The first steps toward eliminating restrictions on some drone usage kicked off last week with a limited permit filed for a new group of drones in the United States.
Drones have been a significant technological player in the market of both technology development and transportation. Most drones must abide by many legal and market-based restrictions, including the need for a human operator.
Drones have been in use by the military since the 1980s and 1990s as a form of surveillance and “decoy” use. The first commercial drones came into operation in 2006 after the Federal Aviation Administration filed the first permits for their commercial use. As the technologies became more advanced, so did the market viability of the product. It wasn’t until 2013 that Amazon announced its Prime Air project. The delivery company would use drones to deliver packages to locales quickly. The project captured the public’s imagination and has existed as the standard for much of what the public anticipates from drones’ future use.
The FAA approved Amazon’s permits for the use of drones as deliverymen in December 2020, establishing a specific set of rules that would address the particular safety and security concerns that each potential company would need to manage. For example, the drones would have to be identified by remote IDs in case of an emergency or error within the device. Amazon’s current drone models are authorized to operate beyond an operator’s line of sight, but they still require manual control by the operator.
However, one company is attempting to remove the human variable from the equation. American Robotics, one of the leading providers of commercial drones in the U.S., received FAA approval on Jan. 15 to operate automated drones “beyond visual line of sight,” or BVLOS for short. The drone in question, known as the Scout, is designed to gather information for its owners. A representative from American Robotics told the Washington Examiner that Scout’s web portal and API “captures a tremendous amount of raw data from advanced imaging sensors every day,” and it then converts it into a usable format through local internet connections. This information is then transferred back to the user for research purposes.
Much of this independence draws from what American Robotics calls its “advanced acoustic Detect-and-Avoid” technology. DAA will use its ability to sense and detect approaching sound sources to divert or avoid in-air collisions. The Scout can store and seal itself in a charging box that comes with the drone, a container that keeps the drone safe from environmental damage when not in use.
The Scout drone is legally allowed to fly up to 2 miles away from its base port and up to 400 feet in the air, per FAA regulations.
However, the Scout is not free from humans yet. FAA documents state that a human operator will still need to run each drone through a safety checklist before each flight. The aircraft will also need to be inspected regularly to ensure there are no flaws that could lead to failure.
This legal development is a significant step forward because it will allow the drones to begin operations immediately. The Scout system is currently authorized to operate in select parts of Kansas, Massachusetts, and Nevada, where American Robotics or its customers, which American Robotics disclosed to be Growmark, Mid-Kansas Cooperative, and A.D. Makepeace, are located. The intent of these particular permits will not only allow the companies to operate but also “provide the FAA with critical data for use in evaluating BVLOS operations from off-site locations” in hopes of increasing drone efficiencies soon.
When asked if the public will see similar permits filed in the future, the FAA told the Washington Examiner that it conducts “thorough safety assessments before issuing any unmanned aircraft operation approvals.”
