Ten questions concerning the use of drones in urban environments

Watkins, Simon; Burry, Jane; Abdel‐Rohman, Mohamed; Marino, Matthew; Prudden, Samuel; Fisher, Alex; Kloet, Nicola; Jakobi, Timothy; Clothier, Reece

doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.106458

Cited by 99 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…In recent years, drones' illegal use could result in additional regulations and restrictions (Watkins et al 2020). UAVs are new airspace objects that pose a potential risk to other users of the airspace and third parties on the ground (Stöcker et al 2017).…”

Section: Regulating Drone Usementioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Nelson and Gorichanaz 2019) indicated that residents reported seeing drones hovering around their windows and backyards which calls into question an individual's right to privacy as drones become more prevalent. Notwithstanding the above-stated concerns, the application of drones in the agriculture sector is seen as one of the fastest-growing areas (Watkins et al 2020), while the regulatory responses from the National Civil Aviation Authorities (NCAAs) in Africa are slow. Regulations are in place in some African countries; others are either grappling with policy creation and implementation or do not have regulations in place (Jeanneret and Rambaldi 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Developing a policy framework for adoption and management of drones for agriculture in Africa

Ayamga

Tekinerdoğan

Rambaldi

2020

Technology Analysis & Strategic Management

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Section: Regulating Drone Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing a policy framework for adoption and management of drones for agriculture in Africa

Ayamga

Tekinerdoğan

Rambaldi

2020

Technology Analysis & Strategic Management

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“…However, UAV city operation systems are getting increasingly closer to the public, which has raised public concerns [10,15]. Therefore, UAV urban operation systems have proposed higher requirements for the operation of UAVs in low-altitude urban environments [16][17][18].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Model of Third-Party Risk Index for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Delivery in Urban Environment

Ren

Chen

2020

Sustainability

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In order to assess the airspace risk of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating at low altitudes, the third-party risks of UAV urban operations were defined: the risks caused by drones to people on the ground who are not involved in operations and do not profit from operations, and the sources and objects of the risk were clarified. Taking into account the drone crash, noise, on-board camera, and ground environment factors, a UAV urban logistics risk index evaluation model was constructed. First, the UAV image regression model was used to construct a three-dimensional grid, and then a comprehensive third-party risk index model of UAV urban logistics was built based on the casualty and noise risks. Finally, the Southern District of Civil Aviation University of China was selected as an example scene, and surface data were obtained through a field investigation and instrument measurements. Then, the risk of drone operations in the airspace 30–60 m above this area was evaluated. The results showed that the third-party risk was lower when the UAV flying altitude above a building was greater. However, in other areas such as lakes, woods, roads, open spaces, a lower flight altitude had a lower risk. A comparison of the whole airspace showed that the third-party risk was the lowest when the drone operated at an altitude of 30 m. The results also showed that the third-party risk above the lake and greenery was the lowest when on the same plane, followed by the lower risk above the buildings and open squares, with the highest third-party risk above the canteen passage.

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“…The primary safety hazards posed by drones operating in an urban environment are collisions between a drone and another airspace users, as well as the impact on infrastructure, objects and people [45] on the ground, giving rise to damage, injury or possibly fatalities. The risks associated with these safety hazards must be addressed through the appropriate certification of drones for operation over an urban environment, coupled with comprehensive airspace architecture and dependable traffic management.…”

Section: Research Gaps In Development and Implementation Of Urban Utmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fundamental Elements of an Urban UTM

2020

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Urban airspace environments present exciting new opportunities for delivering drone services to an increasingly large global market, including: information gathering; package delivery; air-taxi services. A key challenge is how to model airspace environments over densely populated urban spaces, coupled with the design and development of scalable traffic management systems that may need to handle potentially hundreds to thousands of drone movements per hour. This paper explores the background to Urban unmanned traffic management (UTM), examining high-level initiatives, such as the USA’s Unmanned Air Traffic (UTM) systems and Europe’s U-Space services, as well as a number of contemporary research activities in this area. The main body of the paper describes the initial research outputs of the U-Flyte R&D group, based at Maynooth University in Ireland, who have focused on developing an integrated approach to airspace modelling and traffic management platforms for operating large drone fleets over urban environments. This work proposes pragmatic and innovative approaches to expedite the roll-out of these much-needed urban UTM solutions. These approaches include the certification of drones for urban operation, the adoption of a collaborative and democratic approach to designing urban airspace, the development of a scalable traffic management and the replacement of direct human involvement in operating drones and coordinating drone traffic with machines. The key fundamental elements of airspace architecture and traffic management for busy drone operations in urban environments are described together with initial UTM performance results from simulation studies.

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Ten questions concerning the use of drones in urban environments

Cited by 99 publications

References 27 publications

Developing a policy framework for adoption and management of drones for agriculture in Africa

Developing a policy framework for adoption and management of drones for agriculture in Africa

Model of Third-Party Risk Index for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Delivery in Urban Environment

Fundamental Elements of an Urban UTM

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