DJI, the Chinese company which claims to be the world’s leading maker of drones or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), has proposed an electronic identification framework that would allow authorities to identify drone owners when necessary while also respecting their privacy.
The company has released a white paper outlining a concept in which each drone would transmit its location as well as a registration number or similar identification code, using inexpensive radio equipment that is already on board many drones today and that could be adopted by all manufacturers.
“DJI understands that accountability is a key part of responsible drone use, and we have outlined a proposal that balances the privacy of drone operators with the legitimate concerns authorities have about some drone operations,” said Brendan Schulman, DJI Vice President of Policy and Legal Affairs.
He said anyone with the proper receiver could use transmissions from the drone to identify its registration number, but only law enforcement officials or aviation regulators would be able to use that number to identify the registered owner.
This system would be similar to vehicle license plates, which allow anyone to identify a nearby vehicle they believe is operating improperly, but which can only be traced to their owner and operator by authorities.
The idea is in response to last year decision by the United States Congress to direct the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to develop approaches to remotely identifying the operators and owners of unmanned aircraft, and set deadlines for doing so over the next two years.
DJI has submitted the white paper to the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), which is collecting perspectives on how to remotely identify small drones in the United States in advance of an FAA effort to develop a consensus approach.
The company uses the white paper to ush the view that a remote transmission system is preferable to a network that attempts to track or record the location of all drones in real time, which would be far more complex to develop and would expose the confidential information of drone users.
“The best solution is usually the simplest,” the DJI white paper says. “The focus of the primary method for remote identification should be on a way for anyone concerned about a drone flight in close proximity to report an identifier number to the authorities, who would then have the tools to investigate the complaint without infringing on operator privacy.”