Navigating regulations for DFR | Skydio Ascend ’24
See how advancements in Drone as First Responder (DFR) technology within public safety are helping to expand Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations. As technological advances reshape public safety, understanding the regulatory landscape becomes crucial. This session covers how Skydio navigates these regulations to enhance drone capabilities safely and effectively.
You'll learn about:
- Autonomy advancements: The shift from Visual Observers to more autonomous operations enhances efficiency and scope in public safety applications.
- Operational milestones: Highlighting key approvals and partnerships that have enabled advanced, observer-free drone operations.
- Future outlook: Discussing the progression towards DFR, aiming for greater autonomy in drone responses to improve public safety effectiveness.
This webinar provides insights into conducting BVLOS operations, focusing on practical regulatory strategies and operational advancements.
Learn more about Skydio Regulatory Services.
- [laughs] All right. Uh,
- let me get the slides up again here. There we go.
- Okay. Well, welcome to the last breakout.
- Um, I know the room's gonna be a little sparse
- 'cause we have our, our DFR
- program manager training going on, but, um, I know there's could
- be a big, big virtual audience, so yeah, thanks for those of you that, that are
- here, and thanks for joining online.
- Um, so I'm gonna cover, uh, some regulations for
- DFR, basically. And I'll kind of use this first slide just
- to introduce
- myself. I'm Jakey Stoltz, uh, Director of Aviation Regulatory Affairs
- here at Skydio.
- Um, and I have the privilege really of working
- with a, a small but experienced team
- here on the slide.
- And, um, you know, between the three of us, like, we're,
- we're
- really just aviation professionals at the end of the day, and we've been working
- in this industry for a long time. So, uh, me personally, I'm
- a, a commercial pilot, a CFI, um, a remote pilot.
- Um, we got other pilots on the team as well.
- And, um, I got my first experience actually flying
- drones, uh,
- back in twenty fifteen. So, uh, the image on the right here is
- actually a, a Christmas card from a regional UAS team
- that
- I was part of. Um, so,
- you know, kind of going way back, this was before Part 107.
- It was kind of in the three thirty three days, but even a little before that,
- and you had to have a, uh, a private pilot certificate
- or, or more to even fly a small drone.
- So,
- uh, this law enforcement team, um, and the lead there, I mean, he's,
- he's kind of thinking way ahead of the curve, uh, but they
- couldn't require their officers or sh- or deputies to go get pilot's
- license. That was just way too cost-prohibitive
- and, um,
- so instead they hired some, uh, students and
- staff out of the university there, and I was fortunate to be one of them.
- So I spent a couple years flying with them, and we were basically an on-call
- unit. We'd go fly.
- Uh, things were quite basic at that time.
- We didn't even have photogrammetry, so we would just take pictures of,
- uh, incidents, crime scenes. Um, we'd do some search and rescue
- or search for fugitives. Um, but yeah, it was amazing.
- And so it was a really good experience.
- It helped me, you know, get some experience in what you all do
- every day in public
- safety,
- um, and, and the importance really of the job
- and the mission.
- Um, and, and again, kind of fast-forwarding a little bit,
- so I,
- I, I spent a number of years at an FAA UAS
- test site and, and my
- colleagues have as well before joining Skydio.
- We've spent a lot of years, uh, thinking about, you know,
- airspace awareness and aviation safety and how do we use
- these, these technologies to go beyond visual
- line of sight and fly remotely.
- Um, and so kind of between the three of us,
- we've, we've used just about
- every type of technology out there, uh, radars and the
- electro-optical systems, the acoustic systems and so on.
- Um, kind of one of my favorites was, uh, in the upper left
- picture, um, on the slide here. Uh, that's a picture with me and
- colleagues in front of an MQ-1 Predator, so, um, you know,
- a bigger surveillance drone.
- And, uh, it- it's a little crazy, but they actually had to have a
- chase plane, you know, follow them around whenever they would fly
- this thing
- in the national airspace. So they were doing, like, training,
- training flights and,
- and training missions in the US before, um, selling units
- overseas or, or operating overseas and, and so that had to be done in
- accordance with, like, the same regulations, you know, we're,
- we're all kind of
- flying under today. And so they had to have a chase plane
- following this thing
- around with a pilot in it and a visual observer,
- so kind of a two-person crew, and
- that, that chase plane would be the eyes for
- this drone,
- um, as it flew around. So,
- uh, obviously very, like, cost prohibitive and, and cumbersome
- and so they, they kind of brought our, you know, got our help to
- get them a, uh, beyond visual line of sight approval,
- and we used
- an FAA radar to do that. So kind of the big radar is the same
- radar that air traffic is looking at.
- Uh, we were able to get that data and, and visualize
- it and use that for collision avoidance and, and ultimately
- remove that, that chase plane. So,
- uh, but yeah, a lot of experience with it, and all this experience has really
- driven our, our strategy at Skydio and, and how we look at,
- uh, you know, getting beyond visual line of sight
- approvals and helping customers
- do that. And so,
- um,
- we'll hit more on that. But, uh,
- it wouldn't be a regulatory presentation without our Arc of Autonomy, so we, we
- always do show this. It, it's really, like, our regulatory roadmap
- at the company. So, um, and we've been working at it for many
- years,
- and there's more to come. So, uh, at this point we've, we've
- achieved sta- stage three at scale, so this stage is
- characterized by remote operations now, where the pilot no longer has to
- be with, with the drone. Um, but it's in a
- one-to-one ratio. So it's still one pilot flying one drone,
- uh, but
- remotely.
- Um, and so we do have... You know, there's work going on, uh, with stage
- four, which is, uh, what we call multi-mission, or where
- one pilot can start to fly multiple drones simultaneously.
- Um, and you saw, uh, kind of what, what that looks like with DFR Command
- yesterday,
- which we're really excited about.
