Tag - drones

17Oct

FAA Issues Drone Flight Restrictions Over Certain Landmarks

Recently, U.S. national security and law enforcement agencies made a request of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The request? They asked the FAA to use its existing authority to address unauthorized drone operations over Department of Interior (DOI) sites. The FAA's authority comes from Title 14 of the existing Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) § 99.7 – “Special Security Instructions”.  

High profile DOI sites

The FAA agreed with the request. As such, in cooperation with the DOI, the FAA now restricts drone flights up to 400 feet within the lateral boundaries of these sites:
  • Statue of Liberty National Monument, New York, NY
  • Boston National Historical Park (U.S.S. Constitution), Boston, MA
  • Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, PA
  • Folsom Dam; Folsom, CA
  • Glen Canyon Dam; Lake Powell, AZ
  • Grand Coulee Dam; Grand Coulee, WA
  • Hoover Dam; Boulder City, NV
  • Jefferson National Expansion Memorial; St. Louis, MO
  • Mount Rushmore National Memorial; Keystone, SD
  • Shasta Dam; Shasta Lake, CA
 

Restrictions now in place

These new flight restrictions took effect October 5, 2017. As always, there are only a few exceptions that permit drone flights within these restrictions. Operators seeking exceptions must coordinate with the individual facility and/or the FAA. The FAA's online interactive map helps ensure the public is aware of the various restricted flight locations. Additionally, the link to these restrictions is included in the FAA’s B4UFLY mobile app. The B4UFLY app should update within the next 60 days to include the new restrictions. Additional information, including frequently asked questions, is available on the FAA’s UAS website. Operators in violation of these airspace restrictions may be subject to enforcement action, including potential civil penalties and criminal charges. This is the first time the agency placed airspace restrictions for unmanned aircraft, or “drones,” over DOI landmarks. The FAA placed similar airspace restrictions over military bases -- which remain in place. The FAA is considering additional requests from vaious federal agencies seeking restrictions using the FAA’s § 99.7 authority.
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27Sep

Accident reconstruction and drone applications

Documenting, investigating and reconstructing accident scenes is time consuming. And, depending on the site, it can also pose risks for reconstruction specialists. The work, though, is vital. The data gathered from reconstructing an accident helps officials identify what went wrong. It also informs future decisions to improve overall traffic safety. The pressure to clear the roads as quickly as possible following an incident, is enormous. However, documenting the accident is vital…and some can stretch over a considerable area. Photographing, measuring and capturing all the details using traditional methods takes considerable time and energy. So, it should come as no surprise that some public safety departments are testing the feasibility of drone use for reconstruction efforts.  

Accident reconstruction via drone

As technology advanced, the possibility of creating 3D models via drone became a reality. Currently, data gathering methods include a mixture of photography, laser scanners and total stations to produce a 3D point cloud of the site. And, it often requires personnel trained in surveying. Drones may help reconstruction specialists document incidents more quickly and accurately than traditional methods. One drone flight can collect vital image data. This image data, coupled with advances in photogrammetry software, is highly dynamic. Specialists can create 3D point cloud, a model, measurable orthomosaics, and detailed reports. And, importantly, all the data is there for further analysis.  

Getting ready for the real world

Recently, a number of public safety officials in North Carolina gathered to observe the possibility of drone use for accident investigations. The scenario played out at the  Buncombe County Public Safety Training Facility. The demonstration involved a head-on vehicle collision. Two reconstruction teams quickly jumped into action. One team was the State Highway Patrol Collision Reconstruction Unit. The other team was the Division of Aviation UAS flight team...using drones. The Highway Patrol team completed the reconstruction in 1 hour 51 minutes. The UAS team completed the same work in 25 minutes.  

Less specialization required?

