DJI announcing Flysafe-AirSense (ADS-B) What do you guys think?

zocalo · May 22, 2019

An excellent safety feature so +1 to DJI for this, and I expect it's just a matter of time before they are announcing the inclusion of ADS-B transmitters as well. I'm sure many - and probably most - of us have seen tales/video of low flying aircraft (military, sight-seeing helos, etc.) having near misses with drones. This should hopefully let the drone pilot know an aircraft is approaching and, if needed, automatically move the drone out of the way. Of course, it does rely on wider adoption of ADS-B, especially by low-flying aircraft, but you have to start somewhere...

Sadly, with the US' anti-China rhetoric now putting DJI in the spotlight, I suspect this will probably just get spun into some kind of Chinese government spying on US aircraft movements, FlightRadar24 not withstanding.

jerryflah · May 22, 2019

Wow
Great news
Hope it's retrofitable
I still love my Mavic pro

gnirtS · May 23, 2019

Slade said:
I hope it comes in a FW for the Mavic Pro.

It can't. ADS-B requires a hardware receiver.

gnirtS · May 23, 2019

dawgpilot said:
ADS-B out becomes mandatory in the USA effective Jan 1, 2020, so "AirSense" might be pretty useful to have after that date.

Except for the ever growing list of exceptions to the implementation.
Plus the USA is a small part of the wider world where not even that is happening.

Ex nihil · May 23, 2019

ADS-B has been mandatory in Europe and Oceania at least for a long time, for some reason the US resisted and used another system with a long delay built in. Airbus has always had it, Boeing now installs it on later models. In the UK, with FR24 on my phone, I see many light aircraft, gliders even, seems every darned helicopter. Military all have it but are permitted to suppress it on mission, when flying in normal domestic airspace it’s left on. Having it on the drone seems a great idea, it would stop things like the Gatwick airport fiasco and after you’ve lost your drone you have another track record to help you find it. Battery drain is tiny, it spits out a few millisecond sentence at intervals. I would like to see it mandated on drones of more than, say, 1Kg, doing that would cut out all the goons who currently infringe their flight envelopes and give us a bad name.

sar104 · May 23, 2019

Ex nihil said:
ADS-B has been mandatory in Europe and Oceania at least for a long time, for some reason the US resisted and used another system with a long delay built in. Airbus has always had it, Boeing now installs it on later models. In the UK, with FR24 on my phone, I see many light aircraft, gliders even, seems every darned helicopter. Military all have it but are permitted to suppress it on mission, when flying in normal domestic airspace it’s left on. Having it on the drone seems a great idea, it would stop things like the Gatwick airport fiasco and after you’ve lost your drone you have another track record to help you find it. Battery drain is tiny, it spits out a few millisecond sentence at intervals. I would like to see it mandated on drones of more than, say, 1Kg, doing that would cut out all the goons who currently infringe their flight envelopes and give us a bad name.

I think the receiver is an excellent idea. Even if it doesn't detect traffic that is not broadcasting, every aircraft that it does detect reduces the overall probability of traffic conflicts. And as ADS-B becomes generally required the detection rate will approach 100%.

I'm much less convinced that a transmitter is a good idea. As UAVs become more common that would result in a lot of additional ADS-B clutter that will mostly be irrelevant to manned traffic.

Texbow · May 23, 2019

My only concern is the possibility of getting alerts on every aircraft within 20 miles at all altitudes. If it works correctly and only provides a warning when it's warranted, I like it. What's next? The warning turns into an auto land.

sar104 · May 23, 2019

Texbow said:
My only concern is the possibility of getting alerts on every aircraft within 20 miles at all altitudes. If it works correctly and only provides a warning when it's warranted, I like it. What's next? The warning turns into an auto land.

Obviously the FC is only going to be interested in nearby aircraft that might conflict. How it deals with it will probably depend on the situation. An estimated collision course warning that is ignored by the pilot will probably trigger descent rather than landing.

HVYMTL · May 23, 2019

As always.. If there is something good man will find a way to break it..

twoheadlines · May 23, 2019

Totally in favour of some form of built-in "vigilance" system - which should be mandatory across all aircraft types not equipped with the type of transponder devices functioning in fixed wing commercial passenger and freight aircraft for a long time now.
That said, I personally want to see DJI slow down a little, making sure each element of its Fly Safe system is absolutely functioning correctly, before rushing on to the next "big thing"! They need to get the process right for licensing flying in a geofenced NFZ, before moving forward. I believe DJI are a long way from achieving that status yet!