- And then stage five, uh, a little more future looking and, and
- kind of visionary, but we believe at some point, uh,
- you know,
- we'll be able to make the pilot optional.
- So imagine for, for drone as first responder, the drone
- is able to at least,
- uh, deploy based on sensors or different inputs and just
- deploy autonomously and, and start to go to that call.
- But then as it arrives, you know, a pilot can kind of jump in
- and maybe start to move it around, get the angles they need and, and the, the
- data they need for that, that particular call.
- So
- All right. And, um, kind of turn that into a little
- bit more of a metaphor here now. So,
- um, I-- this idea came to me, you know, earlier this year of, you know,
- how do we explain what we do really in-internally and, and
- externally to customers? So the idea of, uh, mountaineering
- came to me and, and there's some similarities to what,
- what we do, and I'll kind of
- call out three things. So firstly, it takes patience, and so this
- is something we've, again, been working at for many years.
- Um, and we're not to the summit yet either,
- so we're gonna keep working that.
- But it does take patience, and it's just incremental steps as we go.
- Uh, the next thing is it does help to have a guide, and so,
- you know, that's really
- what we hope to be is kind of your guide as you're, you know,
- trying to work up
- this mountain as well. We, we know certain paths and, and,
- uh, you know, strategies to take, um, along that, that journey.
- And then finally, you know, safety. Uh, safety matters for both these things.
- So climbing a mountain can be dangerous, so you wanna, you wanna take safety
- precautions. Uh, but flying a drone remotely
- and beyond visual line
- of sight, um, if not done correctly at least,
- can also be dangerous.
- And so, uh, we care deeply about that, um, uh,
- aviation safety. So,
- so come along the journey with me a little bit.
- So twenty twenty-one, um, the FAA, uh,
- Chula Vista and Skydio's partnership to, um, unlock what we now call
- tactical BVLOS. So this was really a, a beyond visual line
- of sight meant for kind of short range, low altitude flying, and it just
- allowed officers to fly drones in areas where they couldn't see them
- or, or still be behind cover where-- while they're flying the drone.
- Um, and that's now been issued to over five
- hundred agencies.
- So it's, it's really, um, you know, just taken off and, and if
- you don't have it really at this point, there's no reason not to.
- So-- And you could think of this as like as a
- little bit of a base camp, right?
- So we're, we're going up the mountain towards
- autonomous summit here and, and that
- was one of the first base camps.
- Uh, then in twenty twenty-three, you know, drones first responder really took off
- again with Chula Vista and, um, the concept, you know,
- from that point really to today is that there still had to be a visual
- observer, uh, watching the drone and, and scanning the airspace around the
- drone during flight. So,
- uh, so, you know, we have many agencies doing this today,
- doing drones first
- responder, but it's all characterized by, you know, a VO standing on
- a rooftop or, uh, still maybe on the street.
- Um, but there's always somebody scanning the
- airspace.
- And
- that has, you know-- I think it's clear now, like,
- the value of DFR and,
- and a lot of this work has, has shown us that and proved it out.
- But, um, it's also been hard to scale because of
- that requirement.
- So, uh, not every agency can, can put personnel up on
- rooftops, or they have the budgets to hire
- contractors to do that
- job. And so, um, so it's been really great, but it's also
- been limited a little bit in scale.
- Uh, so this year
- we're really excited now to be breaking some new ground and, and
- getting some new pathways to no visual observer DFR.
- So
- the first one, uh, was a no VO part one oh seven waiver
- that went
- to Pasco County Sheriff's Office earlier this year.
- And then, uh, on Monday, just very recently now, we announced
- that New York City
- Police Department also received a no VO COA to do DFR in their
- city. And so I'm gonna kind of spend the rest
- of, uh, the presentation
- talking really about those two and, and these new pathways here.
- Uh, so firstly for Pasco County, so they received a waiver to one oh
- seven dot three one. That's the visual line of sight rule.
- And today that enables them to do training and testing at their first
- facility. Uh, so it's a super cool facility they have
- there in the county where
- they do, uh, a bunch of different work, but that includes some of their drone,
- uh, where they do testing, they do training, they bring agencies in,
- share tactics,
- and so on.
- Um, and it also allows them to do drones first
- responder at their school
- properties and really across most of Co-- Pasco County.
- Um, and so they're, they're looking at the schools as kind of
- that launch point.
- So the drones can be at the school and respond to any incidents right
- there at the school themselves. Uh, but importantly, this will kind of
- serve as their launch point for more of a full county implementation of
- DFR in the future, uh, under one oh seven.
- And so really quickly, kind of what this allows them to do, uh,
- sort of
- operationally, it, it allows them to do what we call shielded
- DFR
- operations. And so that's operations up to two hundred
- feet
- AGL kind of generally, uh, throughout these areas,
- or if there are structures that are higher than two hundred feet,
- they can, uh, go
- up and over those, and we call that fifty-foot shielding.
- So it kind of combines both of those two things, um, that's depicted on
- the, the graphic at the top there and kind of that, uh, in green
- area. Looks a little bit different color on my
- screen, but the green area is kind
- of what I'm talking about here.
- And the great thing about it is it, it doesn't require VOs, and it only
- requires ADS-B and technology. So there's no other
- technology that's required here.
- There's no radars or electroopt-- electro-optical systems,
- um, or anything like that. So just ADS-B and technology.
- And I'm gonna hit on that again, so I'm gonna kind of keep moving here.
- Um, so New York City Police Department now,
- uh, they got a slightly
- different kind of approval. So it's a waiver to ninety-one, one ni--
- one thirteen
- and one nineteen
- or, uh, this is kind of commonly referred to as a
- COA.
- And, uh, this really enables them to do citywide
- DFR
- operations. And, uh, the image here, the green is really
- where they, they have approval now to do this type of
- operation.
- So it's, it's most of the city. The only areas that really aren't included
- are
- the areas right around, uh, the two major airports there, JFK and
- LaGuardia. So, uh, very wide scale approval.
