Communications of the ACM
NASA Tests Managing Drones in Cities
he U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration is testing drones in cities outside an operator's line of sight for the first time.
Credit: Scott Sonner/AP
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has initiated the last stage of a four-year project to develop a national drone traffic management system.
The agency is testing drones in cities outside an operator's line of sight for the first time.
Multiple drones were launched above Reno, NV, as part of simulation testing, with one autonomous aircraft taking off, hovering, and landing on a building's roof, adjusting for strong winds via onboard sensors.
Other drones outfitted with global positioning systems used onboard tracking systems linked to ground-based NASA computers to avoid collisions.
The traffic management system employs software on the ground that transmits flight plans and positions to other software systems; the drones also feature landing, crash-avoidance, surveillance, and detection/identification programs, as well as cameras and laser-based systems similar to radar.
From Associated Press
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