Sophisticated flight planning software means there is less need for highly specialized training to document accident scenes. Processing the data after, is another story. However, in situations where specialized personnel are unavailable or unable to get to the scene, flying a drone over the scene and capturing important data is a viable option. The future of drone use for accident reconstruction is just in the beginning stages. However, the benefits of capturing information quickly, securing the safety of personnel and clearing roads faster means it is only a matter of time before drones are an important public safety tool.
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21Sep

Crash test dummy vs. drone

The push to create the infrastructure to support drone delivery on a massive scale continues. Of course, there are numerous challenges to identify and overcome before this is reality. One such dilemma involves the safety of people on the ground. Enthusiasts envision a day when drones populate the skies delivering packages, conducting public safety operations and much more. However, before this occurs, there is a need to address the safety of those on the ground. Currently, the FAA does not allow for unmanned aerial operations to occur over people. Clearly, this must change if drone use is to become part of everyday life.  

Bio-mechanics to the rescue

Virginia Tech’s injury bio-mechanics group teamed with its FAA-approved UAS test site to study the risks unmanned aircrafts pose to people. The injury bio-mechanics group has garnered much respect for their work evaluating injury risk within the automotive and sports industries. Areas studied, included: impact scenarios, potential injuries, design considerations to minimize injuries, operational limitations, and regulations to help prevent accidents. The team selected three popular commercial vehicles weighing from 2.6 to just over 24 pounds. In addition, the team setup a test dummy with sensors embedded inside the head and neck. The sensors measured the acceleration and force of the blows inflicted on the dummy. Then the team tested out various impact scenarios – head on and from above – and measured the force of those impacts. Standard benchmarks were applied to determine how likely the impacts were to cause severe, even life-threatening injuries. Of course, injury risk increased with the weight of the air vehicle. When dropped directly from above, the likelihood of the smallest craft causing severe neck injury was less than 10 percent. That risk rose to 70 percent with the largest craft. The drop tests tended to produce the most severe impacts. In deflection tests, the force and resulting injury were reduced. The study also found that drones which broke up upon impact, helped absorb some of the energy and reduced the force of the crash.  

Moving forward

The data gathered offers manufacturers insight as to how to design drones in a way that mitigates risk to those on the ground. It will also help inform future regulations of drone operations over people. These tests are just the beginning. There is a need to conduct more comprehensive tests. The team is already developing a broader set of controlled experiments to test the various ways drones and people interact. Read more about the Virginia Tech study.
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12Sep

Drone Inspections go nuclear with GPS and RADAR

AsteRx-m2 UASHigh-precision GPS receivers mounted on drones able to identify 1mm hairline defects in cooling towers  

Drones rise to the challenge

How do you inspect a structure that’s almost 160 m high and 120 m in diameter? With a few weeks to spare, a crash course in abseiling and a head for heights, a person could certainly give it a go. Imagine, however, that you need to collect enough data for a 3D model with the precision of 1 mm…all within a week. This was the challenge facing Aetos Drones. The company was tasked with inspecting a cooling tower at Tihange Nuclear Power Station near Liege in Belgium.  

Keeping reactors in top condition

The three reactors at the Tihange Power Station came online between 1975 and 1985. This makes the oldest of the three over 40 years old. Cooling towers built in this era have a life expectancy of 15-20 years. But, with careful maintenance, the lifetime can extend a further 20 years. The Tihange reactors contribute about 25% of all electricity generated in Belgium. The plan is to decommission the towers in 2025. Until then, the cooling towers need to be kept in good working order. Fortunately, drones equipped with highly precise and reliable GPS receivers can help.  

Corrosion and cooling towers

Pressurized Water Reactors, such as at Tihange, have cooling towers. These towers supply cold water to the condenser which works to cool the steam back into water. The steam drives the electricity-generating turbines. Cooling towers are elegantly simple in their operation. Warm water from the condenser sprays into the tower through a network of sprinklers, warming the surrounding air and causing it to rise. This in turn draws cooler air in through openings in the base of the tower maintaining a constant, natural draft of cool air through the tower. Corrosion is a possibility in any system where water plays a part. Cooling towers are hollow, thin-walled structures made from reinforced concrete. Over time, the humid environment can corrode the metal elements of the tower. In every cycle through the cooling tower, about 2% of the water evaporates forming the characteristic steam clouds. This increases the salt concentration in the remaining water which increases its corrosive power. In addition, high winds and winter icing can also cause damage and weaken the cooling tower.  

