Unmanned Systems Technology 004 | Delair-Tech DT18 | Autopilots | Rotron RT600 | Unmanned surface vehicles | AMRC | Motion control | Batteries

16 In conversation | Jonathan Downey proposed rules in the US develop, the visibility into beyond line-of-sight operations will lead to pretty rapid adoption,” he says. “I don’t think the line- of-sight rules will be resolved in the next year but there will be visibility [of what will happen], and that will give people confidence to develop more systems. “Our technology enables fully autonomous operation for all UAV applications that we are involved in. To really have safe operations, taking people out of the loop of operating these vehicles in the field is very important, especially when these are field personnel with limited experience of operating UAVs. I’m a commercial pilot, I flew briefly for a small airline, and if we look back at the history of aviation the most significant increases in safety have come from greater cockpit automation and enforced workflows for pilots, and we have taken those two factors and integrated them into the platform we are developing.” One of the technology challenges for autonomous operation is collision detection and avoidance. “That still has a way to go, and integration between the ‘see and avoid’ technology and the control computer is probably where there’s most work to do,” he says. “I think where it really has some way to go is increasing the reliability by decreasing the false positives. “Our perspective is that where UAVs are being used most is in applications like mapping, and will evolve to vertical inspection and then evolve to longitudinal inspections such as pipelines and railways,” he says. There’s also an interplay between the size of the aerial craft for these applications. “If you use a larger aircraft that can fly for eight to 12 hours then you are limited by the regulations,” Downey says. “The question is how far we can get with battery technology and small electric aircraft that are easier to address from the regulatory standpoint. Hopefully these two things will cross over. “There is a lot of hype going on in this space right now, but there’s also a lot of real application of emerging technology, and you have to sift through which is which,” he says. “I think there’s so much excitement about the technology but there is also some fear in quite a few companies that if they aren’t involved or don’t have a UAV initiative then they will be seen as lacking innovation or missing out on an emerging sector. That’s not so different from other tech spaces such as the cloud, where just about every company in the world seems to have a cloud initiative.” Downey says Airware is very much focused on aerial systems. “While I think there are strong similarities between our and, say, Tesla automotive autopilots, there are also substantial differences,” he says. “Theirs are very different from a regulatory standpoint and in terms of their engineering constraints. For us, size, weight and power are very critical, while for them cost may be more of a driving factor than weight or size. Our vision for building the technology for airborne systems has already been accused of being enormously difficult, and we will stick with that for now.” Autumn 2015 | Unmanned Systems Technology Downey is the founder and CEO of Airware, a San Francisco-based company that has developed an operating system for commercial UAVs, allowing enterprises to take full advantage of aerial data for any commercial application. After graduation, he joined Boeing to work on the development of the A160T Hummingbird, a fully autonomous 6000 lb helicopter, which broke the world endurance record for a helicopter flight. He is also general partner for Airware’s Commercial Drone Fund, which was launched to accelerate innovation in the commercial UAV space. In addition, he is on the board of directors for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). He is an instrument-rated commercial multi-engine pilot with experience of flying small singles up to twin turboprops. Jonathan Downey The question is how far we can get with battery technology and small electric aircraft that are easier to address from a regulatory standpoint