- And it allows them to do similar operations.
- So if this slide looks familiar, it's because it's exactly the same slide.
- So they are also able to do shielded DFR operations up to two
- hundred feet, just kind of broadly across the city in
- those green areas that you
- saw before.
- And then, uh, you know, maybe unlike Pasco County,
- New York City does have some,
- some taller buildings in it, right?
- So, uh, when they do encounter those, if, you know, there's a building
- along their flight path as they're responding to calls for service,
- they can just
- kind of pop that altitude up, um, and get over that
- building and back onto their call. So it's not just limited to two hundred
- feet.
- And again, it only requires them to use ADS-B in
- technology,
- um, so there's no visual observer on the
- rooftop, there's no pilot on the rooftop
- at this point. Uh, it's just remote operations,
- and it's really safe,
- simple and scalable with ADS-B.
- And
- interestingly enough, this approval actually gives New York Po-
- City Police
- Department a second type of operation.
- I'll just call this kind of a second ConOp, concept of operation.
- So,
- uh, this approval also allows them to fly up
- to four hundred
- feet AGL, uh, again, broadly across the city.
- Uh, but in that case, they're required to have ADS-B in
- technology
- and a non-cooperative detect and avoid system.
- So they have to have additional airspace awareness technology, uh, that's
- looking out for aircraft and, and providing that information back to the
- pilot.
- Um, so we'll kind of talk about like the
- differences between these two and, and
- there's, there's pros and cons, and I'll, I'll sort of compare those.
- But for now, we'll just kind of, uh, leave it at this, and there's two
- types of ConOps that they're able to do.
- Okay. So next-- the next few slides here, I'm gonna kind of
- go like a, a, a level deeper here that we, we usually don't.
- But, um, we wanted to kind of, you know, give a little peek under the cover
- and, and talk about the safety case and some of the, you know, the
- overarching themes and, and the, the things that we did to, uh,
- help these two customers get these approvals.
- So,
- um, so when we, when we help a customer get approval,
- we think
- about two things, and, and these are the two things that the FAA is most
- concerned about when they're evaluating these requests and deciding to
- approve or, or ask questions. And so those two things
- are airspace safety and citizen safety.
- And so we'll, we'll kind of focus first on airspace
- safety.
- So kind of the overarching question here is just how does the pilot
- avoid collision with other aircraft?
- So if you're not there, um, and you're not scanning airspace
- and, and looking for helicopters or, or low-flying aircraft,
- uh, how would-- how do you, you know, see those things?
- How do you give way to them? Um, how do you use the technology to
- do that? And you have to think about it in two ways
- too.
- So you have to think about it when, you know, things are going well.
- So the missions are going well, they're-- everything's performing correctly, but
- there's a low-flying aircraft. What do you do?
- Um, and you also have to think about them in
- what we call like off nominal
- situations. But if something doesn't go well,
- you know, if you, uh, lose
- link, for example, what-- how do you still avoid an aircraft in
- that situation?
- Okay. So first, just the goal. So what is the goal of airspace safety?
- It's to keep the drone away from other aircraft or a more technical
- term, it's to remain well clear of other
- aircraft.
- And the New York City Police Department approval actually gave us kind of an
- updated definition of this. So when you're flying visual line of sight,
- um, you know, you're, you're just kind of making a judgment call
- and,
- you know, you're, you're looking at, you know, an incoming aircraft
- and your drone,
- and you're probably just taking kind of a, a, a big action
- to either maybe land it or, um, you know, maybe it's,
- it's still far off and not, not converging.
- But, you know, it's, it's not really based on like numbers.
- You can't tell if it's five hundred feet away or a thousand feet or a mile.
- Um, you're just making a judgment call.
- But when you're flying beyond visual line of sight and you're starting to use
- technology to avoid aircraft, you actually can start to use some
- numbers. Um, and so kind of interestingly, the, uh, the, the
- actual numbers, like how far away you have to keep drones
- from aircraft,
- um, are on the right side here. And, um, under two
- hundred foot, we really only have to give aircraft, uh--
- give way
- a hundred foot vertically and five hundred foot to the side.
- So it's quite a small sort of, uh, we call it like a hockey puck
- around the drone that you have to keep aircraft out of.
- Uh, when you start flying higher, that number gets bigger.
- Um, so there, there's kind of perhaps one advantage to
- flying
- lower is that, um, you, you kind of have a smaller
- area, uh, that you have to maintain, uh, clearance from
- aircraft.
- And so, okay, so that's, that's the overarching goal
- is just to keep aircraft, you
- know, in our case, uh, flying below two hundred feet, uh,
- a hundred foot
- vertically away from, from the drone.
- And so to do this, we use, uh, two types of mitigations, so
- strategic and tactical. So strategic things are like just
- flying in kind of the right time or place.
- Um, and then tactical is like using more of the sensors
- and actually,
- you know, taking actions, maneuvering based on some sensor
- technology that you're
- using.
- Okay. So firstly, you know, we'll kind of talk like about
- strategic mitigation. So,
- uh,
- it's a little bit counterintuitive actually, but flying, you know, you'd
- think New York City, it's, it's this super busy airspace.
- There's aircraft just all over the place at any given time.
- Um, and it's true, like there are a lot of aircraft.
- Um, but when you look closely, it's actually not as chaotic as it might
- seem. So things are, are pretty predictable.
- There's helicopter routes, there's the airports, and, you know,
- aircraft generally fly along these kind of consistent places at, at
- certain altitudes. Um, and so it becomes quite predictable,
- and that's, um, you know, kind of shown in the graphics here.
- So if you just look, um, at all aircraft,
- you know, flying in and out of that area, um, at a thousand feet AGL,
- like ev-- there's aircraft kind of everywhere, uh,
- especially along the rivers and
- around the airports.
