# Airspace Awareness: A Total Necessity to Scale Drone Ops

- Event: NestGen ’22
- Published: March 3, 2022
- Length: 41:16
- Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/Q260wJ5ilWE/

> The transcript of a recorded NestGen session, for reading or for use with an AI tool. It comes from the video's
> captions; automatic captions can mishear names and terms.

## About this session

Constant inflight scouting of the airspace for obstacles is no easy task & can make or break operational permissions. UTMs to the rescue!

## Transcript

**[0:13]** hello and welcome to sps awareness a total necessity to scale drone ops constant in-flight scouting of the airspace for obstacles is no easy task and can make or break operation permissions utms to the rescue deploying multiple fleets on repeatable missions requires complete awareness of air traffic constant communication of different drones flying in the vicinity for example mapping of no-fly zones understanding environmental factors etc and also obstacle avoidance right you need to smartly and efficiently uh avoid collisions um as much as possible and that's where unifly really comes in they saw the growing ecosystem of drones the commercialization of drone operations for inspection security and progress monitoring and understood a basic necessity to ensure that when this scales in the long run organizations can realize the potential of drone fleets without worrying about logistical challenges and also make their operations really safe this can be the management and visualization of drones and operators and

**[1:18]** of course in the context of autonomous systems the drone and the docking station unifly's primary mission is to enable the safe and efficient integration of drone traffic around the world our focus is always on safety for all stakeholders involved and of course source uniflies who better to talk about scalability and airspace awareness than our speaker for this session burn fast and hype with over 13 years of experience of the automotive logistics and location platform market from marketing to sales burn fast and heart joint unify as the chief commercial officer just recently he's looking forward to bridging the multiple verticals for drone usage and helping to create the ecosystem needed to make our vision for drones a reality thank you so much for being here with us today burned over to you I will just stop sharing my screen thank you swati and uh good morning good afternoon and good evening to uh everyone I'm trying to to

**[2:19]** paint a quick picture today on why we need to get that l air picture right and how it will help us to scale the drone operations yeah and get the needed flight permissions and also connect different stakeholders in the ecosystem but before going there a quick intro on who is unifly we are already a long time in that drone and drone related market now we are an experienced leader in what we call the unmanned traffic management it all started out in 2012 now when our founders which have an air traffic controller background that did a first concept of um yeah how to manage a drone in and around the vicinity of an airport because they really faced that problem out of that they participated in a swim master class so that is really um yeah normally for the big guys like airbus

**[3:25]** boeing etc to influence the the rulemaking around um yeah um aviation they finished second after airbus now with the concept of uh how to introduce a drone into the airspace and how to make the drone visible how to demand aviation and that's also a year later when unifly has been founded very quickly the first national deployment with dfs in germany followed now where we gained a lot of experience introducing it into the market uh having the the first flight and also a drone um so-called use-based service operator and uh yeah today we are located in the not in the heart of anfield but where a drone company should be quite next to the airport in envelope we have 57 employees and quite an impressive list for this kind of new uh business of existing

**[4:28]** installations uh where we gain day-to-day knowledge and uh work on further expanding and making the product better but let's look a little bit at the picture today huh when we look at airspace management and then mainly for manda aviation um we have our airports with the tower and maybe that tower is already digitized we have our air traffic control systems we have the air traffic controllers yeah and uh somewhere there is an ecosystem around it which means as soon as I'm leaving the airport I'm being handed over to a national system and then in europe to the oil control system yeah and it's all about yeah in in brackets a handful of manned planes be that narcargo or passenger plates but tomorrow yeah we are adding to that and this is where the utm the unmanned

**[5:29]** traffic management comes in we are adding drones yeah but we are adding these drones well outside of the airspace of the typical air traffic control yes we might fly from went to an airport yeah but a lot of the operation will happen in let's say the agricultural sector in harbor critical infrastructure environments it will happen at yeah a lower altitude yeah it will happen in areas where you also have helicopter flights as an example and yeah that that means that these two systems at the end need to speak with each other but why is it so important yeah if we look into into any of the forecasts yeah look at the big consulting firms mckinsey deloitte etc you know and the market potential yeah we are talking about millions of drones

**[6:33]** yeah and I think uh all the amount of use cases there's a lot what we can do with drones so there's no doubt about that now but if we look at the ratio manned aviation versus unmanned aviation we will have an increase of 10x of the air traffic and if you have that now then you also need to look a little bit different on what are the the system requirements what are the the players in that new ecosystem is everyone understanding the aviation sector in the way uh it is being understood today or are there new players and that is uh exactly what uh what is happening so if we look at what are the key drivers for the autonomous aviation um then this is also introducing new airspace users so we have today the aviation sector yeah and we talked there about automated aviation which would mean yeah we go

