uas magazine- q4

Q4 2015

PlusLeaders Of The Privacy Debate 4

AND Embry-Riddle’s sUAS Consumer Guide Page 6

NASA, private industry resolving aerial traffic issues Page 20

www.UASmagazine.comPrinted in USA

Focus On Flight Management

www.UASMAGAZINE.com 3

CONTENTS Q4 2015 VOLUME 2 ISSUE 4

ON THE COVER: A construction manager operates a small unmanned aircraft vehicle using a traffic management program provided by Botlink. PHOTO: BOTLINK

04 EDITOR’S NOTEWhy 2015 Was Historic For UASBy Luke Geiver

06 UAS NEWSCreating a UAS Consumer GuideBy UAS Magazine staff

08 UAS NEWSChanging Focus of CongressBy UAS Magazine staff

10 UAS NEWSUAS Pathfinder BreakthroughsBy UAS Magazine staff

FEATURES14 POLICY AND REGULATIONStakeholder Perspectives: UAS and PrivacyThe National Telecommunications and Information Administration has begun a multi-stakeholder process to debate and reach consensus on how the UAS industry should approach privacy. By Luke Geiver

20 OPERATIONSBringing UAS Traffic Management Down To EarthUAS service providers and operators discuss strategies to achieve their goal of operating beyond visual line of sight through traffic management strategies. By Patrick C. Miller

ADVERTISER INDEX5 Applanix Corporation

17 Broadcast Microwave Services, Inc.

2 Cyclops Technologies, Inc.

28 Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corporation

19 International Drone Expo

13 Northwest UAV

18 RDO Integrated Controls

16 Red Consultants

27 UAS Summit & Expo 2016

23 Unmanned Risk Management

UAS MAGAZINE Q4 20154

There is only one way to describe UAS in 2015: His-toric. It can easily be argued that during the past 12 months, the number of first-time accomplishments or breakthrough moments recorded was unrivaled in the history of UAS.

By year’s end, more than 2,300 entities in the U.S. will have officially operated a small unmanned aircraft vehicle for commercial purposes in the national airspace (compared to eight last year). Over the holidays, a record number of sUAVs–– U.S. Federal Aviation Administration estimates 1 million platforms–– will be purchased. Microsoft Corp. and Hasselblad—the Swedish camera maker responsible for the first picture ever taken on the moon—entered the UAS industry. Thanks to Insitu and BNSF, the Smithson-ian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., will soon be displaying the fixed-wing ScanEagle used to conduct the first-ever beyond visual-line-of-sight flight per-

formed without a daisy-chain approach or a chase plane following the UAV. Through the FAA Pathfinder project, the ScanEagle flew more than 100 miles of BNSF-owned rail line. Charlton Evans, Insitu’s program manager for commercial and civil operations, told UAS Magazine Staff Writer Patrick Miller that as BNSF team members watched a live video stream of the flight over the ScanEagle operators’ shoulders, “they were coming up with use cases for the system that they hadn’t thought of prior,” and that such commentary is “just a natural extension of seeing the system at work.

There is no reason for the momentum to wain in the coming year. Pathfinder work will continue, more 333s will be granted, rules for sUAS should become official and among many other 2016 probabilities, test sites will continue to solidify research capable of driving standards and policies. To help illuminate the UAS scene in 2016, we close out the year with a look at two of the most important issues standing in the way of the UAS industry’s complete acceptance and role in our lives.

In the feature, “Stakeholder Perspectives: UAS and Privacy,” we detailed the efforts of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to lead a group of industry-affiliated entities toward the creation of a best practices guide for UAS privacy concerns. The NTIA was chosen to be a neutral moderator in the process based on its previous work help-ing solidify the framework and operating standards for a different industry the UAS world is sometimes compared to: the Internet. The NTIA’s efforts to date have yielded an array of opinions on what is important to consider when talking about UAS and privacy. Although there is no clear timeline for an end result, the efforts of the NTIA and stakeholders involved reveal the overarching challenges for all involved in explaining how the UAS industry intersects with privacy.

To highlight the incredible work of several private and public entities that are making UAS traffic management safe and secure—from North Dakota-based Botlink to world-recognized NASA—Miller laid out the many approaches being deployed today. A large part of the effort is providing UAS operators with the information they need to improve situational awareness, which includes knowing where manned and unmanned aircraft are operating, weather condi-tions and temporary flight restrictions.

We look forward to the year ahead. In fact, like most of you, we are ramping up our operations. Expect additional print issues of UAS Magazine in 2016. As the historic rise of UAS continues, we are here to be part of it.

Why 2015 Was Historic For UAS

EDITOR'S NOTE

Luke GeiverEditor, UAS [email protected]

TM

Please recycle this magazine and remove inserts or samples before recycling

COPYRIGHT © 2015by BBI International

www.UASmagazine.com

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 4

EDITORIAL Editor Luke Geiver [email protected]

Staff Writer Patrick C. Miller [email protected]

Staff Writer Ann [email protected]

Copy Editor Jan [email protected]

PUBLISHING & SALESChairman Mike Bryan [email protected]

CEO Joe Bryan [email protected]

President Tom Bryan [email protected]

Vice President of Operations Matthew Spoor [email protected]

Vice President of Content Tim Portz [email protected]

Business Development Manager Bob Brown [email protected]

Account Manager Austin Maatz [email protected]

Marketing & Sales Director John Nelson [email protected]

Circulation Manager Jessica Beaudry [email protected]

Marketing & Advertising Manager Marla DeFoe [email protected]

