MONITORING AND CONTROLLING DRONES IN THE SKIES

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MONITORING AND CONTROLLING DRONES IN THE SKIES
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• Drones are becoming increasingly more available
  to members of the public, and with the frequency
  that pilots are reporting drone sightings, its
  safe to say that for the FAA, this presents all
  kinds of potential problems. Photographers,
  farmers, utility companies and large online
  retail groups are all getting in on the action,
  and with thousands of low flying unmanned
  aircrafts zipping through the skies, someone had
  to come up with a solution to all the potential
  problems that this presented.

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• Why cant the current air traffic control system
  be used?
• The current air traffic control system in place
  today relies on powerful radar to detect aircraft
  in the air but it doesnt work so well at low
  altitudes which is where drones typically fly as
  the signals are easily blocked by hills or
  buildings. This system could also not accommodate
  for the sheer number of drones that are predicted
  will be in use over the coming years.

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• Whats the alternative?
• Low Altitude Traffic and Airspace Safety (or
  LATAS), is a new digital air traffic control
  system designed especially for drones. Aircraft
  equipped with LATAS, can report back on their
  location, altitude, heading and speed to software
  contained within the cloud, so instead of using a
  central radar station to detect objects and
  obstructions, the aircraft automatically warns
  nearby drones to avoid them.

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• Using text messages sent via cell phone towers,
  the drones of the future will send many messages
  per second to detail their exact movements
  through the air. The only potential issue that
  arises when using this technology is that what
  happens when a drone is a long ways away from a
  mobile tower like when its being used to survey
  remote areas? The engineers of LATAS foresaw this
  problem and created a solution they made it so
  that in the absence of a mobile telephone tower
  the drone switches to a satellite phone network,
  something that is widely available from all
  points on the globe. Its even sophisticated
  enough to incorporate radio signals that may be
  being transmitted by manned aircraft so

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• that collisions that may occur a long way from
  traditional traffic control systems would be
  easily avoided.
• Are there any problems with this system?
• The major problem with a system like LATAS is
  that it can only be truly effective if every
  machine in the sky is using it. This would mean
  that the FAA would have to make its use mandatory
  which, unfortunately, is not a viable option at
  this time.

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