Remote-control aircraft, known as drones, are notoriously prone to failure — turning airborne hunks of metal into cannonballs that can plunge into a speeding car or on someone’s head.
Drones flying in the wrong place can dangerously interfere with planes and helicopters.
Rather than ban these aircraft that has many practical uses and are fun for hobbyists, a small company engineered a solution — a metaphorical bird on a wire.
SEESPAN hopes to make drones safer and bring them closer to the action by tethering the aircraft to an operator on the ground. Such technology will allow for aerial footage of local news and events.
“Drones are not reliable and are hackable,” says founder and chief executive Mark Ryan. He added that pilot error is also a problem.
For drones to be allowed in civilian airspace, they must be as safe as an aircraft with a pilot on board.
“A lot of things have to go right to fly,” said Ryan.
There’s no answer to solve an out-of-control drone, explained Ryan. They can’t be stopped. An out-of-control drone will fly until it hits something or runs out of fuel and plunges to the ground.
The Delaware and D.C.-based company has found a way to restrain and retrieve drones having any kind of problem or to bring them back when a plane or person passes by.
Ryan said the challenge was answering the question, “How do you pull on the bird and still maintain flight?” The trick was finding a tether than was strong, but lightweight and not drag the aircraft down.
The tethering solution is remarkably low-tech — a wire similar to deep sea fishing line is attached to the drone. During signs of trouble, the pilot engages in some “sky fishing” and reels in the drone using an electric winch controlled with foot pedals.
The system is powered by electricity and not connected to radio frequency waves or Wifi. “Can’t hack it,” said Ryan.
Ryan says that the tether can stop drones flying at speeds up to 40 miles per hour and from a half-mile distance. A drone at the maximum allowed altitude of 400 feet can be returned to the pilot in 12 seconds. The retrieval mechanism is done with foot pedals.
Strong support for commercial drones
Ryan said he is surprised by how much the climate has changed in support of remote-controlled aircraft.
“A year and a half ago, there was a lot of political and media opposition to drones — an allergic reaction to drones in society. Now there’s support in Congress and from the President.”
Congress called on the FAA to integrate national airspace for business purposes in 2012. The FAA is expected to release rules in September that would govern air that would be shared by drones and piloted aircraft.
While some companies have criticized the FAA for being too slow with regulations, Ryan disagrees, “There are serious safety hurdles and the FAA is wrestling with them.”
For the short-term, the FAA is allowed to offer exemptions to current rules to commercial drones on a case-by-case basis. As of early this month, 1,008 approvals have been made, the FAA announced in a news statement.
The approvals have been for a range of business purposes like aerial photography, agriculture, and construction, according to a report published by the Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International.
“The flood of commercial exemption requests to the FAA shows that a mature UAS commercial market is waiting to be unleashed,” said AUVSI about the results.
SEESPAN is asking the FAA for an exemption to allow their tethered technology to fly within 50 feet of the action, which will expand options for aerial photography and news gathering.