ARTArt Director Jaci Satterlund [email protected]

Graphic Designer Lindsey Noble [email protected]

Subscriptions Subscriptions to UAS Magazine are free of charge to everyone with the exception of a shipping and handling charge of $49.95 for any country outside the United States. To subscribe, visit www.UASmagazine.com or you can send your mailing address and payment (checks made out to BBI International) to: UAS Magazine/Subscriptions, 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203. You can also fax a subscription form to 701-746-5367. Reprints and Back Issues Select back issues are available for $3.95 each, plus shipping. Article reprints are also available for a fee. For more information, contact us at 866-746-8385 or [email protected]. Advertising UAS Magazine provides a specific topic delivered to a highly targeted audience. We are committed to editorial excellence and high-quality print production. To find out more about UAS Magazine advertising opportunities, please contact us at 866-746-8385 or [email protected]. Letters to the Editor We welcome letters to the editor. If you write us, please include your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity and/or space. Send to UAS Magazine/Letters, 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203 or email to [email protected].

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UASConsumer Guide

____________

2016

UAS NEWS UAV NEWS & TRENDS

Brett Terwilliger and his team at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide want to make unmanned aircraft vehicle consumers’ aviation experts. “There are a lot of people that understand technology but not aviation,” Terwilliger said. To help first-time and experienced sUAV buyers with their next purchase, Terwilliger, program chair of ERAU’s Unmanned Systems College of Aeronautics, is uniting ERAU faculty and students to create a consumer guide complete with a detailed review of several sUAV platforms.

The guide will also provide

information on flight operations, safety protocols and regulatory necessities. “These are aircraft. With that understanding comes a level of knowledge, skills and abil-ity that really needs to be applied in their operation. To be able to maintain safety and effectiveness of this technology we need to make sure folks have access to the tools they need to succeed,” he said.

To create the guide, the ERAU team identified more than 500 UAVs. After narrowing its review criteria, the group created a list of roughly 375 platforms that would be suitable for inclusion

in a review. Although the guide will not be complete by the 2015 holiday shopping season—the U.S. Federal Aviation Administra-tion estimates roughly 700,000 to 1 million sUAV will be purchased this holiday season—Terwilliger said the guide could be complete in 2016.

Test flights have already been performed on multiple sUAVs and future test flights and demonstra-tions are planned in 2016. Review members will also compare their own findings to other reviews. A crowdfunding campaign has been started to fund the purchase of sUAVs for review. Terwilliger

is also seeking industry support through the donation of plat-forms to enhance the number of sUAVs reviewed in the guide.

“This guide will be prepared to help users evaluate options for purchase, appropriate to their skill and experience levels, while introducing key metrics for future consumer comparison,” he said.

Consumers will not only receive intel on the best sUAV for their specific plans. The guide also helps ERAU’s efforts in educating the general sUAV operator on the safety aspects and responsibilities of flying, Terwilliger said.

Detailed sUAS Consumer Guide in the Works

ASSESSED ATTRIBUTES- Max Speed- Endurance- Payload Capacity- Camera Quality- Price- Comm Range- Utility- Critical Metrics- Construction Quality- Operational Ease- Accuracy- User Support


UAS NEWS

TEAM ROLESUAS Faculty-Provide guidance, oversight-Perform operational evaluations Students-Create sUAS performance values-Examine, compare platform reviews-Analyze platform results

Platform Selection Criteria-Price: less than $3,500 including operations equipment, second battery, charger, transport case-Platform type: electric, multirotor-Replaceable battery-7.5 lbs or less

Must Have For Review-Availability of PC, tablet, monitor for display of telemetry-HD camera compatible if not provided-Registered

Platforms Already AssessedDJI Inspire 1

Parrot BebopBlade 350 QX3

3DR IRIS+

Future Test Flights, Demos

Spring, Summer 2016

IDEAL IMPERFECTRATING

MOVING THE METERTo create a score for each sUAV tested, the team will utilize its list of attributes. Each platform review will also be compared to other reviews. Part of the goal is also related to education. Moving the meter for the team also means educating users on the rules and regulations of flight.

<$499

$500-$999

$1,000-$2,499

$2,500+

PRICING

Training17

USES

Recreation17

Aerial Filming12

Research7


UAS NEWS

In a rare appearance before a congressional committee held this fall, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Michael Huerta answered several questions on UAS. His comments highlighted the level of understand-ing and shifting focus Congress has displayed on the topic of UAS throughout the past year. According to Huerta, the FAA is making prog-ress, even if it is slow (new policy creation is meant to be slow, Huerta reminded Congress). The FAA is working to deal with the changing focus of Congress regarding UAVs while it continues its unprecedented

efforts to bring UAS into the na-tional airspace. Roughly 18 months ago, privacy was a big issue amongst Congress members, he said. Then, the focus shifted to getting UAS into the NA quicker. “Today,” he said, “safety is a big issue.”

A look back at the FAA’s par-ticipation in congressional hearings shows that Huerta is right. It also reveals that those three themes—safety, integration into the NAS and privacy concerns—have been pres-ent in every hearing. Each hearing has had a main focus, however.

Shifting Views of Congress


UAS NEWS


UAS NEWS

In coordination with Verizon, Harris and Digital-Globe Inc., PrecisionHawk has completed initial testing on its low-altitude traffic and airspace safety (LATAS) system. Verizon provided its LTE network, while Harris supplied its ADS-B network. Digital-Global provided access to its big data system to record and analyze the findings from the a flight employing LATAS. The system connects airspace safety technologies such as detect and avoid, dynamic geofencing and aircraft tracking to provide “safety as a service” for the drone market, according to PrecisionHawk.