- Um, but if you start to fly at low altitudes
- that we d- like we do, I
- mean, we fly at two hundred feet or below,
- uh, that's the image on the bottom, uh, there's far less
- aircraft. And you can start to see that they're in kind of just
- predictable areas. They're all along the East River,
- the Hudson River.
- They're doing tours of the Statue of Liberty.
- Uh, they're flying in and out of the two airports,
- or they're flying along the
- shoreline, uh, for example, to kind of come into the rivers.
- Um, so if you, if you know these things, you can start to kind of plan around
- it. And, um, when, when you run some math,
- actually, the, the just general risk of colliding with an
- aircraft is
- very low. So, um, we've done some math, but there's-- the
- probabilities, um, are the same for two things.
- So being dealt a royal flush in poker, it's the same
- probability as having a mid-air collision in controlled airspace.
- Um, so has anybody been dealt a royal flush
- in here?
- No. Yeah. So not, not very good chances.
- Um, and then so that's just the general risk.
- If I just, like, closed my eyes and, and flew through Manhattan, that would,
- that
- would sort of be the probability. But we can further decrease that
- by avoiding some of these areas. So if we avoid flying over the East
- River or near the airports or along the shoreline, uh, that
- number goes even lower. So,
- uh, so that's one kind of big part of it
- is just the, the risk of collision,
- uh, and flying in the right time and place is just very low.
- Okay. So now, um, so that can't be the only mitigation, right?
- We can't just, uh, you know, sort of hope that, that there won't be
- that one in a million chance because, uh, you know, if, if you do fly enough hours
- and there's enough years that go by, um, you know, that, that
- probability might be realized at some point.
- So we do have additional mitigations, and now we're kind of talking tactical.
- So for both of these approvals, for both Pasco County, New York City
- Police Department, uh, they're located in what's called ADS-B Out
- airspace. So in this airspace,
- aircraft, uh, other aircraft, so crewed aircraft, are required
- to, uh, have ADS-B transmitters. And this means
- basically that they're broadcasting once a second their altitude,
- their position, and, and a bunch of information about, uh,
- about
- their aircraft. And so we can use that information then to make
- decisions and, and avoid, avoid them.
- Um, it's not a, a perfect, you know, it's not a hundred percent compliance.
- So we do know there's about two percent of operators, uh, that either,
- you know, receive approvals to turn it off for
- security reasons
- or, uh, you know, maybe it's-- the equipment's just not working
- correctly, that,
- that happens. Um, but the percentage is, is very high,
- um, as high as ninety-eight percent.
- So,
- and then even outside of ADS-B airspace, so these two approvals, um,
- are, are, are based on ADS-B airspace.
- But even outside of that, and this kind of goes into, you know,
- some of the things
- we're gonna continue to be working on, uh, the estimates now are as much
- as ninety percent of aircraft are equipped with this technology, and,
- and they're
- broadcasting. And so that just means generally that, like, we,
- we
- receive this data. That's kind of the next thing.
- So, uh, with our X10 and, and our docks, uh, we have
- ADS-B receivers that collect this, this data and, and put it right
- on Remote Flight Deck, uh, for the pilots to make decisions on.
- And that's a key thing. So, uh, both, both approvals
- require the ADS-B to be a local sensor.
- So, uh, it can't be like an internet service like
- Flightradar24 or FlightAware or some of those other systems that
- agencies might have used in the past.
- Uh, this has to be a local receiver, uh, right there at the operating area.
- And by doing that, we, we kind of guarantee two things.
- So we guarantee that the-- we have very good low altitude
- coverage, and that's the area that we care most about.
- So everything below, you know, say a thousand feet,
- particularly five hundred feet,
- uh, we can just make sure that any aircraft that are broadcasting,
- uh,
- we'll be able to receive, um, and display that data.
- And it also guarantees that, uh, we have kind of high performance.
- So we don't have to worry about latency.
- Um, that data is all kind of passed through
- the same link as, as the drone.
- Um, and so it's, it's very accurate, um, very low latency data.
- And we make it-- we take this data, and we make it easy for
- pilots to, uh, basically kind of know when there's low-flying
- aircraft near them and, if needed, take action.
- So firstly, we, we filter the irrelevant data.
- So you don't really care, uh, about an airline, you know, flying
- overhead at thirty-five thousand feet.
- Um, it might be cool to know, but it has no safety impact on your
- operation.
- So we filter out a lot of that data and just don't-- we don't show it
- effectively so that, uh, you don't get kind of overloaded with, you
- know, ADS-B traffic on your map, and, and it becomes hard to pick
- out what's a, what's a hazard and what's not.
- So we just filter a lot of that away, make it really clean.
- And then when a low-flying aircraft does get close enough,
- we'll alert you. And that's kind of what you see in the
- graphic, um, on the top.
- So, uh, there's alert in Remote Flight Deck.
- It's both visual and audible, uh, so it's pretty hard to miss.
- And that just directs the pilot to, you know, "Hey, pay attention.
- There's something low nearby." And then the pilot, uh, makes a
- decision, um, at that point.
- All right. And now,
- you know, kind of just switching gears a little bit,
- um, to non-cooperative
- detect-and-avoid sensors. So,
- um,
- the-- this kind of goes into reasons, you know, again, I m- I mentioned
- why we've chosen this, this strategy that we have.
- So,
- uh, the other sensors, you know, radars, camera arrays, uh,
- et cetera, uh, those can be used to detect aircraft
- that are not
- broadcasting ADS-B Out. So, you know, in, in these particular
- airspaces of Pasco County and New York City-
- Um, you know, this would be like the two percent of
- aircraft, right?
- That don't have it or have turned it off, uh, for security
- reasons. Um, and so each one of these sensors,
- you know, if
- you're an agency kind of thinking about, uh, purchasing, deploying these
- sensors, um, you know, there's some things you should think about
- as you're,
- you're doing that. So each one kind of has some unique
- things.
