danish defence industry. We have executed projects of almost 1,7 billion kroner with the industry, which has helped to contribute to the development of new products and technologies in a variety of companies. By engaging with an innovative and creative company such as Sky-Watch, we help plant the seed for the future of the Danish defence industry,” said Jens Bauer, GDELS Senior Director International Business & Services, responsible for Industrial Participation.
GDELS’s Industry Cooperation plan for the APC program is based on 20 years of experience and partnership with Danish industry. The program expands relationships beyond production and sustainment contracts to also include research & development projects, which will lay the foundation for growth in the Danish Defence industry for decades to come.
Trimble has introduced the Trimble BD935-INS module that features precision GNSS with an integrated 3-D Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) inertial sensor package. As part of Trimble’s GNSS OEM portfolio, the new compact module augments real-time precise positioning with 3-D orientation.
The BD935-INS module’s simple connectivity and configuration capabilities allow system integrators and OEMs to easily add GNSS and attitude to specialized or custom hardware solutions, Trimble said in a news release.
“The OEM and system integrator communities demand high performance, reliability and support for their positioning solutions,” said Dale Hermann, general manager of Trimble’s Integrated Technologies Division. “The Trimble BD935-INS delivers the latest GNSS and inertial technology in an easy-to-integrate form factor for demanding conditions and applications such as lightweight robotic or unmanned vehicles. With the BD935-INS module, customers are purchasing a robust navigation solution, extending performance beyond that of a GNSS receiver only.”
Taking advantage of Trimble’s expertise in both GNSS and inertial technologies, the Trimble BD935-INS module has been designed for applications requiring both RTK and orientation in a compact package. By integrating inertial sensors onto the GNSS module, users can experience more robust performance in a variety of challenging environments, Trimble said.
The BD935-INS features triple frequency for both GPS and GLONASS constellations, as well as dual frequency for BeiDou and Galileo. The module delivers fast and reliable RTK initialization for 1–2 centimeter positioning. For applications that do not require centimeter accuracy, the BD935-INS integrated GNSS-inertial engine delivers high-accuracy GNSS and DGNSS positions in challenging environments such as urban canyons, tunnels, heavy canopy or other GNSS-denied environments, the company said.
Trimble also announced the new BX935-INS, which is an environmentally rugged enclosure for OEM or system-level integration. The BX935-INS houses the Trimble BD935-INS module for easy installation and immediate access to high-rate position and attitude data for a variety of applications.
The Trimble BD935-INS and BX935-INS is expected to be available in the third quarter of 2015 through Trimble’s Integrated Technologies Precision GNSS sales channel.
Annual Conference Renamed Xponential to Reflect Innovative and Expanding Industry
The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) today announced the rebranding and evolution of its premier global industry event for unmanned systems, drones and robotics, the AUVSI Unmanned Systems show, taking place this week in Atlanta, Ga. With nearly 600 exhibitors and 8,000 attendees, AUVSI’s event attracts leaders in all aspects of the industry, from manufacturers to end users.
GPS World is covering the AUVSI Unmanned Systems show this week from Atlanta. See our coverage here.
“Xponential encapsulates the tremendous growth and innovation in the unmanned systems industry, as well as the broad societal benefits of the technology,” said Brian Wynne, president and CEO of AUVSI. “Xponential will help the world understand the potential of this industry by providing a single gathering place where people can see and interact with the technology and systems that will soon become part of our everyday lives.”
Xponential will continue to serve as the experience hub for business and investment for this $48 billion industry, AUVSI said. This technology is already being used by farmers, first responders and firefighters to help save time, save money and save lives.
Over the next few weeks and months, AUVSI will be working to expand the event offerings to bring a new level of community to the growing industry it serves. Many of these new programs were launched this year, including advanced educational tracks and innovative experiences that bring together the industry’s leading experts and organizations.
Today’s second announcement of a new UAV-related initiative by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was directed at private citizens: model airplane enthusiasts and hobbyists, also called modelers — not at industry or commercial use. See this story for information on the Pathfinder program for commercial drone use.
A soon-to-be released smartphone app will proved users with real-time information on flight regulations, and restrictions for the user’s actual location; alternately, for a location to which the user is planning to travel to for a model plane flight. Named B4UFly, the app is designed to answer for users, “Is it safe and is it legal to fly my model aircraft based on where I am right now?” The overall goal is to encourage responsible use of model aircraft.
