UAV/Drone Uses and Laws

Robert Moorhead Director of Geosystems Research and Northern Gulf Institutes

Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering

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

UASs and Laws

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

UASs and Laws

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.

UASs and Laws

Dimensions of interest

• Spatial (x,y,z) – resolution • Intensity -- contrast • Spectral

UASs and Laws

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

UASs and Laws

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 (0.5-1.0

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

UASs and Laws

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.

UASs and Laws

UAS operational connundrums

• Geofencing • What space the FAA controls

– inside vs outside – navigable airspace

• Public use • Public entity

UASs and Laws

Main CoA components

• Plane • Place • Procedures

– Pilot – Operating ceiling – Lost comm link procedures – Lost GPS signal – Lost engine power – …

UASs and Laws

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

UASs and Laws

Robota Triton (www.robota.us)

– Flight time: 30 to 60 minutes – Speed range: 20-35 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

UASs and Laws

UASs and Laws

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Altavian Nova Block 3 (altavian.com)

• Linear Range: 50 miles • Endurance: 60-90 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

UASs and Laws

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 cross-track @ 800 ft AGL – GSD is approx. 1.0 in. per pixel cross-track

@ 800ft

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UASs and Laws

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SenseFly eBee

• Radio Link Range: 1.86 miles • Endurance: 44 minutes (tested) • Nominal Cruise Speed: 25-56 mph • Turn around: 2 minutes • Maximum coverage: 4.6 mi2 at 3195’ AGL • GSD: down to 0.6 in. • Horz/vert accuracy (w/ GCPs): 1.2 / 2 in. • Horz/vert accuracy (no GCPs): 3.3-16.4 ft • Wing Span: 38 in. • 16 Mpixel camera (Sony NEX-7) • Weight: 1.5 lbs. (EPP foam and composites) • $25,000 system

UASs and Laws

UASs and Laws

SenseFly eBee

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Puma sUAS

• 9.2 ft wingspan • 4.6 ft length • 13.5+ 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

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AeroVironment Puma

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UASs and Laws

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. • 16.1 Mpixel camera • $42,000 system

UASs and Laws

Trimble UX5

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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

UASs and Laws

UASs and Laws

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Questions?

Videos: http://www.gri.msstate.edu/

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

Images: http://www.gri.msstate.edu/geoportal

UASs and Laws

UASs and Laws

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.