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Note that these are commercial drone rules. Hobbyists are still largely exempt. Overall, they are less strict on what you can do with a drone than I expected.

Note that these are commercial drone rules. Hobbyists are still largely exempt. Overall, they are less strict on what you can do with a drone than I expected. The only really tough one is that you must be within line of site of the drone. I've had some ideas that would not fit in that box. Also, you can not fly over people not involved in the flight. I know that will be a point of consternation for a lot of people, but I'm happy about that one. The operator licensing requirements seem a bit onerous. What the hell does the TSA have to do with it? "Licensed drone operator" is effectively now a thing. This is definitely written from the perspective that they expect drones to be remote controlled vehicles on steroids, not autonomous computer controlled machines. How do I get my algorithm FAA certified for flight?

pj_mukh 12y ago
"How do I get my algorithm FAA certified for flight?" This one is critical. Most drone operators using anything above a hobby grade UAV are using fairly sophisticated software to command GPS velocities. This is assuming even more complex GPS missions are not being carried out. How do we setup a certification regiment for that software and its extensions to sense and avoid? Granted, I don't have the answers. The FAA will inevitably suggest the same certification regiment that large airplane autopilots go through, but that seems prohibitively cumbersome.
- cmurf 12y ago
  A large airplane operating on autopilot with two pilots in the cockpit is not operating autonomously. Autonomous implies no pilot at all, that is, you merely tell the UAS some set of commands like "go to this address, confirm recipient and their order, hand over the goods, return to base". The person interacting with this autonomous UAS is akin to an operations manager for an airline. They are not a pilot. Eventually it may not even be a person, that too could be software that just sequences a bunch of errands to the nearest available UAS. What's actually required by an autonomous system is closer to a large percentage of FAR 61 and FAR 91, which are pilot certification and general operating rules, respectively. Your very basic recreational or private pilot conforms to both of those sets of regulations on every visual flight. For instrument flights requiring positive separation from air traffic control because the pilot can't see and avoid themselves? That's another layer of regulations and conformance. For charter flights, that's FAR 135 a whole separate set of regs. For commercial passenger flights, that's FAR 121 yet another separate set of regs. Track down a FAR/AIM manual and start reading FAR 61, 91, 135 and the AIM part. A bulk of this needs to be incorporated into an autonomous UAS controller. The details of course have to change, possibly by a lot in some cases, because we don't have things like primary or secondary radar or radio communications at the altitudes UAS's will operate. But there are analogues and they need to be invented, specs defined, infra created, and so on. And while some of this could be implemented in proprietary form, the portions that require communication or cooperation in shared airspace have to be publicly documented.
cmurf 12y ago
Before you even have an algorithm you need to know what the flight environment and positive separation requirements are. A spec is needed. Is this going to be a centralized system (like air traffic control) or a decentralized one (like TCAS) or some hybrid approach? A whole bunch of rules need to be sorted out about obstacle clearance, speeds, overflight of people's homes or roadways, and emergency procedures. What do emergency procedures even look like for an autonomous aircraft? A bunch of failure vectors and likelihoods need to be defined, e.g. since a partial power failure can occur anytime. Where should it set down if it has that much control? If it lacks sufficient control to get to a safe setdown zone, how does it crash land? i.e. better to crash in the middle of the road than on top of a car or person. Progressive failure. The certification and currency process for your algorithm should be more like a pilot because the autonomous UAS software is in effect a substitute pilot. Pilots are certified for life in the U.S. but they have 6, 12, and 24 month (depending on privileges) medical evaluations, and 30 day, 90 day, and 2 year currency requirements for various things. It's not legal for a pilot to fly (at certain times, environments, or at all) if they lack currency requirements, even though they're certified. Similar for UAS. You'd have to have a certain software update that ensures conformance with current version of the public use UAS operating environment behaviors. That way everyone is always on the same page. Autonomous flight in a shared airspace is non-trivial.

pj_mukh 12y ago

"How do I get my algorithm FAA certified for flight?" This one is critical. Most drone operators using anything above a hobby grade UAV are using fairly sophisticated software to command GPS velocities. This is assuming even more complex GPS missions are not being carried out. How do we setup a certification regiment for that software and its extensions to sense and avoid? Granted, I don't have the answers. The FAA will inevitably suggest the same certification regiment that large airplane autopilots go through, but that seems prohibitively cumbersome.

cmurf 12y ago
A large airplane operating on autopilot with two pilots in the cockpit is not operating autonomously. Autonomous implies no pilot at all, that is, you merely tell the UAS some set of commands like "go to this address, confirm recipient and their order, hand over the goods, return to base". The person interacting with this autonomous UAS is akin to an operations manager for an airline. They are not a pilot. Eventually it may not even be a person, that too could be software that just sequences a bunch of errands to the nearest available UAS. What's actually required by an autonomous system is closer to a large percentage of FAR 61 and FAR 91, which are pilot certification and general operating rules, respectively. Your very basic recreational or private pilot conforms to both of those sets of regulations on every visual flight. For instrument flights requiring positive separation from air traffic control because the pilot can't see and avoid themselves? That's another layer of regulations and conformance. For charter flights, that's FAR 135 a whole separate set of regs. For commercial passenger flights, that's FAR 121 yet another separate set of regs. Track down a FAR/AIM manual and start reading FAR 61, 91, 135 and the AIM part. A bulk of this needs to be incorporated into an autonomous UAS controller. The details of course have to change, possibly by a lot in some cases, because we don't have things like primary or secondary radar or radio communications at the altitudes UAS's will operate. But there are analogues and they need to be invented, specs defined, infra created, and so on. And while some of this could be implemented in proprietary form, the portions that require communication or cooperation in shared airspace have to be publicly documented.

cmurf 12y ago

Before you even have an algorithm you need to know what the flight environment and positive separation requirements are. A spec is needed. Is this going to be a centralized system (like air traffic control) or a decentralized one (like TCAS) or some hybrid approach? A whole bunch of rules need to be sorted out about obstacle clearance, speeds, overflight of people's homes or roadways, and emergency procedures. What do emergency procedures even look like for an autonomous aircraft? A bunch of failure vectors and likelihoods need to be defined, e.g. since a partial power failure can occur anytime. Where should it set down if it has that much control? If it lacks sufficient control to get to a safe setdown zone, how does it crash land? i.e. better to crash in the middle of the road than on top of a car or person. Progressive failure. The certification and currency process for your algorithm should be more like a pilot because the autonomous UAS software is in effect a substitute pilot. Pilots are certified for life in the U.S. but they have 6, 12, and 24 month (depending on privileges) medical evaluations, and 30 day, 90 day, and 2 year currency requirements for various things. It's not legal for a pilot to fly (at certain times, environments, or at all) if they lack currency requirements, even though they're certified. Similar for UAS. You'd have to have a certain software update that ensures conformance with current version of the public use UAS operating environment behaviors. That way everyone is always on the same page. Autonomous flight in a shared airspace is non-trivial.