DJI Unveils Technology To Identify and Track Airborne Drones (suasnews.com)

garymortimer shares a report from sUAS News: DJI, the world's leader in civilian drones and aerial imaging technology, has unveiled AeroScope, its new solution to identify and monitor airborne drones with existing technology that can address safety, security and privacy concerns. AeroScope uses the existing communications link between a drone and its remote controller to broadcast identification information such as a registration or serial number, as well as basic telemetry, including location, altitude, speed and direction. Police, security agencies, aviation authorities and other authorized parties can use an AeroScope receiver to monitor, analyze and act on that information. AeroScope has been installed at two international airports since April, and is continuing to test and evaluate its performance in other operational environments. AeroScope works with all current models of DJI drones, which analysts estimate comprise over two-thirds of the global civilian drone market. Since AeroScope transmits on a DJI drone's existing communications link, it does not require new on-board equipment or modifications, or require extra steps or costs to be incurred by drone operators. Other drone manufacturers can easily configure their existing and future drones to transmit identification information in the same way.

Comments

The market will do its job.

[Anonymous Coward]

Manufacturers of flight controllers and radio systems will invariably provide an opt-out option, because where there's market demand, there's a market player.

Re:The market will do its job.

[50000BTU_barbecue]

HobbyKing to the rescue.

This is absolute bullshit

[GoRK]

So DJI is selling a backdoor device to "authorized parties" which can intercept the private telemetry of any of their aircraft. That is some bullshit right there.

So right now it's limited to telemetry downlink packets. How long until they allow these parties to see the video downlink? How long until they let them take over the command and control uplink?

Requiring hobby aircraft to beacon their telemetry in the clear (similar to ADS-B in commercial aviation or APRS in amateur radio) would be a whole other matter.

Re:This is absolute bullshit

[AaronW]

Here's another good article on a study of what sort of damage could be caused to commercial aircraft from hitting drones:

https://news.aviation-safety.n...

Notably:

Non-birdstrike certified helicopter windscreens have very limited resilience to the impact of a drone, well below normal cruise speeds.

The non-birdstrike certified helicopter windscreen results can also be applied to general aviation aeroplanes which also do not have a birdstrike certification requirement.

Although the birdstrike certified windscreens tested had greater resistance than non-birdstrike certified, they could still be critically damaged at normal cruise speeds.

Helicopter tail rotors are also very vulnerable to the impact of a drone, with modelling showing blade failures from impacts with the smaller drone components tested.

Airliner windscreens are much more resistant, however, the study showed that there is a risk of critical windscreen damage under certain impact conditions:

It was found that critical damage did not occur at high, but realistic impact speeds, with the 1.2 kg class drone components.

However, critical damage did occur to the airliner windscreens at high, but realistic, impact speeds, with the 4 kg class drone components used in this study.

The construction of the drone plays a significant role in the impact of a collision. Notably, the 400 g class drone components, which included exposed metal motors, caused critical failure of the helicopter windscreens at lower speeds than the 1.2 kg class drone components, which had plastic covering over their motors. This is believed to have absorbed some of the shock of the collision, reducing the impact.

The testing and modelling showed that the drone components used can cause significantly more damage than birds of equivalent masses at speeds lower than required to meet birdstrike certification standards.

Re:ADS-B? Why reinvent the wheel?

[BlueStrat]

Why not just require all drones to have an ADS-B transmitter on them? The protocol is stupid simple could probably be done in software on the drone's microcontroller and then tack a 1,090 MHz transmitter onto some GPIO pins.

Old avionics guy here. One reason that would make it difficult is that an FAA-standards-compliant ADS-B transmitter would use quite a bit of power (7 watts is minimum ADS-B pulse transmitter output power, so greater than 7 watts) relative to most small drones and add a not-insignificant amount of weight/mass to the drone as well as additional power requirements. I'm not even sure it would be possible to equip the smaller drones with ADS-B Out capability to meet current FAA standards and still have the drones anywhere near the same relatively-small size/mass they currently are. Maybe it's possible with new battery/chip tech, but I don't have time to research it properly.

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It might also be done with new FAA rules specifying special lower-power ADS-B specs specifically for drones below a certain size/weight but that would take time, political will, and a lot of money, not including the costs to either retrofit older drones or replace them outright if a retrofit is not possible. Also, a lower power ADS-B signal means the range is drastically reduced and thus the system's usefulness/effectiveness.

Problems will come with trying to enforce this, as it will still be extremely hard to track down owners of non-compliant drones. Typically, this sort of enforcement problem is dealt with by legislating severe punishments like lengthy minimum prison sentences for anyone they do catch, as a deterrent to others. Instead of 20-year prison sentences for possession of a joint, it will be 20 years for operating a non-compliant drone. Say bye-bye to Daddy, Junior. He flew a drone the government couldn't easily track. You'll get to see him again about the time you start experiencing male-pattern baldness, but at least you won't be killed by a DJI drone in the meantime!

Strat