Potential Solution for UAV Line-of-Sight Obstacle

Potential Solution for UAV Line-of-Sight Obstacle

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One of the main obstacles preventing drone deliveries from becoming a worldwide phenomenon is a requirement that they stay within their operator’s line of sight. Qualcomm, the phone chip manufacturer, is working on a solution: cellphone networks.

The rules from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration exist to help prevent accidents with commercial aircraft and mitigate the risk that drones could get out of control in areas where it’s not safe for them to go. By tapping into the networks of towers that connect phones to each other and to the internet, drone operators would be able to track and maneuver them even when they aren’t visible.

The company has been testing its idea from the helipad on the roof of its San Diego headquarters. The location, the company says, is ideal because it’s inside airspace controlled by the nearby Miramar Marine Corps. Air Station and is regularly overflown by military aircraft. That provides lots of opportunities to prove the drones can operate safely in restricted airspace, go out of sight behind buildings and not get sucked up in the engines of an F-18.

“With autonomy plus connectivity you have multiple mechanisms that ensure safety,” said Qualcomm’s Paul Guckian, who’s heading the research and development program to make drones more compatible with the new rules. “When you consider the safety of people on the ground and the safety of aircraft in the national airspace it’s all about fail-safe mechanisms redundancy.”

According to Bloomberg.com, the cellular connection adds backup safety and control. A link to an existing network means drones can be easily tracked and flown in densely populated areas where they have the potential to cause the most mischief and also be the most use. For example, airports could be made into automatic no-fly zones for drones by adding software that could detect when the drone connected to cell towers near that airspace, and then either not allow the device to take off in the first place or force it to land immediately.

For companies like Qualcomm, removing the roadblocks may be worth a nice sum of money. Like other chipmakers, it’s looking at drones and robotics as potential new markets that can help make up for a slowdown in smartphone and personal computer markets, where growth is minimal and declining. Market researcher Gartner Inc. estimates that there were 2.2 million drones sold for personal use last year, up from 242,000 in 2013. That’s still a tiny amount compared with the more than one billion smartphone units shipped last year.