The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US Government is reportedly developing a separate traffic control system for low flying drones.
The drone traffic management programme will be separate from current air traffic control systems and will be usable by drones flying low at 400 to 500 feet. The novelty of the traffic control will be fully automated according to The New York Times.
The work on the traffic control system for drones is underway near Moffat Field in California.
“One [drone] at a time you can make them work and keep them safe. But when you have a number of them in operation in the same airspace, there is no infrastructure to support it,” Parimal H. Kopardekar, a NASA principal investigator was quoted as saying.
The system would make sure drones do not run into buildings or helicopters and will also monitor weather and air traffic conditions, keeping track of wind patterns that could affect lightweight drones.
The NASA system will use computers and algorithms to figure out where the drones can fly.
