Sunday, 2 September 2018

Drone – a – Charya




Economic Times write about the INDIA DRONE POLICY , at :






Highlights :


Drones must only be flown during daylight and maintain full visual line of sight at all times


Drones must not drop / discharge material without explicit clearance . Drones must not be operated from mobile platforms like moving vehicles
 

Digital Sky is built around the principle of  No Permission-No Takeoff.’  Only if a drone is compliant with this principle, can it even be registered.


Digital Sky will be in charge of handling flight permissions
 

A preflight permission request will contain the geo-fence and timespan outside of which a drone cannot fly. The drone will not turn on if it does not have a valid permission from Digital Sky 


In probably a global first, India’s drone policy has introduced a ‘ No Permission- No Takeoff ’ (NPNT) clause.


It means drone hardware have to be configured in such a way that unless regulatory permission is given, the drone cannot take off.


Digital Sky has demarcated the Indian airspace into three distinct categories: Red (no-fly zones), Yellow (restricted permissions), and Green (all access). 




MY  TAKE  :


I urge ,

·         Shri Jayant Sinhaji - Min for Civil Aviation  [ Jayant.sinha19@sansad.nic.in ]

·         Shri B S Bhullarji  - DGCA  [ dgoffice@dgca.nic.in  ]

·         proposed Drone Regulator

  
·         Drone Federation of India [ info@dronefederation.in  / http://dronefederation.in/ ]

to invite comments from all the stakeholders on my following suggestions by publishing on their respective web sites :




#  Just like today car manufacturers stamp , CAR ENGINE NUMBER and CAR CHASIS
    NUMBER , each drone ( coming out from the manufacturer’s factory ) , will have a
    UNIQUE , “ Drone Number “ ( which , manufacturer would obtain online from the
    web site of the Drone Regulator by registering each “ Model “being shipped out )




#  Each drone would be embedded with GPS and Internet Connection ( Internet of
    Things ) and will confirm to the ( planned ) protocol of the ( proposed ) National
    Trusts Centre for “ Machine-to-Machine “ communication / certification , in respect
    of  Security by Design


   This will ensure that no drone can take to sky unless the owner logs into the web
   site of the Drone Regulator ( using a Mobile App ), and files its FLIGHT PLAN /
   LOCATION / DURATION / HEIGHT / DRONE CATEGORY / PURPOSE etc and the
   Regulator Web site grants clearance for take off




#   Web site of the Drone Regulator will continuously track / monitor the flight of
     each and every drone ( all over India ) on a monitor screen ( similar to tracking
     of Airplanes in an Air Traffic Control ( ATC ) room . Constant contact is the key !



     Call this :  Drone – A – Charya  [  Drone Traffic Controller - DTC  ]



     Controllers ( sitting in DTC ) will have facility to immediately “ Ground /
     Immobilize “ any drone at any time , if security is about to be compromised or if
    any drone is flying outside of its “ Geo Fence



Context :






#   One real serious concern is with regard to thousands of drones flying all over the
     sky of a metropolis and colliding with one another 

 
     I urge the ( proposed ) National Trust Centre , to develop a software and make it
     mandatory for all drone manufacturers to pre-install this software into the drones
    , before shipping out . This is described at :







    This condition will require all drone manufacturers ( local and foreign ) , to give an
    appropriate “ Undertaking “ to the Drone Regulator . 



Failure to give such an
    undertaking will ensure that such drones are grounded / confiscated !


   
   Permission will not be granted to manufacturers of drones meant for war-like
   activities ( dropping of bombs etc )





#   Frequent violation of the Flight Rules , should lead to “ Black-listing “ of any
     particular drone and it should be “ immobilized “ ( for varying periods , depending
     upon the frequency / severity of violation )



     Context :


   

  

   After all , many elements of “ Traffic Control “ on the roads , are also relevant to
   traffic control in the Sky ( especially when , say , 10 milion drones are flying )




#   Drone Regulator should announce clear rules in respect of :


·         Insurance [ crashing / hurting / damaging ]

·         Scraping / re-selling / transfer / gifting of drones

·         Registration by new buyer




          #   Registration Form ( filled online through mobile app ) should require following
               data :


·         Buyer category ( Individual / Commercial Company / Organizations etc )


·         Aadhar No / PAN No / Mobile No




          #   Since most drones would be deployed by E Commerce companies for delivering of
               goods, govt may consider  “ pre-installing “ ( in the mobile app ), an ADDRESS
               MAP , based on the technology developed by www.What3Words.com , which will
               enable better traffic control based on TRAFFIC  DENSITY on different locations ,
              apart from ensuring precise delivery to 3 meter x 3 meter squares of India’s land





         #   There will be many applications in which drone-mounted SENSORS ( including
              cameras / mikes etc ) will be collecting / compiling , “ Personal / Private “ data of
              persons or things ( eg : Photos / Videos / Images etc )



             Strict law must be enacted that the owners of the drones cannot sell / share /
            transfer such data to any third party other than a party which has “ contracted “ for
            such data collection / compilation



            A very important “ Security Feature “ must ensure that the device ( drone ) by itself
           on its own , does not transmit any data to the drone manufacturer nor to any
           owner / licensee of an Operating System ( eg : Google’s Android / Apple’s iOS etc )



           All Mobile Apps which interact with a drone hardware or its embedded software (
           including Drone Operating System ), will need to be approved by Drone regulator




            All such “ Data Collection Contracts “ would require prior registration with the Drone
           Regulator , providing full details of the contract ( especially the nature of the data )





          #  Drone Policy must take into account that within the next 5 years , there will be in
             our skies , “ Person Carrying Vehicles “ which may fall short of being classified as “
             Aircraft “ . Such vehicles must be classified as “ Drones “ and be subject to Drone
            Policy  ( eg : Uber Lite aerial taxies )



       =====================================================
   
 03  Sept  2018


              
      

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