Drone Operator Group to Address Challenges in Cities
Source: Government Technology Author: Jed Pressgrove Published: December 6, 2019
A new multidisciplinary group is hoping to start a conversation that can answer questions about new concerns specific to using drones in the nation's most densely populated metropolitan areas.
What should you do if someone is operating a drone near you? Where should you move? Should you be a certain number of feet away from the machine?
These are the sort of questions that police, firefighters and other stakeholders hope to clarify as part of the Major Cities Working Group, a new initiative from the DRONERESPONDERS program. The Major Cities Working Group launched during the Drone Journalism Leadership Summit in New York last month. The group was created to drive dialog between different drone users who may face similar issues when operating unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in densely populated cities, said Christopher Todd, executive director of the Airborne International Response Team, the nonprofit responsible for DRONERESPONDERS.
Richard Fields, administrative section chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, said the Major Cities Working Group should develop a common understanding of what should happen when a drone is used for an emergency. He likened this need to the simple procedure that drivers are expected to follow when they see or hear an ambulance or firetruck — that is, pull over to the right. Taking this example further, Fields pointed out that public safety must be prepared for when people don’t follow the rules.
“Everybody doesn’t [pull over to the right],” Fields said. “Some people stop right in front of you. Some people keep driving. Some people don’t hear you coming. Some people panic and don’t know what to do, and those are all things that we are used to dealing with and overcoming in how we operate [emergency automobiles]. We have no idea what that looks like in the airspace [with drones].”
Public safety faces numerous other challenges when operating drones in big cities, Fields said. Besides pedestrian safety, there are infrastructure-related concerns. Not only does one have to account for a high number of buildings in a big city, but the buildings themselves, due to their construction materials, can interrupt GPS and radio signals, as well as interfere with line of sight.