- Uh, there's different installation
- requirements, uh, environmental
- considerations, range, costs, and so on.
- So,
- um, so this, uh, this picture actually here on the bottom
- is, is a
- picture from, uh, years ago when we were deploying some, uh,
- some of the small panel radars, uh, that are common in systems out there.
- Um, and, and the picture, it might be a little bit hard to see,
- but the picture
- actually shows, uh, one helicopter, uh, that we
- knew about. So we were testing this out, so we, we were typically
- like standing there and looking as well as using this,
- this technology
- to, to kind of see how it performed.
- But, uh, this sensor shows one helicopter in this
- kind of
- frame, uh, but you can see two targets.
- Um, and what might, what might not be so clear because it's
- small is that one
- target has a confidence of twenty percent, one has a confidence of
- a hundred percent, and really the only information
- that you're--
- the useful information that you're getting out of this
- is kind of the location.
- So, uh, it doesn't give you altitude.
- Um, and so if, if you're a drone pilot, you're, you're out there doing a mission,
- um, responding to a call,
- uh,
- this could be, you know, difficult to use, right?
- So you have to interpret this, like do I, do I avoid the
- both targets or, or just one of them?
- You know, is the twenty percent one actually
- something I need to care about or is,
- or is it not? Um, I don't know what altitude it is
- because, uh, the sensor just doesn't have
- that capability,
- so it could be co-altitude, it could be the same altitude as me,
- it could be a
- thousand feet in the air.
- Um, and so these are, these are just the things
- that you have to kind of think
- about with these sensors. And, uh, the, the
- complexity is again, just reasons why we have at least today
- chosen
- not to, to deploy those for these two approvals
- that we
- got, um, but it is an option, so.
- And, and there's another thing too.
- So, you know, think about a, a city like New York City.
- So it's a little over, you know, I think four hundred and fifty
- square miles, uh, so just a, an expansive city.
- And
- if you had to deploy sensors across that whole city, let's,
- let's say you wanted to
- get a hundred percent coverage of your city with a, with a sensor like this.
- So,
- um, a lot of these sensors, uh, have limited range, and
- I'll, I'll just use one example. Um, you know, some of these small panel
- radars or the electro-optical systems, they see about a, a
- mile, maybe a mile and a half.
- Um, so and you typically need-- for like radars, you need four of
- them to see a three hundred and sixty degree view.
- So,
- you know, imagine a, a city of four hundred
- and fifty square miles, and your one
- sensor sees about a mile radius. Um, you know, you
- can kind of do the math. It ends up being, uh, a lot of sensors.
- Um, and then you have to install them, you have to find rooftops or, or
- water towers or some kind of tower to put these things on, you know, all over the
- city.
- Um, and so the, the cost and the complexity just like really ramps
- up
- if you wanna start, uh, covering your city with sensors like this.
- Um, or if you don't do that, so let's say you don't, you know,
- cover-- do full coverage of your city with the
- sensors, um, and you
- maybe just have one sensor at the takeoff and landing point, uh, that then
- starts to limit your operational capabilities.
- So if the sensor can see a mile and a half, uh, you can't
- operate that far. You have to kind of operate within that,
- that volume so that you
- can see something and have time to react.
- So if you just deploy one, uh, now you're limiting like your
- operational distance that you can respond to calls and,
- and the effectiveness of
- your system. So,
- um, so with, with the shielded DFR operations and just
- ADS-B, uh, we don't really, you know, kind of run into those
- problems. Like we don't have to install
- infrastructure all over the city to collect
- this data. It's just on the X10. Uh, it's very easy
- to use, so, um, there's no confidence intervals or
- anything. It comes directly from a GPS source, uh,
- so it's very
- high-quality data that the pilot can use to make decisions.
- Um, and so that's kind of just reasons why
- we've
- chosen our strategy. So
- the last thing here is that, okay, so you've deployed these sensors
- or you're using
- ADS-B to see aircraft. Um, and so now,
- uh, you know, if one does fly low and, and near your area,
- uh, you might have to take an action.
- And so,
- uh, low-flying aircraft, you know, just because there are low-flying
- aircraft nearby doesn't mean you always have to take an action.
- Um, and so, you know, just for illustrative purposes,
- we kind of created three
- scenarios. But, uh, this goes back to that well clear,
- uh, definition that I shared earlier.
- So if a helicopter is flying overhead at five hundred feet
- AGL and you're flying at two hundred feet AGL, um, you know, by,
- by those, uh, numbers, you actually don't have to maneuver to
- give
- way to that. So, uh, so we've chosen to make these
- decisions, at least for now, uh, you know, just pilot decisions and
- based on training and, and understanding of the system.
- Um, it's not an automated avoidance maneuver,
- um, because, you know, if you start to build in some, some
- rules about, you know, just do an automated avoidance maneuver
- if anything is
- within a mile, um, you could be doing unnecessary
- maneuvers, um, that actually add some risk
- potentially to your, to your operation.
- So,
- um, so yeah, based on our alerts, um, the pilot just looks,
- makes the decision, you know, what altitude is this aircraft at, how far
- away is it, and then if they need to, they take an action.
- Okay, so that was all the airspace side of it.
- So now kind of switching gears to the citizen safety side.
- So the question here now is how do you avoid injuring
- somebody on the ground? And this is mostly in the cases of our off
- nominal situations. So,
- uh, if you have to do an emergency landing or,
- or for some reason, something like
- that. So
- the goal here is just, you know, don't injure somebody.
- So it's-- in some ways it's a little more simple
- than, than the airspace side of
- it.
- Um, and so we've, we've got kind of three different
- strategies for how agencies can, uh, achieve
- this and, and what we use for Pasco County and,
- and NYPD.
- So firstly, the, the first thing you can do
- is just kind of a-avoid it.
- Um, and so for Pasco County, what that looks like, at
- least for now, is that they're, they're operating within the boundaries
- of, of the
- school at the-- at these properties.
