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"We are working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and local officials in Lockeford to obtain permission to conduct these deliveries and will contin

by mikece 4y ago

"We are working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and local officials in Lockeford to obtain permission to conduct these deliveries and will continue with that collaboration into the future." I am curious if the conversations between Amazon and the FAA are open to public scrutiny. The rules around unmanned aerial systems still require an operator be visually observing the a drone at all times and in real-time contact with the drone operator (if the drone leaves the operator's line of sight). I suspect that for the initial trial there will be operators who have their hands "over" the flight controls and visual spotters but at some point these flights have to be fully automated for this to be viable to Amazon... and fully autonomous drones are prohibited in the US (unless you're a government agency).

tjohns 4y ago
This would involve a waiver to one or more rules under FAR Part 107. The FAA publishes all of the waivers here: https://www.faa.gov/uas/commercial_operators/part_107_waivers/waivers_issued/ https://www.faa.gov/uas/commercial_operators/part_107_waiver... At the moment, the only waivers on file for Amazon are for 107.51(c)/(d), concerning reduced flight visibility and cloud clearance requirements. However, there are certainly other operators who have gotten waivers to the visual line-of-sight, visual operator, and one-aircraft-per-operator rules - albeit with additional safety restrictions added on.
WaitWaitWha 4y ago
Good thread to pull. Amazon automates as much as possible. How much automation is acceptable before it crosses to unacceptable by FAA? Can one pilot manage 12 drones? Can the drones decide their own altitude, path, speed? Can a ML software layered over the drone controls, and video/telemetry and them trigger alarm/interaction with pilot on discrepancies/emergencies?
whoomp12342 4y ago
you can get around those regulations pretty easily. Hire a security person to watch 50 drone camears
- WaitWaitWha 4y ago
  that is not Amazonian. ;-) Craft a piece of code (ML, AI, whatever) that monitors 10.000 drones, and triggers alerts on deviation. Another piece of code reviews the alerts and taking various other factors into consideration filters alerts down; to which the human drone monitor responds. Now that is Amazonian.

by mikece 4y ago

tjohns 4y ago

This would involve a waiver to one or more rules under FAR Part 107. The FAA publishes all of the waivers here: https://www.faa.gov/uas/commercial_operators/part_107_waivers/waivers_issued/ https://www.faa.gov/uas/commercial_operators/part_107_waiver... At the moment, the only waivers on file for Amazon are for 107.51(c)/(d), concerning reduced flight visibility and cloud clearance requirements. However, there are certainly other operators who have gotten waivers to the visual line-of-sight, visual operator, and one-aircraft-per-operator rules - albeit with additional safety restrictions added on.

WaitWaitWha 4y ago

Good thread to pull. Amazon automates as much as possible. How much automation is acceptable before it crosses to unacceptable by FAA? Can one pilot manage 12 drones? Can the drones decide their own altitude, path, speed? Can a ML software layered over the drone controls, and video/telemetry and them trigger alarm/interaction with pilot on discrepancies/emergencies?

whoomp12342 4y ago

you can get around those regulations pretty easily. Hire a security person to watch 50 drone camears

WaitWaitWha 4y ago
that is not Amazonian. ;-) Craft a piece of code (ML, AI, whatever) that monitors 10.000 drones, and triggers alerts on deviation. Another piece of code reviews the alerts and taking various other factors into consideration filters alerts down; to which the human drone monitor responds. Now that is Amazonian.