Good News for Drone Operators?

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A leading drone manufacturer pledged to boost drone safety by adding to its drones receivers for manned aircraft location signals. The new capability will be added to the DJI’s models released after January 1, 2020 that weigh more than 250 grams. The alert system will give drone pilots enhanced situational awareness and help them make responsible decisions while flying.

The new safety system AirSense gathers flight data sent automatically from nearby aircraft with ADS-B transmitters, analyzing it to detect potential collision risks and alert users well in advance through the DJI mobile app.

Drone operators will be able to receive signals from the Automatic Dependent Surveillance—Broadcast (ADS–B) equipment carried by the vast majority of manned aircraft. ADS-B uses GPS to calculate the position of an aircraft in flight and broadcast it to other aircraft and to ground control to help avoid collisions. According to insideunmannedsystems.com, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is already requiring the vast majority of manned aircraft to equip with ABS-B out capability, that is the ability to broadcast a signal, by January 1, 2020.

The new system will allow drones to detect manned-aircraft fitted with the same system.

Besides the DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise (which incorporates the ADS-B receiver), existing drones will remain unaffected by this announcement, Droningon.co reports.

It is not known at this time whether or not the system will also transmit the location of DJI drones, but it has been communicated that the system will receive signals in order to display the position of close-proximity manned aircraft within close range.