The company was granted the ability to perform LATAS testing through its inclusion into the FAA’s Pathfinder program. PrecisionHawk was given the ability to explore UAS flights outside the pilots direct vision. “We are leveraging satellite-derived information to create consistent information

and analytics for safe drone flights,” said Shay Har-Noy, senior director of geospatial big data at DigitalGlobe. “This is significant collaboration that represents a huge step forward for the FAA and the safety and well-being of the American public.”

UAS Pathfinder UpdatesLATAS IN FLIGHT

Following an increase in reports of UAVs operating in close proximity to runways and airports, the FAA has added a new participant to its Pathfinder efforts. Through CACI, an aero-space technology developer, the FAA will allow the testing of a system to detect, identify and track UAVs flying in restricted airspace. The CACI system detects various sensor systems. The FAA will deploy the system at select airports and report findings in the future.

PATHFINDER ADD-ON

The first commercial beyond-visual-line-of-sight operation in the continuous 48 states happened in New Mexico, thanks to the FAA’s Pathfinder program. In October, Insitu flew its fixed-wing ScanEagle along a section of railroad owned and operated by BNSF. The flights occurred during a week-long period across a railway section spanning 132 miles. All flights were performed with the ap-proval of the FAA through its Pathfinder project.

Insitu coordinated the flights with the U.S. Air Force and other nearby airports. Visual observers were stationed at three airports. There were no ground observers or chase aircraft used to monitor the flight of the

ScanEagle. The first flight test spanned 64 miles and provided the operators and BNSF partici-pants with real-time video.

Charlton Evans, Insitu’s program manager for com-mercial and civil operation, said BNSF can use its UAV to moni-tor warped track, washouts, ma-jor erosions or bridge outages. “This is a supplemental method of seeing things in a more real-time way,” Evan said. “While all those other sensor methods are able to give them a whole ton of data, there’s really nothing like seeing the track just before the train gets there to know that the track is, in fact, there and healthy and ready for the next train.”

During testing, BNSF rep-resentatives were watching the

operations. According to Evans, the BNSF team was discussing more use cases for the system even as it was in flight.

BNSF currently monitors tracks with ground- or vehicle-mounted sensors along with handheld sensors. Following the flights, the Smithsonian National

Air and Space Museum asked Insitu to donate the ScanEagle to the museum. “It’s neat to make a little history now and again,” he said. “I don’t know how many aviation firsts there are left to make, but this is defi-nitely a couple of them that we are proud of.”

HISTORIC BVLOS FLIGHT

SOURCE: LATAS

PHOTO: INSITU


UAS NEWS

Technology developers focused on the unmanned aircraft systems industry are turning their attention to the ground. A major UAS manu-facturer and a national think tank––Lockheed Martin and Battelle Memorial Institute, respectively ––have issued updates on work to mitigate out-of-boundary or dangerous unmanned aircraft vehicles through ground-based opera-tions and equipment.

With its new system called ICARUS, Lockheed can detect and counter emerging UAV threats. The system can detect, locate and mitigate an approaching UAV. Lockheed displayed the system at a mili-tary event earlier this year. The system relies on data captured through imagery, acoustic and radio frequency sensors to effectively cancel out an approaching UAV’s cameras, disable flight or take control of the UAV to move it to a safe zone. The non-kinetic

system is designed for group 1 UAS and sUAS platforms.

“The U.S. government is seeing an increase in the use of commercially available UAS platforms for surveillance and weaponization,” said Deon Viergutz, vice president of cyber solutions for Lockheed. Viergutz said ICARUS can offer “pinpoint accuracy” in detecting UAS with its soft-ware package.

Battelle has also come out with an anti-drone technology package. The institution has trademarked a system it calls the DroneDefender. Devel-oped for use on a long-rifle platform, Battelle describes the system as a “portable, ac-curate, rapid-to-use” counter-weapon capable of stopping suspicious or hostile drones in flight.

Up to 400 meters, the point and shoot system can repel drones without doing damage to the systems. Any system operating with a GPS

or ISM band frequency can be controlled by the Drone-Defender. Battelle has already demonstrated the system in field trials. The system has also been showcased on a YouTube video featured on the Battelle homepage. In the video, an sUAV attempts to fly over a restricted and fenced area. A security agent steps out of a truck, grabs and de-ploys the system by pointing it directly at the drone in flight. The security agent then directs the drone to the ground by moving the tip of the system towards the ground.

The DroneDefender could be available to the public in 2016, Battelle said. The platform weighs less than 10 pounds and can be run in a fixed or portable scenario. In either scenario, the system can be operated for roughly 10 minutes.

Detecting, Controlling Dangerous UAVs

To complete its research on UAV flights above crowds for the purpose of newsgathering, CNN has selected a New Zealand-based unmanned aircraft system. The Delta X8, a multirotor designed by Altus Unmanned Aerial Solutions, will be used by the CNN team. The Altus team has already been working with U.S.-based Blue Chip Unmanned Aerial Solutions. Blue Chip has a section 333 exemp-tion to operate the Altus X8 for aerial filming and photography. The Kansas-based entity has also been testing the X8 at the National Institute of Aviation Research.

Blue Chip will train the CNN team to fly and operate the chosen UAV. The platform features an 8-rotor brushless motor system paired with a dual autopilot and emergency recovery parachute. The New Zealand firm said there is note a safer multirotor platform on the market today.

