DJI has discontinued the production and sale of the AeroScope drone detection and identification system that has been adopted by airports, government agencies, and private businesses as a tool to keep airspaces around their facilities safe from unauthorized UAV penetration.
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DJI’s status as by far the biggest seller of consumer and enterprise drones on the planet means its UAVs are logically flown most by Ukraine pilots battling Russian invaders. But might that domination change if those operators turn to what they consider safer gear?
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As Russia widens its military offensive in Ukraine, DJI, the world’s largest manufacturer of civilian drones, is finding itself embroiled in the middle of the dispute. DJI is being accused of giving Russia preferential access to its AeroScope drone detection platform, while some units of the same system provided to Ukraine are reportedly malfunctioning. The Chinese drone maker is vehemently denying both allegations.
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DJI Aeroscope is now approved by the UK’s Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI). DJI’s drone detection system was first introduced during a DJI event in Washington DC back in 2017 as both a mobile and fixed detection system that can spot both DJI drones and their pilots within a certain range.
DJI announced today that the Chinese drone maker has been working on a new drone-to-phone Remote ID solution that uses WiFi. The new app was demonstrated with a DJI Mavic Air (DJI, Amazon) and a DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise drone at the International Civil Aviation Organization’s third annual Drone Enable conference in Montreal. In their statement, DJI says that with this simple app “anyone within radio range of the drone can receive that signal and learn the location, altitude, speed and direction of the drone, as well as an identification number for the drone and the location of the pilot.” the new drone-to-phone Remote ID app and firmware updates from DJI are not yet available for public use as this was merely a demonstration. The company is waiting for further direction from aviation regulators and final publication of the ASTM International standard.
Reportedly, it is the most photographed event in the world, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. The festival stretches over nine days in New Mexico, from October 6th through the 14th. With over 500 balloons it is the largest hot air balloon event in the world. With all the colorful balloons and the thousands of people attending, the event naturally attracts many photographers, including aerial photographers. However, you are not allowed to fly your drone at the event location. Even in a four-mile radius around the event drones are not allowed, as a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) has been put into place. However, there’s one exception. Jesse Samson is allowed to fly his DJI Matrice 600 with a high-end Canon camera.
Earlier this month U.S. aviation regulators quietly filed a new proposed rule that would require recreational drone pilots to place their government assigned drone identification number on the outside of their aircraft. Currently, the roughly one million recreational drone pilots that are registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are already required to identify their drones but the marking can be placed inside the battery compartments for instance where it is not easily visible.
DJI’s VP of Policy and Legal Affairs, Brendan Schulman talks about the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Congress and how new upcoming regulations may impact hobbyist drone pilots. Brendan has been part of the Aviation Rule Making Committee (ARC) to create a report with recommendations for the FAA. This report addresses among other things, remote identification. Brendan is also working with other stakeholders from the manned aviation world, the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) and DJI customers on a proposal for Congress to create an online test or tutorial for recreational drone pilots and to prevent section 336 from being repealed.
Yesterday, we had the chance to talk to DJI’s Managing Director of North America, Michael Perry at the AUVSI Xponential 2018 in Denver, Colorado. Michael spoke to us about the new Zenmuse XT2 dual-sensor thermal camera as well as the payload SDK and DJI’s push into the commercial drone market. We also spoke about how drones can help save people lives around the world and of course we asked him about what else consumers can expect from DJI this year.
DJI has started to introduce new features for their ‘electronic license plate’ system for drones, called Aeroscope, in their latest firmware updates. The new features allow drone pilots to voluntarily identify their flight operations to law enforcement agencies.
Chinese drone manufacturer, DJI just announced today that they will be adding new identification features to their “electronic license plate” for drones system, Aeroscope. Aeroscope is a system that remotely identifies and tracks airborne drones, allowing law enforcement and aviation safety officials to respond to safety and security concerns about drones. The new additions allow drone operators to voluntarily identify their drone and drone flights to law enforcement agencies. The new features are available in the DJI GO 4 app and as of now work only with the Mavic Pro.
According to a transport minister, there have been more than 50 near-misses between drones and manned aircraft, including this one at Gatwick Airport, during the last twelve months in the United Kingdom. Drone users will face new restrictions starting in 2018. A new proposed law will likely give the police new powers to land drones suspected of involvement in criminal activity and will restrict drone use near airports.
Last Thursday, ‘counter-drone’ company Department 13 published the white paper: “Anatomy of DJI’s Drone Identification Implementation” seemingly attacking DJI’s Aeroscope, a drone ‘license plate’ solution, that was introduced to the US market in Washington D.C. in October. In the document, Department 13, a company that sells expensive ‘counter-drone’ solutions and whose share price has dropped by 20% since the launch of Aeroscope, argues that there are many weak spots in DJI’s Aeroscope solution. Today, it was DJI’s turn to respond and they did so by issuing this statement: “Understanding DJI’s AeroScope Solution“.
We went through both Department 13’s white paper as well as DJI’s public response to provide you with a summary of what’s going on here.
We reported on Aeroscope earlier when it was announced in Brussels but today was the official U.S. announcement.
Today at the W hotel in Washington, D.C., Adam Lisberg, Corporate Communications Director for DJI, introduced DJI’s Aeroscope program. Aeroscope is a data receiver that intercepts data transfer between a drone and it’s pilot. It is able to identify the drone make and model, the location, altitude, the direction and speed in which it is flying as well as the owner or pilot controlling the drone.
Recently a study in New Zealand showed that “lack of education” was considered to be the biggest risk from drones and drone pilots to people on the ground as well as other manned aircraft in the air.
Brendan Schulman, DJI’s VP of Policy and Legal Affairs introduced today a new quiz program that requires pilots when they first start up their new drone to go through a set of 9 questions. These 9 questions need to be answered correctly before they can fly their newly acquired drone. The questions in the DJI Knowledge Quiz are very similar to the type of questions one would be required to answer in the Part 107 exam and was developed together with the FAA. Of course, 9 questions don’t cover the same scope of a Part 107 exam but for the regular consumer and drone pilot, it is at least a start. This quiz only needs to be performed once before the initial flight of a new drone.
You only have to see a few videos like these to understand why governments are getting so nervous about drones.
Various government agencies globally, such as the FAA, Canada Transport, and the English Department for Transport (DFT) are all springing into action after a Black Hawk helicopter hit a drone over Staten Island, another drone hit a passenger airplane over Quebec City Airport and there was a near miss with a drone at Gatwick Airport.
BBC News just reported that an Airbus 319 narrowly missed a large drone while approaching Gatwick Airport. A UK Airprox Board report revealed that 130 lives were at risk when a large diameter drone passed directly over the wing, in between the wingtip and the fuselage. An “airprox” is when distances between aircraft are seen to compromise safety. The incident happened on July 9th when a drone was “flown into conflict” with the Airbus 319. According to the report, there had been a high chance of collision.
At an event in Brussels on October 12th, the Chinese drone manufacturing company DJI announced the release of the new product called AeroScope, that will enable local authorities to identify and track airborne drones. With the release of AeroScope, DJI is catering to safety and security concerns from government agencies, such as the FAA in the US, EASA in Europe and the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority as they are grappling with the “unmanned traffic management”, or UTM question, while protecting drone pilots.
