White House Drone Workshop Touts More Advanced Applications for Drones
Building on new operational rules for small commercial drones that will take effect later this month, government officials and representatives from the unmanned aircraft systems industry said they're eyeing even bigger technological advancements like collision avoidance and better connectivity that will permit more sophisticated operations in remote and populated locations. A White House workshop Tuesday with academic, industry and government representatives touted achievements thus far but also pointed to challenges, signaling the need for more collaboration and innovation on technology, policy and regulations to move the sector forward. Spectrum was discussed briefly, privacy hardly at all.
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“This is an industry that is moving at the speed of Silicon Valley and we at the [Federal Aviation Administration] know that we can’t respond at the speed of government,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. He said the agency is chartering a safety team with a wide variety of stakeholders from the drone and aviation industries. Its mission is to analyze safety data to identify and address emerging threats that drones might pose to aircraft, people and property and prevent accidents, he said. Four months ago, the FAA said it will form a drone advisory committee (see 1605040017) to help the agency safely integrate drones into the national airspace. Huerta said membership on the committee will be announced soon.
Huerta also lauded industry growth. He said the drone registration system that was developed in a few weeks and implemented in December (see 1512140019 and 1601060045) has more than 520,000 registrants. "To put that in perspective, we have only 320,000 registered manned aircraft on the aircraft registry of the United States and it took us 100 years to get there," he said.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced several activities to boost drone advancement. The National Science Foundation will earmark $35 million in research funding over the next five years to improve and augment drone use for various applications, and New York state will invest $5 million to create a drone innovation and manufacturing hub to study an unmanned traffic management system.
Several academic and government officials said drones will be able to help the Department of Interior and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration monitor vast or remote areas and gather data, provide cost-effective, efficient and safe means to help with response and recovery efforts during earthquakes, flooding and storms, and help quickly and efficiently inspect power lines and other infrastructure. It's "another important step forward in realizing the enormous potential of unmanned aerial systems, and will help speed up our development and adoption of this technology, which still lags behind other countries," said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in a statement.
Huerta said the Part 107 small drone rule that takes effect Aug. 29 is "designed to allow commercial drone operations while minimizing risk to other aircraft as well as to people and property on the ground. And it will provide an important regulatory foundation for allowing additional operations in the future." The rule will permit drones 55 pounds or less to fly up to 400 feet high and up to 100 miles per hour during the day (see 1606210025). Huerta cited another FAA initiative with industry members including BNSF Railroad, CNN and PrecisionHawk that's examining drones operating beyond the visual line of sight. And by year's end, he said he expects proposed rules for drones operating over people to be released.
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, who co-leads the drone advisory committee, said there are several technology "imperatives" for the sector: Collision avoidance is one critical need as commercial operations swell with, for example, hundreds or a thousand drones in the air "separated by only a few meters." Other imperatives include training pilots to monitor and manage multiple drones at a time, which could lower costs, plus making drones much smarter so they can operate autonomously beyond the visual line of sight, said Krzanich. He also cited the need for better connectivity and communications. While 4G is available, it's not always available or robust in cities to help with operations, which could be addressed with the coming of 5G, he said.
Spectrum will need to be viewed in the context of the entire communication, navigation and surveillance architecture proposed for these operations, said John Hansman, aeronautics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also said there's an issue of scalability and a data encryption question. Jim Eck, FAA assistant administrator-NextGen, said interoperability is another issue that needs to be addressed. He said drone operations shouldn't be viewed in a "vacuum" but "the total spectrum needs of the community is important as well."
Krzanich said a collaborative environment must be created to help address several regulatory issues such as safety, scalability, spectrum and privacy. But Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who is on the Commerce Committee, said privacy rules must be in place before more drones take flight. "While I am pleased that the White House continues its efforts to safely integrate drones into our national airspace, when it comes to drone privacy, we are still essentially flying blind,” Markey said in a statement. “As more drones take flight, voluntary privacy guidelines and best practices are simply not enough. Drones flying overhead could collect very sensitive and personally identifiable information about millions of Americans, but right now, we don’t have sufficient safeguards in place to protect our privacy." He introduced S-635 last year to provide privacy protections to individuals (see 1503030050). Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., is sponsoring legislation in the House.
In the news release, the White House cited the NTIA-driven process that developed voluntary privacy guidelines (see 1605190007 and 1605200048), and a new report from the Future of Privacy Forum, Intel and PrecisionHawk that highlights technologies and practices to help drone users to reduce data collection and retention and other risks. FPF said in a separate news release that the report provides "concrete examples" of how privacy-by-design techniques are being used to "obfuscate images of individuals collected from the air, and secure personally identifiable information."
CTA hailed the Obama administration and OSTP for hosting the Tuesday event, Douglas Johnson, vice president-technology policy, said in a statement. Drone technology “will significantly improve the ways we deliver goods and supplies, produce crops and maintain critical infrastructure,” he said. The technology is “advancing quickly, and we're confident technology will provide solutions to policy challenges as drones are integrated into the national airspace,” he said. “Future U.S. policy and technology leadership depends on how quickly and how well we take the next crucial steps, including operations beyond the line of sight."