The Oncoming Drone Explosion

Video Above: Army Research Lab Advances AI to Land Drones on Tanks

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

“Explosion” would be an accurate word to describe the global economic market when it comes to the use of small drones and unmanned systems for both commercial and military operations, technology soon to be delivering pizzas in neighborhoods or supporting a police manhunt for a dangerous criminal through uneven buildings and narrow streets.

Drones

The proliferation of unmanned systems is opening new markets and leading the FAA to explore emerging technologies capable of enabling large numbers of small drones to operate in close proximity without crashing into each other, houses, buildings or nearby piloted aircraft. The FAA’s air traffic safety management approach is evolving to keep pace with market demands, and the agency is working with industry to develop an enabling infrastructure.

“FAA will evolve from the current concepts, and you will have a lot fewer niche players. You have several, which is what we have today, and it will evolve into something that is a lot more integrated. We are developing what we call an end to end solution,” Kip Spurio, technology director for Air Traffic Systems at Raytheon Intelligence & Space, told Warrior in an interview. “We’re trying to figure out what the market for this is, and what it is going to be. Right now there is a lot of churn in the market.”

Raytheon Intelligence & Space, which currently engineers many Air Traffic Control technologies throughout the country, is working with the FAA and industry partners to architect a new technological apparatus sufficient to enable deconflicted, high-volume drone flights for commercial purposes.

“An end-to-end system to allow beyond visual line of sight for small drones is going to unlock the economic potential of the small drone market for the benefit of everyone from the policemen, firemen and firefighter, to you and me, who want our package delivered the next day There’s just a huge market out there that’s waiting to be unleashed,” Spurio said.