3D Robotics and Autodesk Conduct First FAA-Approved UAS Flight at an Airport
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On Jan. 10, 3D Robotics and Autodesk conducted the first UAS flight at an airport that was approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, under the Part 107 rules.
The flight was used to collect aerial data of two parking structures at the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which are scheduled to be demolished.
3D Robotics and Autodesk were charged with the task of conducting these flights after a design and engineering firm named Atkins was commissioned by the city of Atlanta to help with the expansion of the world’s busiest airport, by demolishing the two parking structures.
Knowing that the quickest way to obtain the information necessary for this project was through using UAS, Atkins reached out to 3D Robotics and Autodesk so that they could gain permission from the FAA to conduct the flights.
To get permission to conduct the flights at the airport, the team from 3D Robotics first had to obtain authorization through the FAA’s new online portal. During the authorization process, 3D Robotics and Atkins successfully demonstrated the ability to safely operate 3D Robotics’ autonomous aerial data capture platform, the Site Scan, in a critical location.
According to Kevin Sartori, senior product marketing manager at 3D Robotics, the Site Scan was the perfect UAS for this mission.
“Site Scan is ideal because it's fully autonomous (with manual control option if needed), lightweight, and delivers extremely high resolution pictures with the Sony camera,” Sartori tells AUVSI.
After coordinating with Atlanta’s air traffic control tower, the companies were granted airspace authorization by the FAA, allowing them to capture aerial data of Atkins’ construction site. Some provisions of the authorization were that the 3D Robotics team had to maintain radio contact with the Atlanta control tower during the entire flight, while also performing all operations under the control tower’s authority.
Sartori has nothing but praise for the FAA and the process it takes to help integrate UAS into the airspace.
“The FAA is in a learning phase, and is doing a great work at balancing the requirement for reasonable precautionary measures, and integration of unmanned aircraft in the national airspace system,” he says.
In total, seven flights, covering a total area of 40 acres, were flown using the Site Scan UAS. The flights took place in the Class B airspace over the international airport area, and demonstrated the vast capabilities of the UAS.
During the flights, 700 nadir and oblique images were captured and uploaded to the 3DR cloud, and automatically processed into accurate 2D orthomosaics and 3D point clouds.
Atkins will take the models collected from these flights and use them to plan the demolition process. They will also use the models to organize the operations during construction, to help mitigate potential negative effects on the airport’s daily activities.
The 3D point clouds will also be used to help with the preliminary design phase, together with architects for the project.
For Sartori, things couldn’t have gone much better.
“This project paves the way for more operations of this type; the flights were conducted safely without any disruption to normal air traffic operations, or any disturbance to airport users,” he says.
