UK's Civil Aviation Authority hashing out rules for crash-proof cargo pods on drones
- Reference: 1632296714
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/09/22/crashproof_cargo_pods_drones/
- Source link:
The CAA is working with the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) and Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to create a set of minimum safety standards if a drone carrying a container were to be involved in an accident.
The project was given £50,000 by the government as part of a £3.7m funding handout spread around 21 projects announced recently.
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If suitable guidelines for an "approved crash protected container" for "dangerous goods" proves successful, it could open the door to commercial operators developing new services.
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"The dangerous goods carried could include blood samples and vaccines, but also consumer products such as batteries and cosmetics," said the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in its blurb confirming the award.
This recent funding is the latest government push to develop drone technology while trying to ensure safety for people on terra firma.
[4]Royal Navy will be getting autonomous machines – for donkey work humans can't be bothered with
[5]Ex-DJI veep: There was no drone at Gatwick during 2018's hysterical shutdown
[6]RAF chief: Our Reaper drones (sorry, SkyGuardians) stand ready to help British councils
[7]Cop drone crashes into flight instructor's airplane
Much of the legislation in place at the moment deals with safety concerns should a drone fail mid-flight and minimising risk to people below. This latest project takes those concerns one step further to ensure the structural integrity of any cargo that might fall foul of an unscheduled and bumpy landing.
In April, West Sussex-based sees.ai became the first company in the UK to get CAA approval to test routine beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations.
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It is significant because if remote flying – rather than in-the-line-of-sight piloting – gets the nod from regulators, it could potentially pave the way for a new market to develop in logistics. Add on a crash-proof cargo pod and it becomes clear where this testing is potentially heading.
Of course, that's not to say that testing isn't already going on. Last year, remote-control drones were used to [9]deliver coronavirus testing kits to a remote Scottish hospital after being granted special permission from the CAA. ®
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[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/17/royal_navy_robot_warfare_drudgery/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/15/ex_drone_vp_gatwick_hysteria_comments/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/10/raf_skyguardian_drones_local_authorities_help/
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[9] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/26/drone_deliveries_bvlos_isle_mull/
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Mid flight failure
Aside from ensuring the integrity of the containerised cargo, I would like to see the levels of redundancy in commercial drones addressed to minimise to likelyhood of a midflight failure.
If that means the drones would be more expensive and energy imtense, affecting the profitability of their use, then the technology is not yet advanced enough to use them in this way.
I have been watching some of the footage taken with drones of the Geldingadalur eruption in Iceland, they are a game changer in photography and the recording of historical events. Even to the point of the 'amateur' footage being good enough and of sufficient quantity to have scientific value.
I don't see the current quad copter type drones as an everyday delivery vehicle for smallish packages though, for emergency medical makes sense but for pizzas or Amazon not so much.
Re: Mid flight failure
Indeed. A four-engined aircraft can do pretty much everything on three engines that it can on four, while a quadcopter drone is in plummet mode if a single motor or propeller fails.
Fixing this would require the motors and propellers to be uprated so the drone could fly on two, and a more sophisticated control system to recognise and deal with the failure eg by shutting down the opposite motor.
Re: Mid flight failure
That would require motors that could go to 200% of normal in the event of one failing and the opposite one being shut down. Might be cheaper to start with five that can go to whatever a pentagonal drone with one motor out would require. The chair you're sitting on probably has 5 legs and would still work if one leg fell off. (Hmm, maybe I should rush out and patent that idea).
"Last year, remote-control drones were used"
And how did that go ?
Were there any problems ?
Inquiring minds and all that.