DJI will be adding airplane & helicopter detectors to drones in 2020

[msinger]

After January 1, 2020, DJI will be including AirSense technology in all consumer drones weighing more than 250 grams. This will allow drones to receive ADS-B signals from nearby airplanes and helicopters and warn drone pilots if they appear to be on a collision course. AirSense can detect airplanes and helicopters from miles away -- farther than a drone pilot can hear or see them.

See more details in this DJI news release:
DJI Adds Airplane And Helicopter Detectors To New Consumer Drones

 

[JBPP1]

The video shows a Phantom

silhouette under "new" drones!​

 

[WetDog]

Hopefully the software is better behaved then the geofencing code.....

Nice idea. Hope it works out. DJI sometimes has better ideas than execution.

 

[2edgesword]

I will play the contrarian.

The last sentence included the phrase "airspace that we share". In the broad sense that is correct but in reality how much of the airspace below 400' is really "shared" by drones and manned aircraft? What will be the sensitivity of these devices? Will there be a way to adjust sensitivity? Do I really need to know about every aircraft within a five mile radius of where I'm (assumption about the range of these units) when I'm more than five miles from an airport and the aircraft are at 1,000' or above (pattern altitude of two airports near me) and I'm below 400'? How much does this technology cost? How much does it weigh?

Yes, we're all interested in safety but it's a word too often used to justify more questionable government intrusion (terrorism, control, etc.) into our lives. I ask these questions not to be argumentative but to have a series discussion beyond the sometimes superficial cover of the word "safety".

 

[Cellblock776]

i saw it posted on the DroneDJ site at- DJI will include ADS-B receivers in all DJI drones over 250 grams from January 2020 onwards
and all I could think was "It's about time!".
Seriously, how long have I been posting about this and other improvements which should have already been incorporated into their UAVs? Remember my posts showing me using a Flightradar24 SDR dongle on a tablet as part of my kit to tell me when and where the aircraft are around me? HERE- steve flying.jpg I took that photo in March of last year. I have everything from crop dusters to pipeline inspection planes to low flying helos doing inspections of powerlines in my AO which I have to keep an eye out for.
Of course, all of this depends upon aircraft having ADS-B transponders so we can receive their signals. Many general aviation aircraft will not meet the deadline to have the transponders installed. Too many waited until the last minute for purchase and installation of the transponders and now there is a backlog in getting them into aircraft.
Add to this the fact that the military is not required to be beaconing out, so we won't see them on our screens. One of the drone v helo crashes they cite in the article involved a military Blackhawk helicopter. Will military use ADS-B to prevent this in the future? I encounter everything from Coast Guard Dauphins to Army Apache and Blackhawks buzzing my area. I even had to descend quickly once to avoid a C-130 flying low along the Mississippi River levee where I often fly for videos like this-

So let's make sure the military planes have the same beacon.
Will we be able to install ADS-B receivers in our older model UAVs such as the Phantom 3 and 4 series or the Mavic Pro? An add-on chip and a update to the DJI Go software should be able to accomplish this retrofit. But my bet is that this is part of the planned obsolescence of the older models. Darn shame as many of them are still flying quite well.
Anyway, glad you could make it to the party DJI. Now work on some of the other things we have been asking for recently.

 

[N017RW]

Not to mention not all aircraft are required to have ADS-B Out installed.

 

[Cellblock776]

I will play the contrarian.

The last sentence included the phrase "airspace that we share". In the broad sense that is correct but in reality how much of the airspace below 400' is really "shared" by drones and manned aircraft?

I think the thing we will need to worry about in the "airspace that we share" won't be so much of manned aircraft as it will be other UAVs. What I mean is, we are seeing rapid adoption of rules allowing BVLOS in some cases including at least one insurance company allowed to fly fixed wing UAVs over disaster areas. We are seeing trials of deliveries being made by sUAV with everything from food to packages.
I can usually hear a low flying plane or helicopter but a low flying delivery UAV will be much harder to detect and avoid. How soon until I have to worry about going out on a job and suddenly having to dodge a Dominos pizza delivery UAV? That day is coming sooner than later.

 

[Cellblock776]

Not to mention not all aircraft are required to have ADS-B Out installed.

Yep. There are going to be exceptions. Some how this will be our fault.

 

[2edgesword]

I think the thing we will need to worry about in the "airspace that we share" won't be so much of manned aircraft as it will be other UAVs. What I mean is, we are seeing rapid adoption of rules allowing BVLOS in some cases including at least one insurance company allowed to fly fixed wing UAVs over disaster areas. We are seeing trials of deliveries being made by sUAV with everything from food to packages.
I can usually hear a low flying plane or helicopter but a low flying delivery UAV will be much harder to detect and avoid. How soon until I have to worry about going out on a job and suddenly having to dodge a Dominos pizza delivery UAV? That day is coming sooner than later.

