Everyone is talking about drones.
From bans at National Parks to Google’s new experimental Project Wing, unmanned aerial vehicles are causing quite a stir these days. Even Apple’s new campus is getting the drone treatment.
But before these robotic systems take flight for commercial purposes, one thing has to be considered: They need to safely maneuver through the skies, avoiding everything from skyscrapers to news helicopters to hot air balloons. And, of course, other drones.
That’s why researchers at NASA’s Moffett Field — a few miles from Google’s headquarters in Silicon Valley — are working on a new air traffic control system to monitor low-flying aircraft. Like drones themselves, the system would use software and computer algorithms to determine where the vehicles can safely fly, reports The New York Times.
“One at a time you can make them work and keep them safe,” Parimal H. Kopardekar, a NASA principal investigator, tells the Times. “But when you have a number of them in operation in the same airspace, there is no infrastructure to support it.”
The air traffic control system for drones is still in development, and any system would need to meet approval from the FAA. Kopardekar says that drone technology would most likely be used in agriculture and pipeline management in the next few years, before taking root in cities, which he says faces public perception issues as well as more technical challenges given the number of structures and people drones must safely navigate.
Editor’s note: Drones will be the subject of a discussion at the GeekWire Summit on Oct. 2, featuring talks and presentations by drone entrepreneur and author Chris Anderson and National Geographic photographer Chad Copeland. Details and tickets here.