**[7:35]** from two pilots down to one and maybe we will see that we can do completely automated uh operations there but we have two new airspace users the one is called now the urban air mobility user and we see that today in form of uh of helicopters in in cities uh if you are into american football then you saw on the on the two weekends ago with the super bowl in los angeles that the blade had already this urban air mobility operation not autonomous but with an uh pilot now bringing everyone from and to the um to the game through the very busy airspace of lax yeah and I think through the last spec deals there's a lot of noise around that yeah so we have this player and then we have the drone as an industrial tool and that means small ones which we use for surveying but that is also a delivery drone from small

**[8:41]** payloads to big payloads which is a new user in the airspace but which is also a new stakeholder to aviation because if we talk about drone as an industrial tool we talk about companies who have not yet been in touch with aviation or any of the attached rules whilst on the urban air mobility if you look at who are the players there we have the aviation background yes but we are looking at this more from yeah a b to b to c kind of uh of business case having stated that that we have new airspace users this introduces also new airspace stakeholders now so in the beginning when we talked about the air traffic management that's clearly for the air navigation service providers we have the civil aviation authorities uh and uh clear roles and responsibilities around what what to do in the

**[9:44]** vicinity of an airport how hand overs work etc in that new world we are adding additional airspace stakeholders yeah and that can be ports and other critical kind of infrastructure that is drone operators now um and it will become cities if you think about the urban air mobility it's already in the world yeah then the city is a stakeholder and yes the city in itself has not the responsibility for the airspace but for landing and takeoff so with that background the question is how do we bring everything together how do we manage these new users in the airspace but also the new stakeholders who want to understand what's flying on top of them what's what's going on and how do we make sure that what's going on on top has no impact on what's going on on the ground so

**[10:44]** how do we bring it together now that we have this vision of autonomous aviation be that now meant or unmanned now on the one hand we are having the need for a connected and autonomous aircraft well our drones are today already more or less autonomous if we talk about bb lows now it's more about the connectivity and making sure that necessary data like a position a remote id etc is being shared that we also have a clear view on how do we separate the urban air mobility yeah which uh in in our case means passenger transport and the drones which is uh more payload and or camera or sensors flying around how do we handle priorities how do we handle uh the the maneuvers when we are on a collision course etc and how do we bring this together with the already existing stream of command aviation and how do we enable

**[11:49]** the different uh stakeholders that to connect to each other and that means that we will need to create a digital ecosystem where we have real time data exchange between the different players now and I think uh if you look at at europe today then you have a model where you have this central information platform mainly driven by a caa and all the ansp where you have the traditional atm system and next to it you have the system for the unmanned or for the drones yeah so that also means that the utm system in itself it needs to be designed in a way that it is safe now that it is efficient so it needs to adhere to certain rules which you know from the aviation side and on the other hand it needs to be easy to use now because we have new stakeholders which are not accustomed to all of the routes around aviation

**[12:51]** and then lastly both systems need to work together and looking like one system before diving into the system maybe a little quick of a recap of the status quo now that we have um here our first picture now I think on the one hand everyone uh is aware of of of covet and how it has hit the aviation sector now so that means right now I think there is a lot of other priorities besides the drones whilst yeah kovit is also an accelerator for everything related to drones think about dreamer remote work uh think about um deliveries without any human contact and that's all what's what drones can enable now but due to that we also have a little bit of a delay in the utm regulations who is responsible for what how do we certify certain things um a lot of groundwork is

**[13:56]** is done yeah but now I think the the last phase is more about how do we bring it now all together into one is is working multiple deployment models now from federated to non-federated systems which we see around the world also there now more for the drone operators um we need to stay uh adaptable in order to play in the different markets and then as I already stated these new egm players which are service providers which are drone in the box systems etc which represent a completely new stakeholder going into how the the next level of the presentation which is really more about how do we now facilitate the safe drone operations across all of the stakeholders

**[15:00]** and five main challenges tasks yeah and the responsibilities which which arise now starting with managing so how do we manage the drone access to and within these designated areas and how do we authorize drone operations now once we did that it's all about monitoring yeah so we want to monitor the drone traffic in real time and we want to create alerts in case of emergency situations then it's all about protection yeah because I want to make sure that I protect my critical areas against unauthorized drones and I also need to make sure that my system is cyber secure then all around support also we need to support the provision of these drone services through all of the stakeholders yeah the classical ones being caa and an ansp now