Drone on · May 23, 2019

Will this trip an automatic response from the drone/controller disabling the pilot from control, and causing the drone to fly to safety?

Will they sell a retrofit kit to 'attach' to older drones?

HawkDriver · May 24, 2019

zocalo said:
I'm sure many - and probably most - of us have seen tales/video of low flying aircraft (military, sight-seeing helos, etc.) having near misses with drones. This should hopefully let the drone pilot know an aircraft is approaching and, if needed, automatically move the drone out of the way.

Yes, years ago when drones were first getting going I nearly took one into my main rotor at ~300ft on approach to an airfield because someone thought it was a good idea to fly/hover at the approach end of an active runway. Tower tried to vector LEA's over there to boot-stomp someone but they disappeared. Main rotor failure while in a descending/decelerating turn would have been a bad day.

kayest · May 25, 2019

Does anyone happen to know exactly how Airsense works? It seems that it can use an ADS-B receiver in the UAS which transmits to the GO 4 app in the remote control. Or it can have an ADS-B receiver in the remote control. Or the Go 4 app can receive local ADS-B info from a live internet connection.

sar104 · May 25, 2019

kayest said:
Does anyone happen to know exactly how Airsense works? It seems that it can use an ADS-B receiver in the UAS which transmits to the GO 4 app in the remote control. Or it can have an ADS-B receiver in the remote control. Or the Go 4 app can receive local ADS-B info from a live internet connection.

ADS-B receiver on the aircraft.

kayest · May 25, 2019

sar104 said:
ADS-B receiver on the aircraft.

Thanks. That certainly make the most sense.

Numone · May 25, 2019

Ex nihil said:
ADS-B has been mandatory in Europe and Oceania at least for a long time, for some reason the US resisted and used another system with a long delay built in. Airbus has always had it, Boeing now installs it on later models. In the UK, with FR24 on my phone, I see many light aircraft, gliders even, seems every darned helicopter. Military all have it but are permitted to suppress it on mission, when flying in normal domestic airspace it’s left on. Having it on the drone seems a great idea, it would stop things like the Gatwick airport fiasco and after you’ve lost your drone you have another track record to help you find it. Battery drain is tiny, it spits out a few millisecond sentence at intervals. I would like to see it mandated on drones of more than, say, 1Kg, doing that would cut out all the goons who currently infringe their flight envelopes and give us a bad name.

Interesting... I’ve been using FR24 since the day it launched and I’ve never seen a military AC displayed, even when I know there are dozens Iin the air. What have you spotted?

Air Beetle · May 25, 2019

So much disinformation regarding ADS-B in the US. Stop posting about topics you don't take the time to google and LEARN.

Facts:
ADS-B OUT will be mandatory in the US for all manned aircraft on Jan 1, 2020.

It is only required on aircraft with electrical systems (no tin gliders or old hand prop planes like the Cub)

It is only required where transponders are required which is called controlled airspace.

Only ADS-B OUT is required. ADS-B IN is not required.

I own an airplane and a gyrocopter. My gyrocopter is new and cost me $85,000 but I don't have a transponder or ADS-B. Why not. I never fly into controlled airspace and since all planes aren't required to have the system, every pilot still needs to follow the age old principle "eyes outside" when flying. I fly my gyro between zero and 500ft AGL and mostly at 200ft. I might add a transponder and ADS-B after the prices drop next year

dfb · May 25, 2019

Still, whether it works or not, or few have one, this is great PR.

Nosebump · May 25, 2019

I'm in the process of installing ADS-B in one of my Cessnas. The equipment alone will cost me over $1,800. As of January 1st, 2020, all aircraft will be required to have ADS-B if they want to operate in controlled airspace (-over simplified). I'm already noticing the additional "clutter" on my displays from all of the visable traffic, especially when approaching an airport. Drones broadcasting, in my opinion, will only add useless clutter.

mnix · May 25, 2019

jerryflah said:
Wow
Great news
Hope it's retrofitable
I still love my Mavic pro

Very unlikely for the consumer drones at least (nowhere to plug the data in to the aircraft to get it back to the controller) - but I suspect the enterprise drones will eventually get modules available.

I am kinda hoping all the Mavic 2 Pro/Zoom boards contain the receiver but just don't enable it, given the Mavic 2 Enterprise actually has one. That's a firmware update I'd be happy to have