A British cloud services company has developed a global airspace monitoring system that promises to help drone operators fly more safely and responsibly.
Reading-based Altitude Angel has developed software which enables drone operators to specify ‘alert regions’ that the firm’s cloud platform monitors in real-time for low-flying manned aircraft, proactively sending a push notification via email or SMS to the drone operator to ensure they have time to move out of the way safely.
Combined with its free Drone Safety Map that helps drone operators identify no-fly zones or ground hazards around the world before they ‘take to the skies’, the firm believes its new Airspace Alerts service will contribute towards the safer integration of drones into our skies. Being able to ‘reach out’ to push important information to a drone pilot is absolutely critical to safety.
Altitude Angel founder and CEO Richard Parker said the technology watches aviation traffic globally in real-time, aggregating data from multiple sources. It receives around 12 million messages every minute, which are then filtered to provide updates on low-altitude air traffic (below 800m) – the kind that drone users need to be aware of.
“Once we have a filtered set of aircraft data, we perform analysis to determine if the aircraft’s trajectory is likely to encroach on an area our users are flying within, and can tell the drone operator where to look – and when – to help them avoid being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Parker.
The Altitude Angel team is made up of ex-Microsoft cloud services developers and consultant. They created their own software and have spent more than six months testing as well as working with regulators, manufacturers and user groups across the USA and Europe.
Parker said drone pilots everywhere are crying out for better information.
“The majority of people want to ‘do the right thing’ and check for no-fly zones, obstacles and relevant regulations before they fly, but many don’t have the training, time or even access to everything they’d need in order to make better safety choices. It’s the industry’s job to help solve this problem,” he said.
Planned additions to the service will include sending out important weather information, as well as alerts whenever no-fly zones are activated or deactivated.
[A map of Canberra from the Altitude Angel website showing the Australian Parliament House 'hazard'.]
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