**[16:04]** but then also new ones like other authorities think about port authorities think about police firefighters as authorities think about the the drone operators which are either coming out of the aviation sector but who can also be just b2b companies who see uh that drone as an industrial tool it can do jobs faster safer more efficient so I want to make use of that but I need to be able to connect to the other ones and that's the last point how do we connect that ecosystem with the authorities and the drone pilots to make sure that we have one safe system for everyone but that we also have procedures in place which are repeatable yeah and which are understandable for everyone because only then I have a chance to create a business for everyone how do we do this yeah our platform is at the end of the day enabling this ecosystem

**[17:08]** to provide the airspace awareness and support these five steps which I just talked about so let's let's look from left to right um we have the managing part now that is the operator and the pilot uh they have their respective uh input systems yeah either a web portal or a mobile app to plan their operations to start their operations to communicate during the flight then we have the platform which is allowing to do exactly the monitoring and the protection which is feeding in real time information from tracking devices from drone radar systems remote id systems etc uh so now that we have all information about planned operations active operations meant unmanned in one system we can start that support process which means approval flows can happen we can do the conformance monitoring we can do the separations

**[18:10]** monitoring and also when needed we can start informing external stakeholders yeah think about an airspace where you have an overlap of responsibilities and the drone is moving from one area into the other one that's where you want to send alerting into external systems yeah and then lastly the connection making sure that as an example a port authority is connected to the caa is connected to the supervisor is connected to a drone protection system and talking about the drone protection system yeah this is where the other part of the airspace awareness comes from yeah so how do we get all of the real-time data now on the one hand we have a lot of the location data on the other hand uh weather data and information from mobile network operators to understand what is our ground

**[19:14]** risk and then we assume that there is mainly compliant drones which have registered themselves which are able to carry a tracking device in one way or the other now but I also want to make sure that I capture my airspace so I start with remote id sensors around the areas so that I also can detect collaborative drones which are not declared think about that hobby pilot who wants to make a movie yeah and who might not know all of the rules but I need to see that drone anyhow and then we also want to prevent the criminal drones or the rogue drones yeah so here it's about radar systems uh getting them in place and also fuse that information to be able to highlight in my system uh um in different ways the good drones versus the bathrooms so that I can make my decisions what to do with it and

**[20:15]** how and where I need to hand over that information now and then lastly in most of the areas we will have also the manned aircraft be that helicopters be that um yeah no flying uh hobby planes now but it can also be that we are operating in the vicinity of an airport now as we do as an example here in our hotel in antwelp we have drone operations in the harbor of antwell but the harbor at the same time is in the area of the airport so they need to be aware of that and they need to have that information exchange which we can go with an adsb sensor before opening for the for the q a um maybe a quick uh quick wrap up uh um I think the the industry in itself is is moving uh the the drone space is definitely

**[21:15]** the bigger one faster agile a lot of use cases which which can be served through drones from drone based deliveries of all kinds now to the flying sensor on all kinds of inspections surveillance measurement use cases um now leading to the necessity that this else traffic which is tenfold to the known one yeah it not only needs to be controlled but first of all it needs to be visible to everyone to make sure that everyone has access to the same information yeah similar like we are driving on the road now everyone has the same information called traffic signs and traffic lights and sees the cars in front based on that we make our decisions yeah same is true for us in the airspace the only difference is we have the no place for traffic signs and roads hence we need to have a digital infrastructure underlying

**[22:15]** with joint data sharing to make that uh happen but also by doing so allowing the authorities to have all of the necessary information to make that drone vision which we all have a reality by providing yeah the authorizations and giving the stamps that we can actually do that and by providing that transparency also make sure that our operations are safe in the same way a manned aviation operation is safe and with that I would hand over to uh to q and a slightly I'm not sure because I don't see it yet so we have a few few questions and we have other channels as well so we are receiving quite a few questions uh from discord and over on social media yeah so

**[23:17]** yeah so we have a question around traffic control and collision avoidance you talked a little bit about critical infrastructure and urban mobility so do you can you talk a little bit about how utm can avoid collisions without the intervention of a regulator or operator do you see systems similar to tcas for airplanes being used in drones um yes we do so on a more professional search we already see drones with uh forward looking lighter now to detect what what's around uh that's already I think a good step the other thing is the information which which we can collect in the system uh we provide for to uh ground control stations so that a supervisor can take action based on that yeah um merging exactly what uh what I stated man aviation data