I agree. I think this is more about paving the way for large corporation drone access to the airways rather than manned aircraft. On the other hand the video highlights the separation of drones from manned aircraft as the predicate for this identification system.

 

[gingerbloke]

Where I live (rural North Herefordshire) we have lots of military low flying activity - ranging from Hercules playing radar evasion games to small/fast stuff that appears over the treetops (SAS are nearby and seem to be evaluating Osprey). Even staying under 400ft you need to keep ears open for anything. Do 'stealthy' military aviators operate ADS-B when they're not actually in a war zone?

From DJI perspective this is a neat trick because most governments around the world will mandate it for commercial drone flying - so we'll all have to upgrade......

 

[drvrbobob]

i saw it posted on the DroneDJ site at- DJI will include ADS-B receivers in all DJI drones over 250 grams from January 2020 onwards
and all I could think was "It's about time!".
Seriously, how long have I been posting about this and other improvements which should have already been incorporated into their UAVs? Remember my posts showing me using a Flightradar24 SDR dongle on a tablet as part of my kit to tell me when and where the aircraft are around me? HERE- steve flying.jpg I took that photo in March of last year. I have everything from crop dusters to pipeline inspection planes to low flying helos doing inspections of powerlines in my AO which I have to keep an eye out for.
Of course, all of this depends upon aircraft having ADS-B transponders so we can receive their signals. Many general aviation aircraft will not meet the deadline to have the transponders installed. Too many waited until the last minute for purchase and installation of the transponders and now there is a backlog in getting them into aircraft.
Add to this the fact that the military is not required to be beaconing out, so we won't see them on our screens. One of the drone v helo crashes they cite in the article involved a military Blackhawk helicopter. Will military use ADS-B to prevent this in the future? I encounter everything from Coast Guard Dauphins to Army Apache and Blackhawks buzzing my area. I even had to descend quickly once to avoid a C-130 flying low along the Mississippi River levee where I often fly for videos like this-

So let's make sure the military planes have the same beacon.
Will we be able to install ADS-B receivers in our older model UAVs such as the Phantom 3 and 4 series or the Mavic Pro? An add-on chip and a update to the DJI Go software should be able to accomplish this retrofit. But my bet is that this is part of the planned obsolescence of the older models. Darn shame as many of them are still flying quite well.
Anyway, glad you could make it to the party DJI. Now work on some of the other things we have been asking for recently.

I have alot of helicopters in my AO too, but being in vlos i have never had any issues. What is this going to add to price? Are model airplanes required to have this also?

 

[Kieranw92]

Where I live (rural North Herefordshire) we have lots of military low flying activity - ranging from Hercules playing radar evasion games to small/fast stuff that appears over the treetops (SAS are nearby and seem to be evaluating Osprey). Even staying under 400ft you need to keep ears open for anything. Do 'stealthy' military aviators operate ADS-B when they're not actually in a war zone?

From DJI perspective this is a neat trick because most governments around the world will mandate it for commercial drone flying - so we'll all have to upgrade......

I live in Australia in a town with the biggest army base in the country, so have rotary & fixed wing aircraft flying around all the time. They mostly have their transponder off but I have noticed a couple mrh-90's flying with the transponder on occasionally. Saw 2 US osprey's today too, id say they didn't have a beacon on too.

 

[kennedye]

What will happen to the tens of thousands of existing UASs with no way to retrofit the technology; will my P3P be grounded or grandfathered?

 

[msinger]

What will happen to the tens of thousands of existing UASs with no way to retrofit the technology

Pilots will have to see and avoid manned aircraft (like they are doing today).

 

[lonjsnyder]

Assuming its the same as what's currently on the Mavic-2-Enterprise:

• It shows aircraft & distance (no altitude nor speed)
• It does not differentiate between helicopters & airplanes.
• It does give a nice red warning when aircraft gets relatively close.

 

[WetDog]

Assuming its the same as what's currently on the Mavic-2-Enterprise:

• It shows aircraft & distance (no altitude nor speed)
• It does not differentiate between helicopters & airplanes.
• It does give a nice red warning when aircraft gets relatively close.

No altitude? How is that useful?

Does the distance measurement include vertical distance? Or just horizontal?

I don't care about the 737 directly overhead at 15000 feet.

(The video didn't help much - couldn't read the screen.)

 

[Timinator]

Well it's about time. This could go a long way to reducing incursions similar to how TCAS made most mid air collisions a thing of the past. I believe this is only the first step and eventually there will be TCAS for unmanned aircraft.

While it may not show altitude, perhaps it does track it for the very reason you mention. All ADS-B transponders are required to transmit altitude data.

 

[Nightwolf]

I don't care about the 737 directly overhead at 15000 feet.

That's my concern too.