Kansas State Polytechnic's Applied Aviation Research Center is collaborating with the Salina Liberty, a professional indoor football team in Salina, Kansas, to bring drone technology to the team’s home games this season.

Through the collaboration, the research center is using a UAS to perform a 35-foot ball drop to the head referee before opening kickoff. The research center is also using UAS to capture aerial footage of the games to livestream on the team's Facebook page.

The idea behind using a drone to release the game ball to the referee was sparked by one of the challenges in the NFL's Pro Bowl Skills Showdown called drone drop.

To pull off the ball drop, Kansas State Polytechnic's Applied Aviation Research Center drops the ball with a mechanical payload device that holds the football and camera attached to the bottom of the aircraft. The release device was developed from scratch by Kansas State Polytechnic’s lab technicians specifically for this project.

Once the referees and team captains go onto the field for the coin toss, the remote pilot in charge flies the UAS over the referee, centering him/her in the UAS camera that is pointed straight down. When ready, the referee puts out his/her hands and the pilot uses a switch on the UAS transmitter to release the ball to them.

According to Travis Balthazor, flight operations manager of Kansas State Polytechnic's Applied Aviation Research Center, it was decided early on that the safest location for the UAS to operate would be directly over the field, where almost everyone has some type of body protection.

Balthazor says the Salina Liberty and Kansas State Polytechnic also initially discussed using UAS to drop flyers and other items to fans, but the research center had concerns about flying a UAS over people, even while indoors.

Other considerations were also taken into account when putting these operations together; for instance, the research center doesn’t fly the UAS when the forward progress of the ball is coming toward the UAS, to avoid having the aircraft hit by a football. 

Balthazor adds that the research center worked with Tony’s Pizza Event Center — where the Salina Liberty home games are played — to find a secure takeoff and landing location that would allow them to stage the UAS, takeoff, and land while never compromising anyone’s safety.

“A lot of thought and planning went into making sure this operation was safe,” Balthazor tells AUVSI. “Even though we are operating outside the FAA’s jurisdiction, we never want to compromise safety.”

The FAA does not allow unmanned operations over a large assembly of people outdoors, which is why, along with a no-fly zone, drones are generally prohibited at sports stadiums. But since the Salina Liberty is an indoor football team, the research center is able to fly “beyond the FAA's rules for the national airspace system.”

Because the UAS is being operated indoors, however, it lacks GPS, so a concept of operations outlining the procedures and methodologies was developed, and it includes both a remote pilot in command and a visual observer at the games.

The concept of operations covers the entire operation, and includes items such as, but not limited to, objectives, crew roles and responsibilities, and emergency procedures.

To ensure that the drone is where it is supposed to be without GPS, Balthazor says the research center relies on the RPIC and supporting crew members. Research center staff members and students involved in the project have also conducted several training sessions on campus and in the arena before the beginning of the season.

This attention to detail and careful approach could potentially help Kansas State Polytechnic's Applied Aviation Research Center build a safety case that could be presented to the FAA about expanding its UAS flight operations to large outdoor sporting events, Balthazor says.

“The long-term benefit of flying unmanned aircraft at the Salina Liberty games is the opportunities it could create down the road for athletic teams,” Balthazor says.

“When we combine a strong concept of operations with numerous flights near crowds and few to no errors, we have the potential to prove to the FAA that these types of operations also can be performed safely and successfully outside.”

As of March 17, the research center had flown the UAS at two home games. Balthazor says flights during the first two games went well, but he did point out some lessons were learned from the first game, which were used to make some quick modifications to the concept of operations heading into the second.

One of the lessons was that during certain timeout and half-time events, the crowd tries to throw little footballs into a bucket on the field. Balthazor says this is a bad time for the UAS to be in the air.

Balthazor also says that occasionally, the event center will turn out the lights, which can throw the remote pilot off for a few seconds.

One other lesson that was learned after the first game was that the research center needed larger WiFi antennas to obtain a better signal for a live stream.

These issues were considered minor, Balthazor says, and despite them, the first game was still considered a success. Balthazor says everything went smoothly for the second game, as there were no real issues to report.

In terms of feedback from the public, Balthazor says everything he has heard has been nothing but positive.

“The social media views are good, and the fans love when the UAS points the camera their way,” Balthazor comments.

Even with the good feedback, though, Balthazor maintains that the focus is not on the UAS, which makes them keep the drone’s presence as discrete as possible to coaches, players, and referees.

“Their priority is the game and we do not want to interfere with the game itself,” Balthazor says.

While these operations are still particularly fresh for Kansas State Polytechnic's Applied Aviation Research Center, Balthazor is confident that they can take what they’ve applied so far and implement these lessons elsewhere if called upon to do so.  

“This project has certainly branched us out into a new direction and if another similar opportunity were to come up, I think we are well postured,” Balthazor says.