TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
ATC Changes
According to Marcus, traditional air traffic
management (ATM) systems are not
designed to handle the scale and complexity
of hundreds of thousands of drone flights a
day. Moreover, when drones rely on digital
information and services for automated
decision-making related to flight planning,
execution, and deconfliction they are not
suited to be directly integrated into ATM
systems. He agrees that a UTM solution
should provide the bridge between manned
and unmanned aircraft and fulfil obligations
about registration and authorisations.
“Ultimately, a UTM platform brings safety,
efficiency and scalability to drone traffic
management in order to help countries
realize the full economic and societal
potential of complex, high-volume
commercial drone operations,” he says.
Meanwhile the aviation authorities
continue to develop regulations and
standards to ensure that drones stay within
their designated operational areas and away
from manned aviation. The FAA for
example, is attempting to do this through
regulating drone design and manufacturing
in a similar way to how manned aircraft are
28 AIR TRAFFIC TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 2020
constructed. Simultaneously it is working on
an ID system for recreational drones and
collaborating with drone manufacturers to
developing geofencing features that will
trigger an action when a drone violates a
restricted flight zone’
“These restrictions on recreational drones
are what will really move the needle
regarding widespread drone use, as
off-the-shelf UAVs pose a greater risk of
going rogue than those flown by certified
commercial drone operators, who adhere to
strict operative and maintenance standards,”
he adds. v
THE DRONE OPERATOR’S PERSPECTIVE
According to Gavin Wishart, chairman
of the Association of Remotely Piloted
Aircraft Systems UK, drones operating
in a controlled airspace must be
clearly identifiable and able to react
to ATC instructions as manned
systems, as well as to follow similar
emergency procedures in the event
of occurrences such as system
failures. As is the case with manned
aviation, unmanned aerial systems
need to fly accurately within
defined tolerances, react in a timely
manner to ATC instructions and
meet the demands of the associated
operational requirements.
Wishart says, “When drones
operate in uncontrolled airspace,
the same rules apply as to manned
aviation, and approvals need to be
sought from the aviation authority.
The key element here is the detect
and avoid system they use. It needs
to be demonstrated to be at least as
capable as manned see and avoid
capabilities.”
However, Wishart does not believe
that legally-operated drones pose a
greater risk to life than other forms
of aviation - and argues that the
opposite is probably true because
more dangerous flights can be
conducted without any crew.
“The problem posed to other forms
of aviation is that drone operations
are more cost-e ective than manned
flights as well as potentially safer,
because there is no second-party
risk,” he says.
As far as necessary changes to
national airspace are concerned,
Wishart believes airspace capacity
is only constricted around key
airports and some upper air corridors,
“where technology limits what can
be assessed as safe separation
distances”. Nevertheless, he admits
the integration of a large number of
additional aircraft, such as drones,
into the airspace will require a
“radical change in how we control
and deconflict tra ic and maintain
safe separation”.
“It is clear that voice enacted
management is not sustainable and
can be imprecise. We therefore need
to consider more automated systems
and artificial intelligence could well
have a useful role to play here, if we
can build confidence in such systems
as well as assure their integrity
levels,” he says.
“In the short term, before approved
detect and avoid systems become the
norm, there may be an opportunity
to allocate a discrete flight level
for drone operations to reduce the
mid-air collision risk with manned
aviation,” he adds.
© ASG ltd
Systems that integrate with
ATC operations to protect flight
paths at low altitudes have to
be tested before integration
into current systems