The inspection

Aetos Drones, were called in to carry out the inspections. And, Belgian's first certified drone pilot, Lieve Van Gijsel, took the helm. An octocopter fitted with a high-resolution camera, a RADAR system and an AsteRx-m UAS receiver conducted the inspection. The air vehicle took photographs at regular intervals as it traveled vertically up and down the sides of the cooling tower. The RADAR system was AIRobot’s Ranger, an add-on sensor specifically designed for distance detection on UAVs. The octocopter needed to get close enough to get quality images. However, the octocopter needed to maintain enough distance so as not to risk getting tossed around by the turbulence generated by the tower.  

Processing the images

Over the course of 4 days, more than 19,000 photographs of the cooling tower were taken. During the flight, the AsteRx-m UAS receiver logged GNSS measurements and the exact time each photograph was taken. After the flight, these shutter times and GNSS measurements were combined with GNSS measurements from a nearby base station using Septentrio’s GeoTagZ software. As such, each photograph was stamped with the cm-level precise RTK position of the camera – the ideal input for the next processing stage. After processing with GeoTagZ, the photographs were then uploaded to the photogrammetry software Agisoft PhotoScan. Over the course of several days, the photographs were stitched together to produce a highly-detailed 3D model of the cooling tower, precise to the level of 1 mm. Experts at Tihange then analyzed the surface of the cooling tower down to any required level of detail.  

Precise yes, but also reliable

3D inspection models with 1 mm resolution are made possible using high-quality, multi-frequency GNSS measurements from high-end receivers like the AsteRx-m. Not only does the positioning have to be precise, it has to be reliable. This requires: accurate error models, continuous tracking during mechanical jolts and advanced satellite integrity monitoring (RAIM). For large-structure inspections, such as this, multi-constellation positioning is essential to ensure there are always enough satellites available to work with. The receiver will also need a good multipath mitigation filter (APME) to disentangle direct and reflected satellite signals to avoid jumps in the calculated position.  

AsteRx-m2 UAS

The AsteRx-m UAS established itself as the receiver of choice for UAV applications requiring high-precision positioning. With the recent release of the  AsteRx-m2 UAS, drone inspections can take on applications at an entirely new level of difficulty. The AsteRx-m2 UAS adds BeiDou and Galileo as well as L5 frequency tracking. It also includes the AIM+ interference mitigation system. The additional constellations allow operation in areas where overhead structures limit the scope of single and dual-constellation receivers. Shop Septentrio's line of high accuracy receivers at Unmanned Systems Source.
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18Aug

Pentagon provides guidelines to create the ultimate no drone fly zone

Call it the ultimate No Drone Fly Zone. On Aug. 4 the Department of Defense (DoD) released classified guidelines for military personnel. The guidelines focused on available actions in the event of unauthorized drone intrusion over or around a military installation. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), along with other inter-agency partners, helped develop the guidelines. It follows classified guidance that was previously provided to the services and installations in early July. “Protecting our force remains a top priority and that’s why DoD issued the specific, but classified policy that details how DoD personnel may counter the unmanned aircraft threat,” said United States, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis.  

A growing concern?

According to a Pentagon spokesman, the guidance is to help address growing concerns around safety and security of military installations, aviation and people. And, certainly, drone use continues to explode across both recreational and commercial sectors. The FAA predicts the number of hobbyists will increase to 355 million by 2021. Commercial drone users are expected to increase to 442,000 during that same time period. Of course, all drone operators must adhere to FAA regulations and guidelines. Any flight operated beyond these regulations is considered unauthorized activity. In April, the Pentagon and FCC announced a new rule which prohibited any drone flights within 400 feet of 133 domestic installations. Pilots caught violating the restriction were subject to arrest. However, that announcement did not mention any direct action the military could take to destroy or intercept the drones.  

