NASA and Google to create an air-traffic control system for UAVs
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Google is partnering with NASA and 13 other companies, including Amazon and Verizon, to create an air-traffic control system for drones, called the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Traffic Management.
NASA began the project as a way to create infrastructure and rules governing the use of drones and other aircraft in lower altitudes. “A UAS traffic management (UTM) system for low-altitude airspace is needed, much like today’s surface vehicles that operate within a system consisting of roads, lanes, stop signs, rules, and lights, regardless of whether the vehicle is automated or driven by a human,” NASA said on its website.
“While incorporating lessons learned from the well-established ATM system, which grew from a mid-air collision over the Grand Canyon in the early days of commercial aviation, the UTM system would enable safe and efficient low-altitude airspace operations by providing services such as airspace design, corridors, dynamic geofencing, severe weather and wind avoidance, congestion management, terrain avoidance, route planning and re-routing, separation management, sequencing and spacing, and contingency management,” the agency continued.
NASA’s short-term goal is to develop and demonstrate the UTM system to safely enable low-altitude airspace and drone operations within five years. Within 10 to 15 years, the agency hopes to safely enable the anticipated dramatic increase in density of all low-altitude airspace operations. The space agency is working in conjunction with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other government entities, as well as partners in industry and academia, to research, develop, test and implement the system.
Companies like Google are clamoring to get involved with designing the UAS Traffic Management system so they can get in on the bottom floor of the emerging multi-billion-dollar drone economy. Along with the 14 companies that have signed agreements with NASA, another 100 enterprises and universities have expressed interest in the project.