- Um, and they're using things like flight
- planning, you know, flying over rooftops,
- flying over treetops where there's heavy vegetation.
- And if there was somebody under, they'd be kind of sheltered.
- Um, be-- again, like time and place.
- So, you know, maybe don't fly during, uh, recess,
- fly between recess, whatever. So they can use all these strategies,
- there's no, uh,
- prescriptive method there. Um, but the, the goal is just avoid
- flying over people. And so we know that's not really tenable
- for,
- for DFR, where you're responding to calls for
- service, you don't have that luxury.
- Um, but again, this is just kind of one, one option if you're doing more of like a
- fixed site deployment, you know, in this case it's schools, but, uh,
- jails as well, different types of sites where, uh,
- maybe you're
- just concerned with responding to events, you know, at that property.
- Uh, so then the next thing, um, and still under part one oh seven here,
- would be
- to add a parachute recovery system or some other way o-of
- mitigating the, the energy of the drone as it comes
- down. And, um, so, uh, we are developing an attachment
- for X10, um, that will enable operations in category
- three of part one oh seven. So that would allow momentary flight over
- people and moving vehicles.
- Um, and so again, I mentioned, you know, the, the Pasco County approval, it's, it's
- really just a stepping stone, uh, for them.
- So they're able to, to do response at their schools,
- at least for now.
- And then, uh, you know, when the parachute recovery system comes
- online, we expect that approval to expand to kind of a full
- county deployment.
- And then for NYPD, uh, the path there is actually
- operating under a COA. So COAs
- allow operations over human beings when necessary to safeguard
- human life. And so that's kind of the exact words
- that the FAA uses.
- Um, you know, gets in-into technicalities here a little
- bit, but part
- ninety-one, unlike part one oh seven, actually doesn't prohibit flight
- over people. So it doesn't expressly prohibit that.
- Um, you know, this-- the set of regulations
- was designed more for crewed
- aircraft flying at higher altitudes, and they had airworthiness
- certificates. So, uh, you know, flying over people was really
- not a consideration when part ninety-one was originally, uh,
- developed.
- Um, but it does prohibit you from flying below
- five hundred feet unless
- you have, like, a safe area to land.
- So,
- um, it's just technicalities, but it's kind of a different approach.
- So because part ninety-one doesn't prohibit you from flying over people,
- uh, the, the FAA has kind of chosen to compromise
- on this a little bit.
- So, uh, it's not a, a carte blanche approval to, to fly
- over people all the time or, like, large gatherings of people.
- So the COAs even, uh, prohibit some of those types of things.
- Uh, but they understand that, you know, the certain calls for service, the
- benefit of, of getting to that call, uh, and, and helping
- people, potentially saving their lives just
- outweighs the risk of,
- you know, flying over a person or a moving vehicle on the way to get
- there.
- So,
- uh, so th-they've recognized that and, and kind of found a balance.
- So, um, so when you need to under this COA
- and for New York City, when they
- need to, they're, they're able to just respond to the call
- for service and fly
- over, or people and, and just kind of accept that risk, um,
- along the way.
- Okay. So yeah, so that, that's kind of a, you know, deeper dive into
- like the safety case for both these approvals and those two things combined
- have,
- have really created these paths forward for doing drones first responder
- without VO's. And so,
- uh, this next slide here is, is a little bit of an eye chart,
- but it really just kind of shows these pathways opening up now.
- So
- on the top line at least, uh, that really represents the, the
- NYPD approval and, and sort of the precedent
- and the blueprint that that sets,
- uh, for other agencies moving forward.
- Um, so you have the ability to fly, you know, shielded DFR operations
- with ADSB only, uh, to do DFR or if you,
- you know, have the need to fly over two hundred
- feet, uh, it gives the ability
- to, um, add an airspace awareness technology to do
- that.
- And then for waivers to part one oh seven, uh, we
- have w-- basically the, the Pasco County approval,
- where you can do shielded
- DFR operations, uh, with a parachute that kind of gives you
- full ability to, to do, um, a citywide or countywide deployment.
- Without it, it's more a fixed site.
- Um, and then I don't have enough time really
- to, to kind of dive into it
- today, but, uh, there also is now a, a second waiver
- option called Public Safety Organization Shield Ops.
- Um, and what the FAA is doing for that type of approval is kind of
- expanding, uh, tactical BVLOS into part one oh seven.
- Um, so happy to talk to anybody, you know, after this about that, but, um,
- just kind of running out of time today to hit them all.
- All right. Okay. And so, you know, these
- pathways are now, you know, kind of opening up,
- and we're really excited to k-
- keep working with these two agencies, uh, to make sure, you know, these
- safety cases are effective, uh, we made the right assumptions along the
- way. Uh, but we're also not done yet.
- So, like, the work isn't done, uh, just 'cause we got, you know,
- the VO removed
- for, for one KOA. So,
- uh, we're gonna c- continue to climb this, you know, summit, the autonomous summit
- here. Um, the things that are kind of on our mind, um,
- in the future are certainly enabling that, uh,
- multi-mission operation, uh, the DFR command demo you saw
- yesterday. Uh, we call that one-to-many, but, um, but yeah, our,
- our minds are certainly on unlocking that, so giving, uh, agencies
- the ability to fly multiple drones simultaneously to respond to calls,
- whether that's, you know, doing like an on station hand off or, uh,
- possibly responding to more than one call at one time in the future.
- Um, you know, it's also the- the zero grids what we call them, but
- essentially flying in those areas close to the airports.
- So if you remember back to the graphic with- within New York City, uh,
- the only areas that can't really fly today, at least routinely,
- are right around
- those major airports. Um, so we're gonna be working on ways to,
- uh, get approvals to fly in those areas so
- they have kind of full coverage of
- their city or, uh, other metropolitan areas, uh, for
- other agencies.
- Um, and then, you know, there could be more after that.
