Safer Airspaces: DJI Invents Aeroscope, the “Radar” to Control Drones

DJI has created a system that, using the same radio channel that the drone control system relies on, is able to provide authorities with tracking of drones in transit over a sensitive area. All without modifying the drones.

Drones have not been getting a good press lately: partly due to the terrorist emergency, which has raised the level of attention towards all means that can potentially cause harm; partly due to the news, which increasingly frequently reports of some drones that, due to a fault or human error, fall to the ground; like the one that less than a month ago in Lanciano, driven where it couldn’t, fell on the audience during a Dodi Battaglia concert, injuring four people.

It is normal that in a context of this type DJI, which has a majority market share in the drone market, takes an active part on the one hand to work alongside the legislator to identify rules that guarantee safety and privacy, without cutting the legs off the spread of drones, and on the other to find technological solutions that make the flight of drones something useful or recreational but certainly not dangerous.

It is on this basis that DJI has created DJI Aeroscope, in fact a sort of “radar” for use by authorities that identifies drones flying around sensitive targets and “no flight zones”.

In practice, police forces and airport control bodies, for example, can install a DJI Aeroscope system in locations that require protection and thus analyze everything that happens within a radius of 5 km. The range of action can be easily extended by installing more than one antenna.

In reality it is not a radar at all, even if you can see the drones on the map and the path they have taken, just like in a traditional flight control instrument: DJI’s idea is to safeguard safety by avoiding excessively impacting the rule-abiding and well-intentioned user.

To do this, DJI’s idea is to use the same command and control radio channel with which the drone is piloted: one or more antennas on the territory, working in receive only, also capture the same signal coming from the drone (and intended for the piloting system) and obtain from it the data they need: position, including altitude; horizontal and vertical speed, model and serial number.

In short, everything you need to understand if the drone in question has a “threatening” trajectory or if it is simply grazing, perhaps in good faith, the protected space; furthermore, with the mandatory registration of drones, already active for professional models, the serial number will quickly allow you to obtain the owner’s personal details.

Aeroscope is also available with mobile stations (the ones we were shown in Brussels were exactly this type), contained in a suitcase and powered, if necessary, by battery: in this way, temporary monitoring centers can be set up in a few minutes, which are very important for securing concerts, shows and other outdoor events.

The system is ingenious because it does not require any modification to the drone or the addition of third-party monitoring systems (at most a firmware update may be required to ensure the correct passage of all information); furthermore, by operating on the same command and control system, it does not depend on whether the user activates an additional detection system or not, but is in fact completely automatic.

Furthermore – DJI managers are keen to underline – it is only local monitoring, where needed and not, as proposed by some, an Internet control system that is always active throughout the territory. In short, a solution according to DJI that is not disproportionate and that defends safety without weighing economically on the user and above all without infringing their privacy.

The problem with Aeroscope is obvious: it is currently able to detect DJI drones and those that operate with open Wi-Fi control, but not yet the proprietary radio systems of other brands: we are talking about perhaps 70% of the drones in circulation, but certainly not all of them.

“Our proposal,” Brendan Schulman, Vice President of Policy and Legal Affairs at DJI, told us, “is to share this system with other manufacturers and arrive at a market standard that detects all drones in the vicinity according to the principles of this Aeroscope.”

The goal is evidently to propose to the regulator and institutions the use of paradigms of this type, supported by the entire industry, avoiding chips or transponders that allow the drone to be located anywhere, forcing the owner to modify the device and sustain other costs.

In fact, beyond the regulations that each nation is giving itself, unfortunately in a non-uniform context, there are very few tools, other than visual observation and analysis of any incidents, to enforce the regulations themselves and set up an activity to repress the illicit activities committed with drones.

Aeroscope provides the authorities (even if for now only for DJI drones) with an effective control tool and everything suggests that it makes sense to proceed towards systems of this type, obviously standardized and with compatibility made mandatory for all manufacturers.

The phase, at least for European markets, is very delicate: the trilogue between the Commission, Parliament and the Presidency of the European Council will start soon to find a mediation on the constituting European regulation on drones, but which has raised more than 3000 objections in the consultation phase and on which the parties do not seem so close.

The decisions that will be taken there, if they are not enlightened and aware of the possibilities offered by technology, could forever condition the development of the drone market in Europe, crippling it with regulations that are difficult to apply or interpret.

And perhaps it is no coincidence that the presentation we attended was held in Brussels: even if nothing was officially said to us about it, it is reasonable to think that the occasion was propitious, perhaps just a few hours earlier, to present the Aeroscope solution to those within the European Commission who are handling the drone dossier.