The B4UFLY iOS app will be made available to 1,000 iPhone beta testers this summer. The first 700 emails received by [email protected]will make up the initial limited beta test group. Theemail is for model aircraft hobbyists only, who want to sign up for beta test. B4UFLY Version 1 for iOS will go out to the general public later this year. An Android app will come later.
“Someone who got their first UAV as a gift probably does not know [the rules governing flight and airspace operation],” said Jim Williams, the manager of the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft Integration office. “It’s a knowledge gap that is very very important that we fill. Hobbyists and modelers need to know that there are very real consequences if you don’t have that knowledge. The recent Incident on the White House lawn provides a perfect case in point.”
The app was developed in cooperation with the MITRE Corporation. Key features of the B4UFLY app include:
A clear “status” indicator that immediately informs operators about their current or planned location.
Information on the parameters that drive the status indicator.
A “Planner Mode” for future flights in different locations.
Informative, interactive maps with filtering options.
Contact information for nearby airports.
Links to other FAA UAS resources and regulatory information.
The FAA’s Know Before You Fly campaign launched just prior to Christmas last year was a preliminary step in this effort.
Williams prefaced his remarks with, “These model planes and copters are ready to go, right out of the box. I know, I have one.” He then guided press through a brief look a clips and demo of the app’s key features. The app will provide real-time access to rules, requirements and restrictions based on location, and suggests specific actions to take if the user is:
within five miles of an airport
within a national park
within a restricted airspace (such as Washington, D.C.); and so.
The app will access the user’s location to automatically furnish this information. There is also a planning mode to see what data is available for a planned location to which you are preparing to go, although you are not there yet.
“Unmanned aircraft should always yeild the right of way to manned aircraft,” Williams stressed. “This is not the be-all and end-all of when and where you can fly. It does not alleviate the user’s responsibility to operate safely.”
In response to questions, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta clarified that the FAA currently issues flight restriction covering large public events, such as the Master’s golf tournament.
CNN will use Drone Aviation’s tethered drones to gather footage in in urban areas from never-seen-before angles and heights. The company’s WATT-200 was unveiled at the AUVSI this week.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Michael Huerta announced two new initiatives related to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) today at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Unmanned Systems 2015 conference in Atlanta, Ga.
Administrator Huerta told the large gathering of national journalists, “The unmanned aircraft industry is changing faster than any segment in the aircraft industry. A new project to harness that energy, the Pathfinder program, is partnering with three leading U.S. companies to expand unmanned aircraft operations in the United States.”
The FAA is working with industry partners on three focus areas:
CNN (Cable News Network) will research visual line of sight (LOS) operations for newsgathering in urban areas. CNN will continue working with Georgia Tech University to improve newsgathering for all organizations.
PrecisionHawk will investigate agricultural operations for rural areas, flying outside LOS.
BNSF Railway, second-largest freight railroad network in North America, will undertake inspection of rail infrastructure, also beyond visual LOS.
Huerta said that the partners, collectively, “are trying to push the envelope, what can we accommodate, accommodate safely, and what can we learn from that. We’ll test a little, learn a little, then test some more. How do we see a staged implementation? To integrate unmanned aircraft, but to do it safely, as directed by Congress. We’re trying to push the edges of what we can allow, working with partners who have specific uses and resources that they will apply to those.”
When asked for a timeframe to reach new UAV regulations, he replied, “I can’t comment a lot on the rule itself, but it’s fair to say that in the rulemaking comment process [which closed on April 24], we received more than 4,500 comments. It’s too early to say how those comments will shape what the final rulemaking will take. Assessment will be done in the coming months, perhaps by the end of the year, but that’s an aggressive timetable. This effort will go on as long as the partners want us to go on doing it. That’s not accomplished in six months, nor should it take a million years.”
As to LOS restrictions, and beyond LOS, he replied, “The framework of the previously published rule was focused on LOS, and on the use of visual observers in addition to the operator. Now we’re taking the next step, to explore beyond LOS uses. What are reasonable applications for that, and what mitigations for safety should be put in place for that? Everyone wants to get there. It’s important to figure out how we get there safely.”