Through its Pathfinder research, CNN will also use other platforms and work with other entities, including Georgia Tech University and the NYFD.

THE RIGHT UAV FOR THE JOB

PHOTO: ALTUS UNMANNED AERIAL SOLUTIONS


UAS NEWS

Microsoft Corp. and high-end camera maker Hasselblad have entered the unmanned aircraft systems market through partnerships with major small unmanned aircraft vehicle plat-form manufacturers.

DJI has acquired a strate-gic, undisclosed minority stake in the Sweden-based camera firm because the two “share a passion to provide creative people with cutting-edge, inven-tive technology to help them take visual storytelling to the next level,” according to Frank Wang, DJI founder and CEO. DJI is no stranger to camera creation. Earlier this year, it released a product called the Zenmuse X5. The Zenmuse X5 features a three-axis gimbal stabilization system and a sen-sor that allows for eight times greater pixel clarity than any previous DJI versions.

There has been no official word on the next step for DJI and Hasselblad, but each will continue designing and manu-

facturing their products in their current locations. Hasselblad will continue building cameras in Sweden while DJI will con-tinue to make its platforms in Shenzhen, China.

Aeryon Labs Inc., a Canada-based sUAS manufac-turer, has formed a tech-based partnership with Microsoft. The SkyRanger, Aeryon’s sUAS, will be paired with Microsoft’s advanced patrol vehicle that is made for law enforcement and emergency personnel. The Microsoft Advanced Patrol Plat-form vehicle is equipped with a tablet and mobile device that provides information and real-time intelligence. The MAPP vehicle was designed, in part, by law enforcement officials.

“Including SkyRanger within MAPP vehicles rounds out the comprehensive suite of technologies and highlights the value of aerial intelligence for ground-based personnel,” said Dave Kroetsch, Aeryon presi-dent and CEO.

Big Name Firms Enter Drone Industry

MOONSHOT: Hasselblad is known for its role in providing the camera that took the first ever image on the moon. IMAGE: HASSELBLAD

FLY AND DRIVE: The Microsoft MAPPS vehicle will be complete with the addition of a sUAS. SOURCE: MICROSOFT CORP.

MORE TO OFFER: Although DJI has already released several new camera and gimbal offerings this year, its partnership with Hasselblad will expand its reach in the UAV-based film-making industry. IMAGE: DJI


UAS NEWS

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Virginia Tech University researchers have developed a computer simulation model that reveals the effects of a small unmanned aircraft vehicle’s impact on an airliner’s turbofan jet engine. Current turbofan en-gines are designed to withstand the ingestion of birds, hail or small runway debris. Until now, the effects of a drone-to-engine encounter were unknown. “We never—in the design of these systems decades ago—thought about an actual rigid object as big as a drone flying next to the engine and being ingested by it,” said Javid Bayander, as-sociate professor of mechanical

engineering at Virginia Tech, and the director of the school’s Crashworthiness for Aero-space Structures and Hybrids (CRASH) lab.

The simulation research found that an sUAV could cre-ate significant damage to the engine. “A jet engine is a very delicate system and the toler-ances are minute,” Bayander said. “If you introduce an un-balance to the system through the impulse that a drone brings with it and then cause even one blade to move a little bit off-center, everything around the shroud will be affected by it.”

Simulation Model Shows Engine Ingesting Drone

INGESTION IMAGE: In addition to modeling for turbo fan jet engines and small UAVs, the VT researchers will also look at the effect of a sUAV colliding with a helicopter blade. SOURCE: VIRGINIA TECH UNIVERSITY


POLICY AND REGULATION

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is leading a multi participant process to address the main questions and plausible answers to privacy issues for the UAS industry.

By Luke Geiver

The issue of privacy for the unmanned aircraft systems in-dustry has never been more public. Following the now-famous drone on the White House lawn event that pushed the UAS and privacy issue into the brightest of spotlights, the Obama administration took action. The administration created a multi-stakeholder process designed to explore and entertain the plausible answers to the many concerns voiced by both industry skeptics and supporters on the topic of privacy. To lead the process, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration was tasked to act as main moderator and push stakeholders past petty arguments on process or general constitu-tional rights toward a definition of privacy rela-tive to what is and is not acceptable when UAS operate in the national airspace.

Why NTIA? When the Obama administration issued

its memorandum of understanding calling on NTIA to commence its UAS efforts, Juliana Gruenwald, press secretary for NTIA, said the goal was to come up with best practices related to privacy, transparency and accountability in commercial and private use of UAS. “The rea-son they looked to us to do that is we have a track record for driving these stakeholder-driv-en processes,” she says.

Previously, the NTIA led efforts for two different privacy-related processes. It has also earned a reputation for succeeding with the process for an industry that some believe the UAS world could someday rival: the Internet.

“We have been big champions of this tool of multistakeholder processes,” Gruenwald says. “The idea is that you have the stakehold-

ers come up with the process and drive the so-lution.”

According to Gruenwald, this is how the Internet is run, and how NTIA was able to push an Internet focused stakeholder group to create practices used today. Various groups, like the internet engineer task force, comes up with technical proposals and a group of stakehold-ers vets out the proposals before finalizing a course of action or protocol implementation. The NTIA acts as a neutral convener by posing questions, gathering perspective and pushing the right buttons during the process to garner resolution towards a more realized end goal. When stakeholders disagree, NTIA’s role is to help the parties involved reach clarity on what their positions are and whether there are op-tions for compromise toward consensus, the NTIA says.

