It’s amazing how quickly technology can advance in just a few years. Only 13 years ago, Apple released their first smartphone. That initial iPhone has influenced multiple generations of smartphones. Today, nearly all cellphone users have some sort of smartphone that can literally connect them with the world. Another technology that has rapidly advanced over the last decade is drone technology. Around the same time that Steve Jobs was enticing people with his vision of a touch screen phone with continuous internet access, the first civilian drones started to hit the market. Before then, drones were primarily used by the military. There was a community of aviation hobbyists who would build drones from kits much like model airplanes, but the idea of the average household or business operating drones was a foreign concept.

Fast forward to 2020 to a world suffering from the spread of a global pandemic. In the wake of COVID-19, more and more people purchased drones for recreational use, something to bide their time while stuck in quarantine. Over the last few years, drones have had a huge impact on commercial enterprises, but because of the conditions placed on businesses from COVID-19, the need for using drones commercially has greatly increased. Drones have allowed people to carry out jobs while maintaining social distancing. One way that drones have been pivotal over the last year has been as a delivery vehicle. Towards the beginning of the pandemic, drones were being used to deliver medical supplies in small communities, a trial that had been underway before the spread of the coronavirus. It wasn’t long before delivery drones were becoming more widespread.

Small businesses like restaurants and large retailers like CVS began making deliveries of small packages to customer’s homes. Amazon announced that they were initiating a full trail for deliveries of goods in 30 minutes or less. Walmart began delivering COVID-19 tests, groceries, and pharmacy supplies in several communities. All with commercial delivery drones. By 2020, drone and logistics companies had proven that drones could safely and successfully be used as delivery vehicles. However, there have still been a few hurdles holding back a full fledged drone delivery system. These hurdles are drones being able to fly Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS) and flying over people.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been in the works with several drone companies to develop safe BVLOS parameters. Many of these companies are getting close to satisfying the FAA’s requirements for a drone with BVLOS capabilities. In 2019, the FAA announced that they would begin working to modify regulations for drones flying over people, a modification that would also include nighttime flights. Being able to fly over people and without an operator on sight (BVLOS) is key in enabling drone deliveries. Previously, the FAA has allowed limited operations of drones over people with specific waivers. However, in January of 2021, the FAA finally announced that they had granted one company the unlimited ability to begin flying drones over people, at night, and without an onsite operator.

In 2016, Carnegie Mellon and Stanford roboticists Eitan Babcock, Reese Mozer, and Vijay Somandepalli founded American Robotics (AR Inc.) in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Their vision was clear, to bring drones out of a lab setting so that they can meet the demands of real world environments. As stated in their bio, “Through innovations in robot autonomy, machine vision, edge computing, and AI it has created a fully-automated drone capable of continuous, unattended operation.” The resulting innovation led to the development of a complete drone system that has earned the FAA’s approval to begin bringing drones to the next level…commercial BVLOS flight over people.

AR’s platform, Scout System, is a fully autonomous drone with advanced Detect And Avoid (DAA) technology. A Scout drone is placed in a strategically located ScoutBase. The weatherproof base is the drone’s charging and data processing station. The bases and drones can be remotely programmed to operate without a pilot needing to interfere. The user simply programs in what they need the drone to do from a command station. The command station could be 100ft or 100 miles away from the ScoutBase with the same results. Then the drone, or even a fleet of drones, will automatically stick to the prescribed schedule. The ScoutBase releases the drone, the job is performed, the drone returns to the base, data is uploaded, mission done. The DAA system allows the ScoutDrone to detect any obstacles, be it other aircraft, people, buildings, structures, trees, anything.

The Scout system is intended for data collection and processing in industrial, agricultural, and defense industries. It is not situated to be a delivery vehicle, though it’s technology will pave the way for other drones to eventually be able to fly BVLOS over people with delivery payloads. This technology simply wasn’t available a few years ago. But as the demand for BVLOS drone operations increased, engineers like those at AR Inc. have found a solution. “Decades worth of promise and projection are finally coming to fruition,” said Reese Mozer. “With these approvals, American Robotics is ushering in a new era of widespread automated drone operations,” The new ruling by the FAA for AR Inc. is set to take effect on March 16, 2021. From there, it will only be a matter of time before the FAA grants further permission for BVLOS operations.