What mitigations will be put in place for beyond LOS? A vice president of BSNF Railway said that the company is “working with FAA and several vendors around command and control infrastructure. This is yet to be fully defined. The railroad is a very safe an unforgiving environment. This doesn’t replace anything we’re doing today, it’s an addition.” He defined the operating environment as ” a 300 or 400-mile capability, to fly looking for broken rail, etc., beyond the visual, on-the-ground inspections that rail crews already do. ” He anticiated the use of “sense-and-avoid technology [for the UAVs], not using chase planes but perhaps using communications capabilities from cell towers and railway infrastructure along the right of way.”
The CEO of PrecisionHawk commented similarly, “We’re not changing much of our operational flow, just extending the baseline for it. We will implement a traffic-management technology, called Lattice, leveraging to ensure safety and reliability beyond the operator’s LOS.”
Gregory Agvent, CNN’s director of News Operations, said he looked forward to “some camera shots that were previously impossible for us, that now we’re going to be able to do.” Under the terms of the Certificate of Authorization (COA), Agvent said that “We’re capable of doing it [undertaking UAV missions] without asking for (FAA) permission” for specific flights.
The three industry participants concurred that they will work with their [UAV] partners in parallel with the rules to develop a certification process, so that the FAA can determine their vehicles are uniformly safe, the same way the y do with piloted aircraft currently. Both the railroad and PrecisionHawk have one currently operating flight platform each, and are looking at others, as theirs do not fit all applications.
“These are not exclusive [agreements],” emphasized Huerta, “limited to particular platforms or applications. This is a practical research effort to apply, learn, and integrate on the broadest scale.” When asked about possible further participants in the Pathfinder project, Huerta indicated the three companies represented on the briefing platform with him: “They came to us. You can interpret that as an invitation. We’re casting a very wide net. How do we et to a broader integration and implementation? We need multiple ways to gather information.”
Agvent urged, “It’s critical for manufacturers to come to the table, to get certified by make as opposed to individual models, to get free access to the sky.”
Huerta concluded, “We are learning together, as an industry and as a regulator. How can we collectively, as an industry, learn more in order to see a much more robust integration of unmanned aircraft into our aviation industry? We’re all interested in pushing the boundaries, and sharing the information broadly across the industry.”
The surprise preview of the pending announcement drew scores of curious and concerned industry representatives and exhibitors at the massive AUVSI show, who gathered anxiously outside the press briefing room, to which they were not admitted.
“The FAA is moving ahead with safe integration of UAS into the busiest, most complex airspace in the world,” according to an FAA statement issued prior to the briefing.”Even as the agency proceeds with rulemaking for small UAS, it continues to look at new ways to foster safe UAS operations by both hobbyists and businesses.”
Avyon, a sUAS (Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems) integrator and distributor, is using the Applanix APX UAV for its md4 fleet, to provide users with cost-effective direct georeferencing technology.
The integration of the Applanix APX-15 UAV on the md4-1000 and md4-3000 microdrones will offer solutions for unmanned aircraft while complying with weight and size restrictions for payloads. The APX-15 works seamlessly with all other airborne sensors such as digital cameras, LIDAR and other sensors, Avy0n said.
The APX-15 on the md4-1000 microdrone is on display at booth 1803 at the AUVSI Unmanned Systems 2015 show, being held May 4-7 in Atlanta, Ga.
“The integration of the APX-15 with md4-1000 and md4-3000 will provide users with a precision mapping capability, minimizing or eliminating the requirement for ground control points and making mapping missions more efficient,” said Mike Hogan, Avyon’s business development manager.
The APX-15 UAV on the md4 fleet will improve aerial mapping by eliminating GCPs (ground control points) for triangulation, as well as reduce the amount of overlap in the surveying process. This will increase efficiency and effectiveness for area flown per mission and the post-mission data processing, Avyon said.
“We recognize the need to provide the growing UAS mapping market with the same highly efficient solutions that we pioneered for airborne mapping over 15 years ago,” said Joe Hutton, director of Inertial Technology and Airborne Products at Applanix Corporation (xyHt pg. 14). “We are now offering a cost-effective solution that meets the size, weight, power and cost requirements of small UAS, and maintains the Applanix pedigree for quality and performance. We are pleased Avyon has partnered with us. The md4-1000 DMS-UAV is a powerful new solution.”