Stakeholder PerSPectiveS:

UAS AND PRIVACY


Following the presidential memorandum is-sued in February, NTIA set up a call for public comment in March. While the NTIA process to date has completed three stakeholder meetings broadcast live from Washington, D.C., along with an evolving draft of best practices, the work on ad-dressing the issue of privacy has, essentially, gone under the radar. But, the multi stakeholder process could someday be viewed as the foothold for all future UAS-privacy discussions. Unlike other ef-forts of the NTIA, this UAS work will not yield official regulations, instead only a best case scenar-io, a code of conduct or list of best practices that UAS industry members could or should abide by. Based on the range of participating stakeholders (and the range of participant perspectives) the is-sue of privacy is a long way from becoming clear. Several trends have emerged through the process, however. And, when the process is concluded, it is clear the topic of privacy, transparency and ac-countability will have been well-vetted.

Stakeholders’ View When NTIA issued a call for comments

and an invitation for stakeholders to participate in its efforts, more than 50 entities responded. “It’s been an interesting group compared to some of our past processes,” Gruenwald says. One of the past privacy efforts NTIA led was for cell phone app privacy issues. That group created a code of conduct that, if adopted by companies, opened

up each firm to federal trade commission enforce-ment. The UAS effort will not yield such serious consequences. “For some of these people, it is a different process. The government isn’t driving the process, they are.”

The list of stakeholders involved in the pro-cess today, or have issued commentary to the NTIA in the past, is wide-ranging, from Amazon to major law firms to Tim McGowan, a comment provider who only offered a short statement and a home mailing address. McGowan’s comments, however short or stark when compared to the multi paged, professionally penned statements by others, seemed to highlight one of the main issues many of the stakeholders in the process pointed out early on in the process.

In providing his comments, McGowan wrote, “Just so long as I can shoot them [sUAVs] when they take pictures or photos of me, my fam-ily or my property I have no problem with them. I would also like to get paid when they travel across my property,” he said.

Brendan Schulman, writing from the per-spective of a long-time UAS industry player and actual sUAV pilot (and not the legal counsel for DJI he is now), helped bring the comments and views of McGowan into a greater context. Should the UAS industry receive special privacy regula-tion or do current laws suffice? Does McGowan’s commentary mean UAS should require special at-tention?


INDUSTRY GATHERING: Experts and operators from all sized entities talked UAS earlier this year at the UAS Summit & Expo. Privacy was a popular topic.

TRANSPARENCY: Exercising reason-able efforts to provide transparency for the collection and use of data. UAS operators should make a reasonable effort to iden-tify UAS, provide prior notice that sensitive data may be collected and create data collection policy when inciden-tal collection may occur. (Transparency principle not ap-plicable to operators that use third-party data collectors or when land, property owners consent to data collection)

PURPOSE SPECIFICATION: Specifying how collected data will be used no later than at the time of collection. UAS operators should make effort to specify purpose of UAS sensitive data collection at time of collection, avoid operation when data collection subject has reasonable expectation of privacy, and avoid persistent collection of sensitive data.

DATA MINIMIZATION: Limiting collec-tion and retention of sensitive data to that which needed to achieve speci-fied purposes. UAS operators should make reasonable effort to prevent UAS from entering private property or airspace without prior consent, explain data retention period for sensitive data.

USE LIMITATION: Not using or sharing sensitive data for certain purposesCommercial UAS operators commit to making reason-able and responsible use of sensitive data; share sensi-tive data as reasonable for those uses; sensitive data collected without consent may not be used for employ-ment eligibility, promotion, retention, credit eligibility or health care treatment; avoid using data for marketing, generally avoid sharing data with law enforcement.

INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPATION: Facilitating informed and reasonable choices to data subjects regarding the collection, use and retention of sensitive data. UAS operators should offer data subjects reasonable means to review sensitive data and make sure data re-mains accurate.

SECURITY: Exercising reasonable ef-forts to secure collected and retained dataCommercial operators should employ reasonable ad-ministrative, physical and technical safeguards to pro-tect sensitive data.

ACCOUNTABILITY: Establishing internal accountability controls to ensure com-pliance with privacy policies and lawsEstablish process for receiving privacy, security or safety concerns, identify individuals to oversee com-pliance with laws.

7 BEST PRACTICE PRINCIPALS

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Information from the NTIA's best practices working draft as of October 2015.



“Physical intrusions that capture photog-raphy in inappropriate locations or to advance prurient interests are already largely addressed by state laws concerning stalking, unlawful sur-veillance, trespassing, peeping and similar civil and criminal provisions,” Schulman said.

James Grimsley, president of Design Intel-ligence LLC and the Oklahoma UAS chapter of the Association of Unmanned Vehicles Systems International, echoed Schulman’s stance on UAS-specific privacy rules. “Although a few of the privacy concerns are unique to UAS, most others are not. Often,” he said, “broadly appli-cable laws or rules already cover the perceived harm in question”

For Schulman and Grimsley, addressing the privacy concerns of many relative to UAS requires a look at what may make UAS tech-nology unique and in need of new or specific rules. “I strongly believe it is important to focus the policymaking process on privacy harms the multi stakeholder participants determine are re-alistically unique to UAS technology and avoid imaginary harms that have no rational basis in

reality, or that are already addressed by existing laws,” Grimsely said.

“An invasion of privacy achieved by use of a tripod and zoom lens is just as offensive as one achieved by use of a drone, and likely already prohibited,” Schulman said. “Thus, the focus should be on what differences, if any, render UAS technology subject to differing standards or use restrictions,” he said.

