No Place Like Drone: Can UAVs Find Their Place in Europe?

(Source: zdnet.com)  

At one stage, the biggest threat to the nation’s youth coming from the Stadium Letzigrund In Zurich was The Rolling Stones and their music. This summer, it wasn’t the group that was seen a risk to the public, but the drone flying overhead and taking pictures.

Unlike the Serbia-Albania European Championship football match, which was abandoned after a brawl sparked by a drone carrying an Albanian flag, it wasn’t crowd trouble the police feared — but the threat to public safety had the drone crashed.

As a result of police concerns, aviation authorities have now tightened the regulations. The Office federal de l’aviation civile (OFAC) has banned all flights by drones (also known as UAVs or unmanned aerial vehicles) within 100m of a group of people. Any drone pilot also has to have direct eye contact with the UAV at all times, and that distance can’t be extended by using binoculars or video cameras. Although you can fly a drone that weighs 30kg or less without any special authorisation, heavier drones and drones that fly out of sight have to be approved by OFAC, which is making it clear that permission will only be granted in exceptional circumstances.

The ban on drones in populated areas brings Switzerland in line with most countries around Europe. “Generally speaking flying in line of sight, at very low altitude, outside populated areas is what most national regulations tend to allow for, especially if your system is lightweight,” Jean-Christophe Zuffery, CEO and founder of senseFly, said.

A spinoff of the Laboratory of Intelligence Systems at EPFL (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), senseFly is growing fast. “We’ve gone from two employees when we started in 2009 to over 80 today. We produce 100 drones a month that sell in more than 60 countries.”

Typically, with Switzerland’s rugged Alpine landscape, the drones that the Lausanne-based company sell in their home market account are used for mapping and surveying. Local sales account for about 10 percent of the company’s business.

“About 95 percent of missions we’re looking at are up to about one square kilometre, so it’s easy to maintain line of sight with the drone.

“Most of the time you want to fly low – less than 50m above the surface, where most planes can’t fly – as that’s better for achieving high resolution photography and accurate measurements,” Zuffery said.

Currently, Swiss legislation also allows autonomous drones. “There’s an assumption that that there is an operator somewhere who is keeping the drone in line of sight. Our products have action buttons to lower altitude, remain on the spot, go in a fast dive or get back home, so you can act if you see a danger.” Geofencing both distance and altitude ensures that the drones using GPS to fly autonomously stay within set limits to preserve line of sight.

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