Tracking, disabling, destroying

If an unauthorized drone flight intrudes into military airspace, DoD personnel now have guidelines in place to respond to the threat. Authorized actions include: tracking, disabling and destroying drones. Of course, the authorized action depends on the circumstance and the type of installation where the drone activity is detected. “We support civilian law enforcement investigations in the prosecution of unauthorized UAS operations over military installations,” Davis said. “And though we do not discuss specific force-protection measures, we of course retain the right of self-defense. When it comes to UAS or drones operating over military installations, this new guidance does afford us the ability to take action to stop those threats.” Drone operators can find additional flight regulation information at the Know Before You Fly website. Before these guidelines, the military could take action to intercept a wayward drone. Those options included use of traditional ammunition to destroy the craft all the way to commandeering them via radio waves. In addition, intercepted crafts were subject to seizure “as part of investigations,” said Davis. So, wayward flyers beware, intruding over or around any of these 133 installations could result in the loss of your craft.
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13Jul

PingStation makes its debut from manufacturer uAvionix

uAvionix Corporation, the leading Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) avionics solution provider, recently announced the introduction of PingStation. PingStation is an all-weather, networkable ADS-B receiver for low and high altitude aircraft surveillance. Additionally, it is robust enough to permanently mount outdoors in harsh environmental conditions. It is also small enough for use as a mobile asset for roaming operations.

PingStation debut application

In its debut application, PingStation is a component in Phase 1 of Project UAS Secure Autonomous Flight Environment (U-SAFE). This program is part of a low-altitude Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS), Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) corridor. This corridor extends from Griffiss International Airport to Syracuse, NY. A grant from Empire State Development Corporation provides funding for Project U-SAFE. Additionally, PingStation provides ADS-B receiver capability for the Gryphon Sensors Mobile UTM System – Mobile SkyLight.  

Features of PingStation

PingStation is a dual band (978MHz and 1090MHz), networkable ADS-B receiver with a Power-Over-Ethernet (PoE) interface enclosed in an IP67 rated protective enclosure. Integrated is the TSO certified uAvionix FYX GPS receiver for high-resolution time-stamping for critical applications. It provides ground, surface, or low-altitude ADS-B surveillance within line of sight of the antenna, with ranges exceeding 250NM depending on the transmission power. PingStation has multiple uses within the aviation industry:
  • Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) systems
  • A component of UAS Ground Control Stations (GCS)
  • A component of UAS Detect and Avoid (DAA) systems
  • Airport surface and region situational awareness
  • FBO/flight school fleet tracking and management
Multiple subscription free software/data interface types allow easy integration directly into end applications such as UAS ground control stations, airport surface displays, or cloud-based situational awareness applications. Natively, PingStation provides integration into Virtual Radar Server, an open-source situational awareness mapping display system, the Kongsberg Geospatial IRIS UAS Airspace Situational Awareness Display, and INDMEX Aviation’s Airboss airport situational display suite.
PingStation Range Plot in Virtual Radar Server showing 50NM Range Rings.
“uAvionix is excited to add PingStation to our product line of ADS-B transceivers and receivers,” said Paul Beard, CEO of uAvionix. “Our customers informed us for the need of robust and low-cost surveillance solutions to complement the airborne equipment used in their operations.”   Shop uAvionix entire line of ADS-B products, including the PingStation, at Unmanned Systems Source.  

About uAvionix Corporation

uAvionix develops the world’s smallest, lightest and most affordable ADS-B transceivers, transponders, and GPS receivers. Based in Palo Alto, uAvionix has gathered a cross-disciplinary team of experts in embedded RF engineering, sUAS operations, avionics, hardware, software, and cloud services.
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