The differing standards should be based on the following: operational location of the UAS in places where manned aircraft cannot fly or do not typically fly; operational location of the UAS at altitudes below “navigable airspace” in places that raise actual privacy concerns; operations that involve persistent surveillance as opposed to the more transient nature of manned aircraft operations and data security issues when the captured data involves personally identifiable in-formation of non-consenting persons.

Jill Bronfman, program director of the pri-vacy and technology project at the University of California Hasting’s college of law, believes we need to redefine the legal privacy parameters

and physical space perimeters to include aerial space. “To leave this space unregulated is to in-vite commerce in without safeguards for indi-vidual privacy,” she said.

A congressional hearing earlier this year debated the topic of reasonable aerial space pri-vacy perimeters. Hearing members asked if pri-vacy expectations were considered to span sev-eral feet above a property or if a drone hovering only inches above ground within the boundaries of a private property was still legal.

While few stakeholders have voiced con-cern over aerial privacy perimeter standards, many pointed to the data captured through UAV operations as a crucial topic in addressing the privacy issue. AUVSI spoke to data directly, saying, that, “…the real issue at hand is the col-lection, retention and sharing of data. There is no difference between an image taken from a two-pound sUAS, a manned helicopter or a large UAS flying in class A airspace. It’s the ac-tivity of collecting data that should be regulated as opposed to the platform doing the collect-ing,” they said.



Jerry Mohr, president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association voiced concerns about data collection in the agriculture sector. “We recognize that state and local governments may also find value in using UAS for designated gov-ernmental purposes,” he said. “However, any data incidentally collected by any government agency regarding private property must not be used for regulatory purposes against farmers and must not be able to be obtained by out-side parties under a Freedom of Information request.”

To address the data issue, many stakehold-ers suggest a notice of operations model should be deployed. Bronfman said disclosure of infor-mation models should be utilized. Online ser-vice maps, posted notices, markings, warranties and warnings and even do-not-call lists should be created for individuals or entities in the flight path of UAV operations. Margot Kaminski, a UAS expert, believes a notice of use, notice of data collection and a notice of what data is col-lected when and how, should also be a standard practice for commercial UAS operators.

Although data collection and usage was a popular talking point commented on by the stakeholders, thus far, only one entity called out the stakeholder process itself like the New Jersey Institute of Technology Unmanned Air-craft Systems Working Group did. “Due to the significance of this new industry, many UAS-in-terested parties may be unable to provide well-informed comments because of the processes to establish governance and policy adhere to static and non-innovative administration,” the group said. The evolving nature of the technol-ogy behind the UAS industry makes creating policies through traditional means impractical, the group believes.

Because of the wide range of perspective and emphasis on various topics, only one stake-holder seemed to offer a relevant assumption suitable for all stakeholders. “It is important to be accepting of the fact that a single set of perspectives will not be appropriate for all juris-dictions,” said Matthew Bieschke, president of UAS America Fund LLC.

Best PracticeThere is no timetable or end-goal of the

group, Gruenwald says. Only the stakeholders will be able to define the outcome. To date, the NTIA is happy it has helped the group create a working draft document outlining what com-mercial UAS operators should do to mitigate privacy concerns. The draft, at press time, is now in its second version. The 13-page draft in its second version, at press time, includes seven principles that should be enacted. Although there is not timetable for the draft to be a com-pleted document, it is clear that perspectives on

UAS privacy are many and after this process led by the NTIA, the voices of many could be cor-ralled into the larger belief on a single group. “We try and push them to reach an end point,” Gruenwald says. “They work to find their own consensus.”

Author: Luke GeiverEditor, UAS [email protected]

INTERNATIONAL DRONE EXPO

December 11 - 12, 2015Los Angeles Convention Center

• Meet more than 125 Exhibitors and 6,500 buyers

• Join IDE Pitchfest •Silicon Valley’s top Venture Capitalists will judge and award over $150,000 to winners

of the competition for best drone technology, products or services.

• Be part of (IDFA) • the International Drone Film Awards held in conjunction with The New York Film

Festival with guests from Hollywood’s top directors, producers and actors.

• Attend the IDE Music Festival •Exhibitors, speakers and conference attendees will have free access to a musical

festival featuring some of Hollywood’s hottest music and artists.


NASA works with the UAS industry to get drone traffic under controlBy Patrick C. Miller

SITUATIONAL AWARENESS: One of the key aspects of UAS traffic management is providing pilots and operators with information that makes them aware of changing conditions as they fly.PHOTO: NASA

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BRINGING UAS

As Parimal Kopardekar lists the five basic principles guiding the development of a traffic management system that will handle the mil-lions of unmanned aircraft expected to be in U.S. skies in the next few years, the problem doesn’t appear complex.

First, he says drones shouldn’t collide with each other. Second, they must keep a safe distance from manned aircraft. Third, their pilots should be aware of the rules governing the airspace in which they’re operating. Fourth, unmanned aerial system (UAS) operations must defer to public safety. Finally, there must be a way to positively identify every drone.

However, bringing these elements together to develop a UAS traf-fic management system that suits the needs of hobbyists while enabling businesses and other organizations to take advantage of the technology’s tremendous potential is likely years away.

Kopardekar—or PK as he’s known—has become the face of UAS traffic management. He serves as manager of NASA’s Safe Autonomous System Operations Project based at the agency’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field south of San Francisco. He’s also the principal inves-tigator of NASA’s UAS traffic management (UTM) program, the high-

TRAFFIC MANAGEMENTDOWN TO EARTH


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way in the sky where everyone from hobbyists to commercial UAS operators must find a way to safely coexist, as well as he-licopters and crop dusters that routinely fly in the airspace be-low 500 feet.

