UAV/Drone Uses and Laws

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Norma Hodge
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1 UAV/Drone Uses and Laws Robert Moorhead Director of Geosystems Research and Northern Gulf Institutes Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering

2 Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) 3 components to the system: the air vehicle (the UAV, the bird) the ground control station (GCS), and the humans: pilot, observer, etc. Good for dull, dangerous, and dirty missions UAVs are efficient, effective, economical, and environmentally friendly Come in very small to very large sizes

3 Two major designs of UASs Some for surveillance ( hunting ) Watching bad guys as they move Finding failing insulators, severed wires Finding reading dials and labels on poles Some for mapping ( back-and-forth ) Magnetic field around a substation Flying right of ways, looking at overgrowth Flying over buried cables and pipes Few yet for hauling stuff (tankers) Predator with weapons Yamaha Rmax

4 UAV general comments In general a VTOL can only fly about 30% as long as a fixed wing aircraft on the same battery. VTOLs with 4 or more rotors are in general easier to learn how to fly and allow you to hold a position in the air and stare, but are less energy efficient. Batteries and line-of-sight (LOS) are the limiting factors on how a flight lasts for small UASs Landings (recoveries) are the limiting factor in how long most UASs last. suass are pretty much flying cell phones You can put almost any camera / sensor on a hand-launched UAV now (visible, NIR, multispectral, hyperspectral, lidar, etc.) The higher you fly, the more coverage you can get, but the spatial resolution drops linearly.

5 Dimensions of interest Spatial (x,y,z) resolution Intensity -- contrast Spectral

6 UAS operation in the US The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules the sky. Safety is paramount for the FAA. The FAA is used to dealing with manned aircraft, in which the safety of people is inherently tied to the safety of the aircraft. UASs present lots of issues for FAA (more planes, smaller planes, different operating method, remote pilot, less reliable, etc.) Congress is forcing FAA to deal with UASs 3 classes of operators: hobbyist, public, civil Certificates of Waiver Authorization CoA Hobbyist no Section 333 waiver; no CoA Public agency no Section 33 waiver, but need CoA Civil / Commercial use need both

7 UAV aspects / laws Hobbyist rules (can t make money flying UAV) UAV must weight less than 55 lbs (25 kg) UAV must remain within line of sight ( miles) and below 400 AGL Must fly during daylight hours away from crowds No limit on how fast UAV can fly or how much it costs

8 UAS operation in the US Notice of Public Rule Making (NPRM) for suas issued CoAs / Section 333 waivers issued on a case-by-case basis As of March 24, 2015: more than 600 pending requests for waivers and the FAA has approved 53 Some general applications areas getting waivers: movie production, agriculture surveillance, pipeline inspections, etc. March 24, 2015 Section 333 waivers Aerial inspections of plant infrastructure including flare stacks, elevated pipelines, tanks and columns and environmental monitoring for the petrochemical industry, the DJI Phantom 2 UAS for aerial photography, Solusia Air LLC will use an Aibot X6 V2 UAS to conduct telecommunications and utility structure inspection, construction and maintenance services. Industrial Aerobotics, a UAS Inspection service provider to electric utilities FAA seems to be changing rules every week right now.

9 UAS operational connundrums Geofencing What space the FAA controls inside vs outside navigable airspace Public use Public entity

10 Main CoA components Plane Place Procedures Pilot Operating ceiling Lost comm link procedures Lost GPS signal Lost engine power

11 DJI Phantom (VTOL) $1300 and up 22 minutes flight time Easy to learn to fly safely & effectively Our Payloads Vision Plus (gimbaled go-pro payload) Irrigation system leaks, lost planes, etc Thermal (Velcro-strapped) Animals at night, lost / injured people, etc. Uses: Built-structure inspection

12 Robota Triton ( Flight time: 30 to 60 minutes Speed range: mph Max wind speed: 25 mph Weight: 3.0 lbs w/o payload (0.5 lb payloads) Wing Span: ~5 ft Length: ~3 ft 2 cameras visible (20 Mpixel camera, 5472x3648 pixels -> 0.5 inch pixels at 400 AGL in a 225 x150 image) multispectral (2 inch pixels) Not waterproof ~$5000 system

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21 Altavian Nova Block 3 (altavian.com) Linear Range: 50 miles Endurance: minutes Cruise Speed: 35 mph Max Speed: 70 mph Altitude: 1200 ft ACL / 5000 ft MSL Wing Span: 108 in. Length: 67 in. Weight: 11 lbs. (15 lbs. MTOW) $42,000 system

22 Altavian Nova Block 3 (altavian.com) Example Visible Payload 5184x3456 pixels FOV is 21 degree cross-track and 31 degrees along-track Footprint is 300 ft 800 ft AGL GSD is approx. 1.0 in. per pixel 800ft

29 SenseFly ebee Radio Link Range: 1.86 miles Endurance: 44 minutes (tested) Nominal Cruise Speed: mph Turn around: 2 minutes Maximum coverage: 4.6 mi 2 at 3195 AGL GSD: down to 0.6 in. Horz/vert accuracy (w/ GCPs): 1.2 / 2 in. Horz/vert accuracy (no GCPs): ft Wing Span: 38 in. 16 Mpixel camera (Sony NEX-7) Weight: 1.5 lbs. (EPP foam and composites) $25,000 system

30 SenseFly ebee

32 Puma suas 9.2 ft wingspan 4.6 ft length pounds 15 km range 180 minute endurance Main payload: EO and IR cameras Payloads under development: 24Mpixel camera, lidar (Velodyne), and MSI (Tetracam) Continuous pan with +10 to -90 degrees tilt Hand-launched, deep stall landing (controlled crash) 3 UAVs, 2 GCS, & spare parts $300K

33 AeroVironment Puma

36 Trimble UX5 Linear Range: 37 miles Endurance: 50 minutes Cruise Speed: 50 mph Catapult launch; belly landing Altitude: 16,000 ft MSL Wing Span: 40 in. Weight: 5.5 lbs Mpixel camera $42,000 system

37 Trimble UX5

38 suas Safety and Reliability Safety When gas stations started allowing self service, there was a lot of concern about people blowing themselves up. Enough automation now exists to let you easily harm yourself and others with suass Our seemingly insatiable appetite to know and do everything is motivating some people to do dangerous things The reliability of most suass today is much, much, much less than a small manned aircraft much less than your cell phone less than that boat you use 5 times a year

Blog: http://www.gri.msstate.edu/unmanned/blog.php Images: http://www.

40 Blog: Images: Videos: Questions?

42 Under the new policy, the FAA will grant a COA for flights at or below 200 feet to any UAS operator with a Section 333 exemption for aircraft that stay certain distances away from airports or heliports: 5 nautical miles (NM) from an airport having an operational control tower; or 3 NM from an airport with a published instrument flight procedure, but not an operational tower; or 2 NM from an airport without a published instrument flight procedure or an operational tower; or 2 NM from a heliport with a published instrument flight procedure The blanket 200-foot COA allows flights anywhere in the country except restricted airspace and other areas, such as major cities, where the FAA prohibits UAS operations.

What is a UAS (Drone)

What is a UAS (Drone) UAS KCSI Aerial Patrol KCSI is Based in Bakersfield CA Established in 1993 Operates in 15 States KCSI has over 20 fulltime pilots Currently fly: Over 40,000 miles of pipeline a month 700 hours of production