**[24:17]** and it's a little bit different country by country how we can do that or place by place actually and um the actions which we are taking yeah based on the the information flow we either send the message for the drone to uh go down and and pause yeah or um to take other actions where we are able to connect the the different drone operators with each other so talking about a two-way communication of the one-way communication right right especially when you talk about the non-rogue but not authorized drones yeah then it's uh you don't want to take the unnecessary actions but you want to make sure that you can reach them you know to provide them information with hey you are misbehaving so please turn around yeah versus the rope drones which you

**[25:22]** at the end want to take down yeah on that note uh I have a question uh there are different definitions as to what constitutes you know uh this is something that's unacceptable this is a rogue drone I mean when you're trying to automate a system uh how do you make sure that you know this particular regulation means that rogue drones won't be allowed or you'll have to navigate through them or if you know for example if it's just like navigating through infrastructures and buildings could you talk a little bit about which countries see the most potential for bb loss operations because some countries are really strict in terms of how they define what constitutes a rogue drone like where you can fly at what heights can you fly you can't fly near these set of structures etc so could you talk a little bit about your experience working with different countries and maybe shed some light on regulations and yeah yeah indeed I think it's more a

**[26:27]** regulatory topic than a technology topic yeah uh but it has all to do with how can I get clarity as an authority yeah I think we have a couple of good examples in our customer base we have with uh with canada the second largest airspace but also population wise if you want to do bb those flights there yeah outside of the city the risks which you are taking are quite low if your drone goes down it goes down yeah um whilst if we talk about europe and more dense areas the risk that your drone goes down is definitely higher yeah so the threshold for the authorities to give you the permissions now the size the height etc is is more complex and that's exactly why now the the constant exchange with the authorizations is needed yeah where we show the data

**[27:27]** in an anonymized way to say look this is what we did this is the transparency which we can provide yeah exactly in the same way the aviation industry started out they started out with putting people on the plane they started out with logistics flights they started out in certain areas sharing data I think that's also what what we will need to do um [Music] in europe I think with the upcoming regulation around use basis a lot has been defined maybe not in too much of a detail now but it at least helps to provide the local authorities with some guiding frame the implementation which we are seeing uh although still a little bit different that's also not making it too easy for the operators and that's exactly why we say now we want to combine that ecosystem and we want to make sure that we speak as one voice

**[28:29]** because at the end of the day we are all depending on the authorities having enough information to make the decision that bb those flights can happen right right and I think that sort of answers uh another question that we have on uh whether the use-based framework will unlock new business models towards utm platforms and services or do you see like a uniformization of services maybe you could quote an example of a business model that will benefit from a regulatory context well I think um if you look at you space and different business models and then you might need to look at what kind of operations do I want to do do I have a kind of a static one where I say I do test sample deliveries within a city from one hospital to the other one that is very static you can do a very good ground risk assessment your operation is not changing

**[29:33]** now hence um you have all of the information available for the authority and within that that given you space yeah the service is then really just to make sure that the ground risk data is always up to date yeah and I'm only flying if the ground risk is acceptable right maybe by night not during rush hour things like that if you take a similar use case but you take it outside of um of that urban context yeah maybe um the typical warehouse to warehouse kind of delivery uh then the service which you provide as a use-based service provider might be different because then it's not only about let's say that telco data and it's about installing radar or any other kind of detection systems to cover the distance yeah you operate a business model similar to a telco operator okay okay all right so um

**[30:38]** I mean do when you talk when you're speaking of a business like a small time a business do you think that they should have better waivers because they're mostly doing hobby flights or do you think that companies should accept regulations and build restrictions into their firmware and that should be the foundation on which they build their operations or do you think it depends on the size or our regulations going a bit too strict and don't apply to different sizes of businesses well I'm not sure if it's if we should do the waivers on the sides of the business yeah um but on the other hand if you think about what kind of operation do I want to do maybe the aviation regulation is not the only one applying yeah if you think about the the use case of uh quick uh blood sample transport I have very specific regulation for how can I transport blood samples and what kind

**[31:41]** of a box what happens if that their blood is uh damaged during the transport that has in the first place nothing to do with the aviation now so in essence I first need to have the waiver on can I actually do this kind of operation from non-aviation regulation and at then the question am I doing it myself or do I ask a certified provider to do that I mean similar like I'm sending something today with dhl or fedex yeah and if I want to send glass bottles yeah then I have a specific glass bottle insurance as an example and if you try to take this concept to the drone then the drone becomes just another mechanism yeah but I need to adhere to other kind of regulations anyhow right yeah and then the size doesn't matter if there is regulation on how to transport

