The 500ft View
NASA is designing a new, fully automated airspace for drones called the UTM (“UAS Traffic Management”). Despite being a large-scale effort that will have implications on every corner of the drone world, little has been written about the UTM, so this week we take a closer look at what its arrival will bring in the near future. (via http://utm.arc.nasa.gov)
NASA’s outline begins by describing the need for the UTM by comparing it to the need for roads, lanes and stop signs for terrestrial vehicles, whether they be autonomous or human-driven. The subtext, then, is that current UAS operations are lawless at best and, while the fuse is still burning on an industry set to explode, we’d do well to structure the “widespread use of low-altitude airspace.”
The scope of the UTM in enabling "safe and efficient low-altitude airspace operations” includes 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.
This is a massive undertaking, and NASA has been striking a rash of partnerships to help chip away at the scale. From the University of Nevada to industry giants like Google, Amazon and Verizon, to prominent drone startups like Airware and PrecisionHawk, NASA’s strategy seems to be as much about garnering community buy-in and consensus as it is distributing the technical load. Ultimately, the ‘customer’ who will implement UTM as law, will be the FAA.
As a point of reference, the UTM system will draw from the current air traffic management (ATM) system "which grew from a mid-air collision over the Grand Canyon in the early days of commercial aviation.” This is a significant inclusion in NASA’s outline given that much of the history of aviation law is based in precedent.
Unlike the ATM system, however, the plan is for the UTM to be largely automated. It "will not require human operators to monitor every vehicle continuously. The system will provide to human managers the data to make strategic decisions related to initiation, continuation, and termination of airspace operations."
The proposal goes on to mention two types of UTM systems, one portable for uses such as precision agriculture and disaster relief, and the other persistent for continuous coverage of specific geographical areas, with a staged rollout consisting of four UTM generations: UTM1 through UTM4.
"The first build, UTM1, will create, analyze and manage trajectories and constraints that enable operations by an interactive system. The focus will be on geo-fencing, altitude “rules of the road,” and scheduling of vehicle trajectories. UTM2 will enable increased density and contingency management. Focus areas will include all of UTM1, dynamic adjustments to availability of airspace and contingency management. UTM3 will manage separation by vehicle and/or ground-based capabilities under higher densities. The focus areas will be all of UTM2, active monitoring of trajectory conformance, and a UTM web interface. The final build will be UTM4"
NASA’s stated roadmap to “enable low-altitude airspace and UAS operations within five years,” strikes us as both ambitious, given the scope, and well behind the curve of industry growth. Keeping an eye on the UTM as drone operations increase will be critical to maintaining a strategic position as a drone company. We expect the salad days of nearly-no-legislation to fade quickly, along with headlines highlighting bad-actors in our lawless airspace above. The sooner we paint the lanes, the better.
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