As Kopardekar readily ad-mits, designing and developing the UTM system is not without its challenges.

“If you’re going to do de-liveries all the way to the door-step—what we characterize as the last 50 feet problem—then you need software and hard-ware that collectively works together when all of a sudden there’s wind, a fallen tree branch or kids playing soccer,” he ex-plains. “You want that onboard capability that decides whether to land, abort or go somewhere else. These are the key tech-nology pieces we need. Plus, we need a better prediction of

weather and wind at lower alti-tudes in airspace.”

Another challenge is pro-viding critical information on a timely basis to UAS operators to improve their situational aware-ness. This not only lets pilots of manned and unmanned aircraft know where they’re operating in relation to each other, but also provides them with changes in the weather or lets them know when the FAA issues temporary flight restrictions.

Connecting Manned Protocals to UAS Flights

Mike Glasgow, chief archi-tect of Lockheed Martin Flight Services, is working to move the briefing system that’s worked well for general aviation (GA) pilots into the UAS age. This means changing the way UAS pilots flying under FAA Certifi-

cates of Authorization (COAs) file Notice To the Airmen (NOTAMs) over the phone to alert others about their opera-tions, as well as the way Flight Services briefs pilots.

“In today’s environment, not everyone can just go fly,” Glasgow says. “Handling the current volume is not too much of a problem, but looking into the future, we were concerned that a telephone-based model to report your operations does not scale.”

Lockheed Martin has created a web-based system through which UAS operators can file NOTAMs online that then show up as UAS operat-ing areas (UOAs) on a national map at www.1800wxbrief.com, the Flight Service pilot briefing website. It shows pilots where all the known UAS operations are being conducted on UOAs filed on the website or submit-ted via NOTAM.

“Right now, all the UAS support is integrated in with the GA pilot capabilities,” Glasgow says. “At some point we may stand up an additional website that is just the UAS capability so that the operator who’s not a pilot doesn’t have so much stuff around them that they don’t really understand.”

Kopardekar says that for now with only a few thousand Section 333 exemptions issued by the Federal Aviation Admin-istration for commercial UAS purposes and no beyond vi-sual line-of-sight operations al-lowed, traffic management isn’t an urgent need.

“Regardless of whether you’re driving an autonomous car or driving the car yourself,

you still need rules and traffic lights. You need some way to organize the traffic when the demand exceeds capacity,” he says.

NASA’s UTM won’t re-semble the fixed system used for auto traffic and it won’t be similar to that of manned avia-tion, according to Kopardekar.

“What we are doing is digi-tal, versatile and flexible; it’s on-demand capacity,” he explains.

While the FAA is the gov-ernment agency most often identified with the safe integra-tion of UAS into the national airspace, NASA is playing a lead role in developing the system that will be needed to handle commercial and recreational UAS traffic in the Class G air-space below 500 feet.

“The first A in NASA is aeronautics,” says Kopardekar. “We have been doing air traffic management, related research and development for over two decades.”

In addition to working with the FAA, the Department of Homeland Security, the De-partment of Defense, the De-partment of Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmo-spheric Administration, NASA has more than 125 collabora-tors in industry and academia assisting in the development of UTM.

“NASA is a really good interface in that they are the government, but they’re not the FAA,” says Jonathan Evans, CEO of Skyward, a company based in Portland, Oregon, developing its Urban Skyways Project in partnership with NASA. “They’re capable of promulgating technical stan-

TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT EXPERTS: Parimal Kopardekar (left), principlal investegator of NASA's UAS traffic management program, and Mike Glasgow, chief architect of Lockheed Martin Flight Services, spoke at AUVSI's Unmanned Systems 2015 event in Atlanta.PHOTO: UAS MAGAZINE


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dards to the wider industry at the pace it needs to happen.”

Kopardekar believes that because the project deals with national and regional security, safe airspace integration and scalable operations for eco-nomic growth, the number of external partners involved is warranted.

“We need to make sure we take into account all the use cases and all the different varia-tions of technology out there—sensors, 3D maps, ADSB and tracking,” he says. “It’s work-ing out as we had envisioned or even better. People really like the construct of coming to NASA UTM to collaborate with each other and accelerate these sort of things.”

The UTM system being developed by NASA is de-signed to increase or decrease the requirements on a UAS and its operator depending on the type of application be-ing performed, the location of the flight, the capability of the aircraft and the airspace re-

quirements. In other words, a drone delivering a package in a congested urban area will have more operational requirements than a drone flying a precision agriculture mission in a remote rural location.

“The elegance of it is

very dynamic and as needed,” Kopardekar explains. “There’s flexibility where possible and structure where necessary. You only offer structures when you need to. The system is intel-ligent enough to bring those structures in.”

Unveiling UTM The NASA UTM system

will be rolled out in four builds, the first of which was tested in August and involved approxi-mately 100 flights in low-traffic, low-density airspace with 11 collaborators. Among the tech-

YOUR ARE HERE: Software developer Botlink is creating applications that deliver critical flight information such as weather radar to UAS pilots and operators as they fly to provide the information they need without sensory overload.SOURCE: BOTLINK


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nologies tested was a cloud-based system that showed where UAS trajectories over-lapped and created new flight paths to avoid collisions.

“We learned lots of good things doing this in the nation-al airspace—how the system could evolve, how the system could work and what kind of challenges we see,” Kopardekar notes.

