@NASA Air Traffic Control System – Why @Google, @Amazon and @Verizonwireless fighting FAA's New Guidelines

“They definitely see it as an economic opportunity and as something that they want to participate in. This is real magic”

President of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, Brian Wynne commenting on a NASA-led plan to develop an ATC (Air Traffic Control) system for Commercial drones

Flying Drones is going to be a problem in the US of A, given the amount of aerial traffic. What is need right now are traffic lanes in the skies to makes sure that drones don’t fly into each other and don't collide with commercial aircraft.

That seems to be the thinking behind the alliance between NASA (National Aeronautical Space Administration) and some ten (10) or more Tech giants to create an ATC (Air Traffic Control) and Guidance System for UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) or Drones as reported in the article “Google joins NASA to work on drone traffic control system”, published  July 25, 2015 By Trevor Mogg, Digitaltrends.

Those other companies including the likes of Google, Amazon.com Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Harris Corp. who are a part of NASA initiative also happen to have an interest in building commercial drones themselves as noted in the article “Google Wants a Piece of Air-Traffic Control for Drones”, published July 24, 2015 by Alan Levin, Bloomberg News.    

In addition to an intelligent collision and ATC (Air Traffic Control) System to guided drones along specific corridors in the key, as in the case of aeroplanes, they also want a collision avoidance system to be common among all drone manufactures as reported in the article “Google, Amazon, NASA working on air traffic control for drones”, published 25.07.2015 by David Nield, Techradar. 

With the FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) coming out with new guidelines for drones by July 2016 as reported in the article “FAA expects to clear U.S. commercial drones within a year”, published Wed Jun 17, 2015, Reuters, why is NASA and pals taking it upon themselves to effectively do a study to make suggestions to a US Federal agency responsible for airplane safety within US Airspace?

@NASA Air Traffic Control System – Why @Google, @Amazon and @Verizon want an ATC

It's main because of the more rigid guidelines set by the FAA, one of which stipulates that the UAS cannot be flow outside of the visible range of the Drone operator.

Also, the drone operator must always have control over the drone as noted in the article “Amazon drone delivery plan given hope as NASA progresses with air traffic control system”, published March 13, 2015 By Trevor Mogg, Digitaltrends.

NASA thinks that by pooling their collective resources together, they can not only develope a common air traffic Control and guidance system for UAS but also collision detection systems among all drone developers.

With an ATC system and common collision-avoidance System in place as an organized group of Corporate and Enterprise Interests, it could help push that timeline forward.  Even more interestingly, this alliance could also push the case for autonomous drones that can fly on their own.

As with autonomous cars like Google’s little un-named autonomous buggy  as explained in my blog article entitled “@Google’s Self-Driving All-Electric Vehicles in June 2015 – Autonomous Vehicles reduce Road Accidents, Parking and make Ride Sharing the Norm” it would reduce accidents in the air by slowly taking out the humans out of the loop by fly using this ATC and Guidance System, which would have to be automated to allow it to function 24/7/365.

There is huge money to be made by Drone pilots flying such drones using FPV (First Person Viewing) as explained in my blog article entitled “FAA to allow Commercial Drones in 2015 - US$100,000 per year for 100,000 Drone Pilot jobs for the next five years”. 

Hence, no surprise many are looking at this coming together of tech heavyweights under the scientific aegis of NASA as a step towards a more unified, professional and organized Drone Industry!

Many of these commercial interests are in interested in using fleets of drones to do delivery as in the case of Amazon as explained in my blog article entitled “Amazon’s Prime Air Patent – How Swarm Intelligence pilots @Amazon Autonomous Drones via White Spaces Network with Call Center Agent Personal Touch” there is also an interest in selling Drone Services to Corporate and Enterprise clients.

Early Drone Companies get the worm –Tech companies jostling for Drone Heaven

A few companies are starting to announce Drone based Services aside from Drone Developer companies who develop and design drones for Retail.

They realize the potential in drones is not in sales of the drones themselves, but in reselling their services to various sectors of the economy that need low-cost aerial services:

1.      Agriculture

2.      Construction

3.      Mining

4.      Oil Exploration

5.      Telecoms

6.      Town Planning

Already Sony has partnered with  Japanese robotics and automation company, ZMP to rent drone services for purposes such as photography and mapping services for such clients as explained in my blog article entitled “Sony and ZMP to sell Drone Services - Why Aerosense makes sense if Sony Smartphone are Drone Processor Boards”.  

Most interestingly, NASA has plans to use pairs of drones they designed to survey the surface of Mars for future manned landings as explained in my blog article entitled “@NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center Prandtl-m Drone – Surveying the Red Planet for Human Colony as the More the Merrier with Two Drones”.  

So not only is there commercial interest, but huge scientific interest as well for now and the forseable future!  

The future will be ruled by robots, but not just in the kitchen or fast food restaurants taking away menial Fast food jobs as predicted in my blog article entitled “US$15,000 Moley Robotics Cooking Robot – Cooking Robot seeking Taste for Human Food to take over in 2017”.

Rather, they'll initially displace the Parcel Delivery man and the Postal Delivery Service with literally same-day shipping anywhere in the US of A at the press of a button.

Here’s the link:

NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center Prandtl-m Drone

NASA Website

NASA Facebook Page

NASA YouTube Page

Science at NASA YouTube Page

NASA Twitter Feed: @NASA