- So, uh, we're gonna keep climbing, keep working on this.
- Um, but yeah, that's, that's what I've got for today,
- and I think we've got,
- yeah, maybe five, six minutes for questions here.
- So we'll take some audience questions first. Yeah.
- Tommy will run over with the mic. I saw your hand
- first.
- Hey, Jackie. I could have texted you this, but I figured I'd put you on the spot.
- [laughs] Thanks.
- So first question, [clears throat] are you guys starting with a two-to-many
- approach or going straight to one?
- Um,
- t- two or one? Sorry. I-
- Two, two-to-many-
- Or like-
- ... versus one-to-many. So there was some feedback we got a while back that
- just on, on the multi-rotor type op side, so m- way more your world,
- um, [clears throat] that a two-to-many approach initially
- would make a
- little bit more sense to get off the ground because if you have a,
- you know, a ten nominal operations going on at once
- and then an emergency,
- the second pilot can
- take care of the emergency while the other-
- Oh, I see
- ... nine flights are-
- Okay
- ... still being monitored. So are you guys gonna start-
- Got it
- ... with a two-to-many or are you gonna go straight to a kind of a
- one to X
- approach?
- Got it. Yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. Um, yeah, so I think our, our
- approach is, is more the latter, so one-to-many, right?
- So,
- um, so we believe that, you know, with autonomy, really, we can
- kind of solve a lot of those, you know, contingency situations.
- Um, I think we'll start initially with like a
- low number.
- Sure.
- So we're not gonna go straight to like 100 or, uh, you know, the drone
- light show types of numbers. But, you know, we think, uh, one pilot flying
- two drones maybe is a, is a good first step, right?
- Just doing like an on station hand off, 'cause some calls for service last
- more than, you know, the 30 minutes of a battery life, right?
- So if we can give that capability where you can just launch
- a second
- drone, do a hand off, that first drone comes back,
- that's a good first step,
- and then maybe we'll just kind of expand that from there.
- But yeah, we believe the autonomy side of it's key
- to just handling some of those,
- you know, continge- contingency things, uh, without needing more
- pilots.
- Got it. And as a non-related follow-up, any plans to type
- certify the X10?
- Not today. [laughs]
- Got it. Thanks. Thanks, Jackie.
- Who else has questions?
- So in reference to your, um, 50 feet off, 100
- feet over, um, is that pre-established?
- Is that being enforced? How are you tracking violations of
- that? Like w- how are-- what's that look like?
- Like the, the 50 feet over structures-
- Correct
- ... is the kind of thing you mean?
- Yeah.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- Like is that just pilot, "Hey, fly that way," or is that actually
- hard-coded in in like a geo-fence type solution?
- Oh, I see. Yeah. Yeah. So right, so it's, it's 200 feet
- AGL just kind of broadly.
- Um, and then yeah, as if, if you need to get over 200 feet to clear
- an
- obstacle or something like that. Yeah, today it, it's based on the pilot, and
- so, you know, they're, they're increasing altitude and,
- and taking actions.
- Um, we are working on some, some things to, to make that easier,
- bringing
- in like terrain data, building data.
- I think you saw, uh, what we call pathfinder,
- where the drone's kind of
- navigating through an urban canyon like that.
- So yeah, we're, we're working on some things to just make
- that easier and easier,
- um, and more automated, but today it's, it's just pilots, yeah.
- Where'd you go?
- Hello, Jackie. Just kind of tagging along that question,
- as
- part of those waivers, does the FAA audit
- the data from all those calls,
- the BVLOS calls, kind of then go back and
- issue a violation or something?
- Um, yeah. So, so for,
- for NYPD particularly, there, there are some record keeping a- and
- reporting requirements. Uh, because it is a new thing, you know, it really
- represents a major step forward for the FAA, and when-- typically when they do
- that, they wanna have kind of a feedback loop,
- uh, like I mentioned.
- So are things going well? Is there anything, you know,
- any safety things that we
- didn't think about? Are your mitigations working?
- So,
- uh, so for them, there's gonna be a feedback loop.
- So we're gonna do some reporting back on, uh, certain things
- related to like how many aircraft, uh, did you
- avoid, you know, during your operations, or, uh,
- how many connectivity issues did you have, things like that.
- So,
- um, so yeah, it's not, not really an audit.
- There's just a, a feedback loop there, 'cause the FAA wants to learn as well.
- Um, but yeah, to, to the question of if, if, is there some kind
- of monitoring system going on where they're, they're looking for violations,
- you
- know, that- that's really not, um, the, the FAA's kind of
- mentality around things. I think they'd rather learn
- and just have those
- discussions with operators, uh, versus just this
- monitoring and, like, violate them the minute they fly over 50
- feet, yeah,
- so.
- Yeah, it's really, it's really a partnership.
- I mean, to just put a cap on it, yeah.
- So, you know, FAA, New York City Police Department, and us,
- um,
- it, it-- they really view it as just a partnership
- to, to take
- this step forward and, you know, let's make sure it's safe, and then
- let's, let's scale it out. Yeah.
- Thanks. My question is-
- Yeah
- ... is regarding patrol led DFR, where a patrol officer,
- um, brings out the drone and it's controlled remotely,
- and the assumption the
- officers on the scene then become the visual observers.
- My question is, how strict is it that the visual observers are
- being visual observers and not police officers, right?
- That they've launched it, they become focused on the bad guy,
- and nobody's really
- looking at the sky. Can you just talk about what kind of the
- regulations, the
- expectation is-
- Yeah
- ... of the visual ob- visual observers during patrol led DFR?
- Yep. Yeah. So, so yeah. The, the expectation is that, uh, they've
- received some training,
- uh, you know, what their duties are, their role, uh,
- phraseology, you know, how to scan airspace, you know,
- things they can do to help
- the pilot. So the expectation is there's some training there.
