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It must be technically possible to prevent a drone from flying below a certain altitude. Probably one of the many features that will be added to drones in the c

It must be technically possible to prevent a drone from flying below a certain altitude. Probably one of the many features that will be added to drones in the coming years.

markild 11y ago
How would that help? The obvious solution would be to have strict corridors (which it sounds like they had in theory) for drones.
- maaaats 11y ago
  Could deploy a parachute, maybe?
Dwolb 11y ago
Perhaps this is possible with a software update, but it doesn't fix the standards to which the drone was mechanically constructed. Other commercial flying objects are rigorously safety tested for their ability to remain in the air despite different mechanical failures. Without the same standards applied to drones, we are likely to continue to see near-misses or full accidents happen. (Note: I'm not weighing in for or against drone regulation)
- Piskvorrr 11y ago
  Good point - the weakest point of current drones is that the same power source is used for engines and control, without any redundancy.
  - TheCondor 11y ago
    Is there enough data to determine the weakest weakness? Energy makes logical sense, it is also fairly easy to fix with an auxiliary energy supply that could kick in in an emergency situation. That's fairly easy logic to build as well, it seems like something a pro video drone might already have. They don't have a lot in the way of instruments typically, do they have wind gauges and such on the bigger more professional drones? We only see the bottom of the crash, could it have rolled from a gust of wind and become unstable and just not recovered in time? How do you monitor ice build up? How stable are they when a single motor fails? What about the base station? My cheap qav250 drops like a stone when I flip the radio power off, that opens the door to a lot of other potentials for failure, including interference, I know many have gps and return home functions when they lose signal but those are options that are added on. what about a vps signal failure which isn't that unusual in the mountains... I guess the issue at hand becomes cost, between licensing, insurance and then building devices that are higher quality as if they could endanger life, I suspect they'll be cheaper than planes and helicopters but quite a bit more costly.
- asynchronous13 11y ago
  > Other commercial flying objects are rigorously safety tested for their ability to remain in the air despite different mechanical failures. The key phrase here is commercial. There are strict regulations on commercial aircraft, but there are no such requirements for home-built or kit built aircraft. (quick edit, there are regulations/requirements for all aircraft, but it's a much lower standard for home-builts than for commercial) Many people think that there aren't many kit aircraft out there, but there's actually a huge number. Oshkosh is the largest airshow in the U.S. for experimental aircraft and there were over 10,000 experimental aircraft at the show last year. There's even more who didn't attend the show! For comparison, Delta Airlines operates about 800 aircraft.
  - bdcravens 11y ago
    > Many people think that there aren't many kit aircraft out there, but there's actually a huge number. Oshkosh is the largest airshow in the U.S. for experimental aircraft and there were over 10,000 experimental aircraft at the show last year. Most RC'ers I know are very intentional about when and where they fly; they aren't strapping a GoPro to them and flying them all around the city randomly and presuming they have the right to do so.
donatj 11y ago
Unless it's a helium balloon I think you are not considering gravity + batteries.
detaro 11y ago
During regular flight, sure. But if it's unstable and crashing?
Piskvorrr 11y ago
If the power cuts out and the drone is falling out of the sky, how useful is a software rule which is dependent on a computer that is now offline, a non-functioning altimeter and a set of dead engines? (Spoiler: not very much) But of course, such thing would never happen. (Except it just did.)
- yummybear 11y ago
  A small secondary powersource that deploys a parachute?
Igglyboo 11y ago
When the drone runs out of power, then what?

It must be technically possible to prevent a drone from flying below a certain altitude. Probably one of the many features that will be added to drones in the coming years.

markild 11y ago

How would that help? The obvious solution would be to have strict corridors (which it sounds like they had in theory) for drones.

maaaats 11y ago
Could deploy a parachute, maybe?

Dwolb 11y ago

Perhaps this is possible with a software update, but it doesn't fix the standards to which the drone was mechanically constructed. Other commercial flying objects are rigorously safety tested for their ability to remain in the air despite different mechanical failures. Without the same standards applied to drones, we are likely to continue to see near-misses or full accidents happen. (Note: I'm not weighing in for or against drone regulation)

Piskvorrr 11y ago
Good point - the weakest point of current drones is that the same power source is used for engines and control, without any redundancy.
- TheCondor 11y ago
  Is there enough data to determine the weakest weakness? Energy makes logical sense, it is also fairly easy to fix with an auxiliary energy supply that could kick in in an emergency situation. That's fairly easy logic to build as well, it seems like something a pro video drone might already have. They don't have a lot in the way of instruments typically, do they have wind gauges and such on the bigger more professional drones? We only see the bottom of the crash, could it have rolled from a gust of wind and become unstable and just not recovered in time? How do you monitor ice build up? How stable are they when a single motor fails? What about the base station? My cheap qav250 drops like a stone when I flip the radio power off, that opens the door to a lot of other potentials for failure, including interference, I know many have gps and return home functions when they lose signal but those are options that are added on. what about a vps signal failure which isn't that unusual in the mountains... I guess the issue at hand becomes cost, between licensing, insurance and then building devices that are higher quality as if they could endanger life, I suspect they'll be cheaper than planes and helicopters but quite a bit more costly.
asynchronous13 11y ago
> Other commercial flying objects are rigorously safety tested for their ability to remain in the air despite different mechanical failures. The key phrase here is commercial. There are strict regulations on commercial aircraft, but there are no such requirements for home-built or kit built aircraft. (quick edit, there are regulations/requirements for all aircraft, but it's a much lower standard for home-builts than for commercial) Many people think that there aren't many kit aircraft out there, but there's actually a huge number. Oshkosh is the largest airshow in the U.S. for experimental aircraft and there were over 10,000 experimental aircraft at the show last year. There's even more who didn't attend the show! For comparison, Delta Airlines operates about 800 aircraft.
- bdcravens 11y ago
  > Many people think that there aren't many kit aircraft out there, but there's actually a huge number. Oshkosh is the largest airshow in the U.S. for experimental aircraft and there were over 10,000 experimental aircraft at the show last year. Most RC'ers I know are very intentional about when and where they fly; they aren't strapping a GoPro to them and flying them all around the city randomly and presuming they have the right to do so.

donatj 11y ago

Unless it's a helium balloon I think you are not considering gravity + batteries.

detaro 11y ago

During regular flight, sure. But if it's unstable and crashing?

Piskvorrr 11y ago

If the power cuts out and the drone is falling out of the sky, how useful is a software rule which is dependent on a computer that is now offline, a non-functioning altimeter and a set of dead engines? (Spoiler: not very much) But of course, such thing would never happen. (Except it just did.)

yummybear 11y ago
A small secondary powersource that deploys a parachute?

Igglyboo 11y ago

When the drone runs out of power, then what?