The test for Build 2 is scheduled for October 2016 and will involve beyond vi-sual line-of-sight applications to study tracking and estab-lish procedures and “rules of the road” for UAS operations over sparsely populated areas. Kopardekar describes the Build 1 test as a stepping stone toward Build 2.

“Beyond visual line-of-sight has its own challenges,” he says. “Some capabilities on the

vehicle need to be in place to be more autonomous.”

The Build 3 tests are set for January 2018 and will test beyond line-of-sight opera-tions over moderately popu-lated areas, interaction between manned and unmanned aircraft, UAS tracking and various com-munications options. Build 4 in March 2019 will test beyond visual line-of-sight operations in urban environments, au-tonomous operations and such applications as news gathering, deliveries and personal use.

At the UTM Conference sponsored by NASA last July, Amazon and Google presented competing ideas on how low-al-titude UAS traffic management should be handled to accom-modate the companies’ plans for package delivery via drone. Both companies advocated air-space dedicated to certain uses.

Fabrice Kunzi, who partici-pated in the convention and is the chief technical officer for Panoptes UAV, is concerned that such approaches will result in UAS segregation rather that than integration into airspace in which manned aircraft operate.

“There’s definitely two worlds here and I think a lot of people are starting to pick up on that,” he explains. “By defini-tion, it’s not integration because we say everybody above 500 feet stays out and everybody be-low 500 stays in. We’re segregat-ing traffic in order to manage it. That’s different from airspace integration, which is what a lot of people are advocating.”

He has other concerns about the UTM approaches ad-vocated by the retail giants.

“One thing that both of them just kind of glossed over is that it’s easy to do traffic

management if everybody’s co-operative and is telling you who they are, where they are and where they’re going,” Kunzi says. “But you can’t assume that everybody is cooperative.”

While he agrees that Gool-gle’s idea of using cell phone networks for UAS navigation has merit, Kunzi questions their reliability for autonomous be-yond visual line-of-sight opera-tions.

“Cell phone-based tech-nology isn’t nearly as reliable as the technology that we find at the front end of an airplane,” he says. “If you’re going to use it as a means to provide safety in the national airspace system or a low-altitude environment, the level of reliability that you need the cell phone system to provide is not the level of reli-ability that the system was origi-nally designed to support.”

Another UTM challenge revolves around presenting in-formation to UAS pilots and operators who might have little or no experience in manned aviation.

“It’s great to know where you’re going before you fly, but it’s better to know what’s go-ing on as you fly,” says Shaun Muehler, a former military pi-lot and the CEO of Botlink, a company in Fargo, North Da-kota, developing an application that serves as the interface with the drone operator.

“It can’t just be a map that you log into and see where you’re going to fly and see what

MANNED AND UNMANNED: Lockheed Martin is helping pilots of manned and unmanned aircraft know where UAS operations are being conducted by providing online, web-based information in its pilot briefings, which can also be integrated in traffic management software applications.PHOTO: LOCKHEED MARTIN FLIGHT SERVICES


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airspace is around it and who controls it,” Muehler explains. “It has to be interactive with the pilot as he’s flying, as he’s work-ing his drone and his workflow. He’s got to get alerts and he’s got to get notified as his drone is in the air.”

Lockheed Martin allows UAS software developers to in-tegrate its flight briefing infor-mation into programs and ap-plications that UAS pilots and operators use to manage their flight operations.

One of the first UAS flight management programs to integrate Flight Services information was VirtualAir-Boss developed by SmartC2 headquartered in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

“Some people focus on putting the UTM in the air-

craft,” says Stuart Rudolph, SmartC2 CEO. “We focus on it as being able to schedule flights, making plans beforehand and saying where we’re going to fly.”

For example, Rudolph says VirtualAirBoss demonstrated its ability to integrate with NA-SA’s UTM last June during the annual Coastal Trident exercise off the coast of southern Cali-fornia, a field exercise involving state, local and federal agencies responding to simulated region-al threats and emergencies. The program was used to help man-age the airspace for UAS.

Mariah Scott, chief oper-ating officer for Skyward, em-phasizes that even without a mature, comprehensive nation-al traffic management system in place for UAS, the present system enables businesses that

want to take advantage of the technology to operate commer-cially today.

“Traffic management is often thought of as something in the future that has to happen for package delivery, but actually safe integration of UAS into the airspace and managing that air-space is happening right now,” she says. “That’s the service that we’re providing for commercial operators.

“In the long term, pack-age delivery and really sophisti-cated route planning and traffic management is coming,” she continues. “But right now, we’re already seeing systems to man-age the airspace and to safely integrate UAS.”

In discussing the need for UTM, Kopardekar and Glasgow each invoked an event

from 1956 when two airlin-ers collided in midair over the Grand Canyon, killing 128 people on board. At the time, it was thought that there was little need for air traffic control over remote areas. The accident provided the incentive to create the FAA.

“I think all of us live in fear of that kind of moment happening again with a UAS,” Glasgow notes. “It’s not a good thought.”

Kopardekar concurs and adds, “We wanted to make sure that we have some system in place so that we don’t repeat history. That’s the impetus be-hind this research initiative.”

Author: Patrick C. MillerStaff Writer, UAS [email protected]

HIGHWAYS IN THE SKY: During NASA's UTM Convention last July at the Ames Research Center, some of the more than 125 collaborators in industry and academia presented their ideas on how to manage UAS traffic in both rural and urban areas.PHOTO: NASA

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