- And then, uh, yeah, the, you know, even the words kind of out of the COA are
- that it's a dedicated visual observer.
- So there's certainly an expectation that they are scanning airspace
- and, and acting as a member of the flight crew
- and, uh, not getting
- too distracted with other duties.
- Um, and so-- and we, we recognize, you know, that, that,
- um,
- is a hurdle, right, to, like, implementing a patrol led DFR.
- Like, do you-- can you really take a guy out of this
- situation to kind of
- stand and scan airspace? So the, the ideal situation
- is, you know, just like these two path forwards, we,
- we just figure out ways to
- remove that requirement using other technology like ADS-B.
- So that's our ultimate goal, is to get rid of the need for
- that requirement, even
- with patrol led DFR, yeah, for that reason.
- Yep.
- My question kind of goes in line with-
- Yeah
- ... the gentleman in front there. You had mentioned that the FAA
- is always trying
- to learn, and
- I'm concern- I'm curious, as are a lot of other agencies
- and speaking to people
- around here, like why the FAA chose for their first no
- VO
- DFR COA to be at like one of the most complex
- airspace areas in the country. I just-
- Yeah
- ... it was a little shocking. So do you happen-
- Yeah
- ... have any info on that?
- Yeah. I mean, um, so it's, it's a, it's something we've been working on a
- long time, actually. So this, this didn't kind of just materialize
- overnight. So, um, it, it took over a year of
- just working with them. NYPD's been doing operations
- with a visual observer for a long time.
- So, um, so there's, there's been plenty of
- operations going on. Uh, there's some level of, you know,
- trust and professionalism with, with a, an agency like New York,
- uh, that they're doing it right. And then I think, uh, you know,
- it kind of goes
- back to like the safety case. So it-- I'll just say it again, it- it's
- counterintuitive, but it's not, it's not as crazy of an
- airspace as it, as it might just kind of seem on the
- surface when you look
- down. So,
- uh, there, there really aren't aircraft just kind of
- all over the place
- flying at two hundred feet AGL. All the aircraft there are cooperative, so
- we see them all with ADS-B, and we can, you know, give-- take maneuvers, give
- right of way if we need to. So,
- um, so yeah, I think it, it might be a little bit counterintuitive,
- but, um, yeah,
- it's actually,
- you know, we-- the safety case we put together was,
- seemed safe.
- So yeah.
- Thank you.
- Any other questions?
- Yeah.
- You wanna take maybe one from the virtual audience?
- Sure, yeah.
- [deep inhale]
- Okay. Let me... Gotta refresh.
- [deep inhale] Okay. Sorry. Just reading.
- But, um,
- yeah. So, so one question, you know, what-- was it difficult to get the,
- the one oh seven three dot what, dot three one waiver?
- So the Pasco County waiver.
- Um,
- so I mean, there's kind of-- there's sort of two answers to this.
- So, uh,
- there, there's work that has to be done to get the first one.
- So, you know, for Pasco County, there, there was certainly some work
- done to get that, you know, kind of first precedent-setting approval,
- um, and work with the FAA on the safety case
- of that.
- Uh, like I said, there's a lot of work
- that went into the New York City Police
- Department approval. Uh, took, took over a year to, to work with them on
- that.
- Um, so yeah, the, the sort of the first time through it,
- it is a
- little bit more difficult. Um, but then the i- the idea
- is that that sets precedent and as long as the
- operations, you know, for Pasco, for New York City are
- safe and, and there is that like feedback loop that I mentioned,
- so they're gonna
- have to report back, are things going well?
- As long as everything goes well, then that gives the FAA, you know, kind of
- confidence to, uh, approve it the next time with a shorter
- timeline. So is the next one that hard to get as the first one?
- Uh, usually not. Um, but it is, you know, it's, it's
- part of our responsibility, part of the operator's responsibility to,
- um, to, to o- continue operating safely.
- You know, you get these waivers, but there are provisions
- and so make sure they
- understand it all and, and continue to operate Um, safely so
- that we
- can, you know, we can make it easy to get the next one,
- so to speak.
- Um, and there was one other one, um, so
- related to ADS-B. Um, so the question's kind of how are you
- planning to make that, uh, functional, functional,
- fully, uh, automatic? So I kind of interpret it to mean, like,
- an, an
- autonomous, uh, avoidance maneuver, um, is sort of how I interpret
- that question. So,
- um, so it, it goes a little bit back to, you know, I was kind of talking
- about, um,
- not,
- not every low-flying aircraft nearby requires,
- uh, an avoidance maneuver. Um, so,
- uh, we've been a little careful to, to implement autonomous and, like,
- autonomous avoidance things because, um, because we
- don't want to create situations where
- the drone is autonomously avoiding something it didn't need to,
- um, because that creates risk as well.
- So imagine, uh, if you had to... You know, your drone just
- suddenly descended, and there's a helicopter flying overhead,
- but that
- helicopter is, uh, you know, turns at the last minute and, and
- it's not a factor. So there's just-- there's enough
- situations where we think with the right training and just kind
- of the way that we've developed Remote Flight Deck and, and the alerting and, and
- the information that's preve- presented, we think, uh, the pilot is
- gonna make the best decisions for now.
- Um, we are thinking about, you know, adding, uh, automatic avoidance,
- uh, in the future, uh, but just as, as a kind of simple way to
- get started and not add extra risk by, uh,
- you know, kind of unnecessary maneuvers, um, is why we wanted to start at
- least, so.
- Yeah, I think that's it. So, um, yeah, I guess I'll just kind of
- wrap up. I mean, thanks to everybody for coming, um,
- and sticking around,
- and I hope you have a-- all safe travels home.
- Um, and if you do have questions, I'll, I'll be around for a little bit more.
- I'm gonna kind of wander over to the, the program manager training,
- but I'll be in
- the lobby, so happy to talk more. So thank you all.
- [audience applauding]
Watch Time
51 Mins 13 Secs
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