**[32:42]** blood versus how to transport yeah um I don't know acids chemicals etc then I need to adhere to that independent of I'm transporting that with a drone or a motorcycle or a truck makes sense yeah so in on that front we have another we have another question so has regulations do regulations have an effect on getting the information you need to monitor air traffic right because if you're not allowed to fly in a certain area how do you get the information you need to to map you know a certain no-fly zone or uh something like that like yeah do you I think on that end we do not have so much of a challenge so that geo-zone data that is available and is constantly updated uh I think it's more on the flight approval side where

**[33:46]** for the operators it's not completely clear country by country what is the information I need to bring to get my operational boost yeah my zora I have my conops a good part is if I can write I'm using an utm system I connect to the other systems but what else yeah what else do I need to bring to make sure that I get accepted for my operation in a timely manner because if we talk about business and business processes it's good if I get one time a waiver to do an operation but that doesn't mean I can't create a business out of it right I need to do exactly that same thing constantly and constantly and then I can build business out of it but to get to that point yeah there's still some clarity of what does it mean for an operator to get that kind of permission yeah and which data should I share I share uh to make sure that an approval process

**[34:50]** is let's say taking minutes instead of days whilst realities can take weeks and months today hmm okay okay so [Music] uh so how do you think uh different utm companies uh work together like how do they collaborate and how do they match their different capabilities could you talk a little bit about that like because you said yeah I think it depends a little bit on the on the region and the choosing set up in the region now if I look at europe then there's two ways either we all exchange the information via the local cis which could be the asp yeah or we have one-on-one connections with each other but then you also have to use base operation model yeah where you might need to be uh able to connect

**[35:52]** an api level with the local system yeah even if you have a global operation but also there I would say you have similarities today already if you think about transportation or group with trucks you have multiple different toil collect systems in each country and also there at the hangover between one system and the other system works and we just need to make the same verb okay and is that similar to how you work with other companies and well we are now uh working in in one project here in europe where the anusp is bringing in two uh two ussps as per the regulation and the way we are working there today is by using the sys as the data platform to connect the information in all directions

**[36:54]** atm to utm and utm okay okay so does unify play a role in supporting dcaa in the implementation of uh 20 21 by 664 if so how that is the question we have we support the caas with well let's say the the knowledge and the partners in the ecosystem but we are not directly involved in helping to uh to add to their procedures and we from a platform perspective at the end of the day we need to support different regulations around the globe yeah and make it as simple as possible for the operators yeah to set up an operation and to exchange the data and now by having that role for us it's more about influencing talking about what

**[37:54]** works what doesn't work what do we see from existing operations uh and how the the other side also understand what is the new custom customer the new customer is not a large corporation called airline yeah it is as you stated it is smaller way more hr companies yeah with a more b2c driven mindset than and government or huge uh corporation mindset okay all right so how do you see your platform become the focal point of all stakeholders will ansps not be afraid to deal with only one player gathering such platforms and will it require to have several players to perform a uniform platform like yours I think we need to have interoperability between platforms and that's what what what we are working towards now

**[38:54]** similar like today you have a data exchange between an sap system and oracle system so that that also works that's what we are driving towards and then as I state I think you will see a different way of implementing things country by country and that's exactly why this interoperability is at the end of the day so important because the real user the the operators for them it should not matter it should be one way of doing things and the magic needs to happen on the other side meaning on our side and if that means that the utm system which is the let's say the local one is not the one they are using then we are the one we need to facilitate and the other way around right so I guess that was our last question and that brings our session to a slightly early close as we all know great things don't always come in huge packages and such

**[39:58]** was this session um unless uh burn do you have any uh closing thoughts I'd like to end the session no um thank you for having me and [Music] thank you for all of the questions hope I could uh provide some more details and answers and yeah where where else needed please reach out via linkedin and happy to provide more input yeah and uh great yeah that was some that was some great questions and if you're just here if you're just joining don't worry uh yeah burn will be up uh in his unified blue booth and you can uh check out the schedule to uh yeah you know when you you'll be able to meet with him and register in dressed at the booth where he can get your email id and then get in touch with you as he said he's also available on social media he's acting on linkedin so you can get in touch with him and uh yeah great I hope to see more collaborations with unifly great thank you very much have a great time thank you so much bernd thank you

**[41:03]** see you then see you auf wiedersehen I'll be the same