The low-altitude public route of drones is an inevitable trend of development

My national drone has experienced explosive growth since 2015. However, with the iterative upgrade of technology and products, many related contents such as drone standards, laws and regulations, and operating environment have not developed simultaneously, and there is a certain lag, civil use. The development of drones has been hampered by imperfect operational management and scarce airspace resources. In this context, how to ensure the scientific control, rational operation and avoidance of safety hazards of drones, so that all kinds of civil drones can achieve efficient and orderly flight in low-altitude airspace has become the focus of the industry.

As early as 2017, Liao Xiaohan, Party Secretary of the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Director of the UAV Application and Control Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, implemented safe and orderly operations for drones at the Sichuan Airshow Drone Forum. Suggestions and proposals for the construction of low-altitude public routes for drones are proposed. Since then, at different academic exchange meetings, Liao Xiaohan has repeatedly reported on the scientific research progress of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on the construction of low-altitude public routes for drones based on geographic information and remote sensing technology.

The rapid growth of the industry and the lag of management policies have become the main contradiction

Since the light and small micro-UAVs have opened up a vast market in various application fields, the development is in full swing. According to the data disclosed by the real-name registration system for civil unmanned aerial vehicles, as of May 26, 2019, there were 1,353 UAV manufacturers in China, with 330,034 registered UAVs and 310,218 registered users.

The fast-developing civil drone market urgently needs the opening of low-altitude airspace resources, especially the no-fly restrictions of light and small micro-UAVs. As we all know, the difficulty of applying for airspace by drones has always been a huge obstacle to the development of the industry. All localities have emphasized the need to support the civilized UAV, an emerging technology industry, and the lag of low-altitude airspace policies at the national level, making the development of drones Hey, there is always no "law" to let the drone really "fly".

In recent years, relevant state administrative departments have been actively formulating and promulgating regulations, “Air Traffic Management Measures for Civil Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems” (MD-TM-2016-004) and “Management Regulations for Civil UAV Drivers” (AC- 61-FS-2018-20R2), the "Regulations on the Operation of Light and Small UAVs" (AC-91-FS-2019-31R1) have been promulgated successively, which has regulated the development of civil drones to a certain extent.

On November 19, 2018, Shenzhen launched the pilot flight management of drones and launched the UTISS system for the integrated supervision platform for drones. Under the unified management of the platform, most consumer-class drones can fly without application, and for small, medium and large-scale UAV users, submit airspace applications online through UTISS platform within 5 working days. The approval of the airspace management department will be obtained, and the flight plan application will be submitted before 15:00 before the flight after obtaining the airspace use permit. The military aviation flight control department will respond before 21:00 one day before the scheduled flight. The flight application for emergency missions is set to "30 minutes ago". This means that the drone legal flight has a solution that can be landed.

Although the relevant regulations for the operation of drones are gradually improving, the safety hazards related to drones are still common, and a series of difficult problems involving national security, aviation safety, public property, personal safety and personal privacy are urgently needed. Give a response.

UAVs occupy the "barren hills and slopes" of the civil aviation domain.

The contradiction between the rapid growth of the industry and the lagging management policy has gradually become the "big mountain" of the industry. Especially the problem of difficult airspace has become a pain point and a stubborn disease in the industry.

According to the "Air Traffic Management Measures for Civil Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems" (MD-TM-2016-004), the civil aircraft: "Civil unmanned aerial vehicles are only allowed to fly in isolated airspace. Civil unmanned aerial vehicles fly in isolated airspace, The organization unit and individual are responsible for implementation and are responsible for their safety. If multiple entities simultaneously carry out civil unmanned aerial vehicle flight activities within the same airspace, an event organizer should be identified and civilian unmanned aerial vehicles in the isolated airspace. Flight activities are responsible for safety."

In addition, according to the report issued by the Civil UAV Inspection Center, in the first half of 2019, a total of 34,474 drones were verified by the cloud system through the exchange platform real-name registration verification interface, and the running height was below 120 meters. Accounted for 88.7%. In terms of flight duration, the number of flight hours of drones operating below 5 meters (including 5 meters) is only 12.3% of the total flight hours of the second quarter, and the operating altitude is 15 meters (including 15 meters). The following UAV flight hours accounted for 28.3% of the total UAV flight hours, and the UAV flight hours below 30 meters (including 30 meters) accounted for the total UAV flight hours this quarter. 71.1% of the number.

Liao Xiaohan believes that the airspace below 120 meters is equivalent to the "bad mountain slope" of the traditional civil aviation operating airspace. Except for helicopter take-off and landing, civil aviation and navigation activities are basically not in this airspace, and 90% of drones are here. Airspace activities. This airspace can be designated as a dedicated airspace of the drone, and low-altitude air route networks of different levels and levels can be constructed through geographic information technology, precise navigation and positioning, and remote sensing technology, so that the commercial operation of the drone can be carried out safely and effectively.

Optimize airspace and build low-altitude public routes for drones

Liao Xiaohan used the swimming pool to make an image metaphor. He said that there is a limited swimming pool. What if there are more people swimming? Divide the lanes! By the same token, there are more drones in the sky, and we need to plan routes and fly according to a fixed route. This is the same model as swimming pools and highways. It is only low-altitude planning of drone routes, especially in urbanized areas. To be precise, safe and efficient, it is very complicated and requires multidisciplinary cross-cutting.

Liao Xiaohan made a detailed interpretation of the low-altitude multi-level route construction technology of the UAV, which is concerned by the public. Its system mainly includes rules and standards formulation, geographic grid data support, airspace fine structure, geographic constraints, and route sensitivity. Remote sensing information extraction, route generation and optimization, risk control, field investigation, environmental impact investigation, etc. In order to complete such complicated system engineering, it is necessary to master a large number of relevant standard parameters through practical application testing. For example, how far the drone must be away from the school building to not interfere with teaching, such as lighthouses, poles, wires Safety evasion distances such as windmills. Liao Xiaohan emphasized that in addition to the construction of the route, the formulation of air traffic rules for the operation of the low-altitude public route of the UAV and the breakthrough of the drone control technology are equally important.

In Liao Xiaohan's view, the UAV low-altitude public route is the infrastructure of the UAV commercial application era. It requires the government to plan the layout and requires a combination of geoscience and aviation technology. With the continuous improvement of science and technology, we can completely open this "barren hills and slopes" very well, and fully realize the great value of the commercial operation of drones, especially small and small drones. He also called for the planning, construction and operation of the low-altitude public route of drones. This large project cannot be completed independently by one unit and one enterprise. It requires the national military and civilian airspace management department, civil aviation authorities, research institutes and enterprises to come together. Do this in order to open up a real way out for the development of civilian drones. Liao Xiaohan said that he was pleased to note that the Civil Aviation Administration of China recently issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of Civil Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Draft for Comment)", which clearly stated that it is necessary to carry out research on key technologies for low-altitude public routes of drones. Application demonstration, he believes that there are active leadership of the military and civilian management departments, the industry gathers scientific and technological strength, jointly carry out research on the construction of low-altitude public air routes for drones and early pilot operation. China will surely be able to follow the development of drones in the forefront of the international arena. The drone operation management also has a leading international technological innovation road.