Cargo Chat: Dedrone’s Smulders on AI-driven drone mitigation tech, regs

Airspace security company Dedrone is developing artificial intelligence-driven technology to detect, track, identify and, if necessary, mitigate drones. [caption id="attachment_57136438" align="alignright" width="300"] Dedrone Chief Marketing Officer Mary-Lou Smulders[/caption] Working with the Federal Aviation Administration , the San Francisco-based company, founded in 2014, is in the second phase of the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Detection and Mitigation Program to test counter-drone technology at airports. Air Cargo Next sat down with Dedrone Chief Marketing Officer Mary-Lou Smulders to discuss the company’s tech, challenges facing the industry and future plans. What follows is an edited version of the conversation. Air Cargo Next: What is Dedrone’s role in the airspace security sector? Mary-Lou Smulders: What we do is airspace security, rather than counter drone. … We’re not just counter drone; we are very supportive of productive drone usage. In fact, the most sophisticated cities around the world are utilizing our software to enable that productive drone economy — everything from Amazon deliveries in 20 minutes to life-saving medical response in much faster times than even an ambulance can get there. We protect people, property and information from the threat of drones while enabling good drones to fly. And that forward-looking statement around smart city or city of the future is really where we think of ourselves. Air Cargo Next: How does DedroneDefender work and what are its capabilities? Smulders: We have two versions of the jammer; our original one we just called DroneDefender. It’s a huge gun. It’s really [for] military environments and jams all the spectrums and GPS — it’s using a hammer to solve the problem, which in war is perfectly acceptable — in fact, even desirable. But when you’re talking about a more urban environment, the cool thing about the DedroneDefender is what we call “precision jamming.” It doesn’t just jam the entire frequency; it identifies the drone, and it knows the protocols of where the drone communicates with its remote. And it actually jumps around to avoid cyber hacking. And so, we have been able to program it so that our jamming is a very narrow band and jumps with the frequency of communication, so that you minimize that collateral damage. Air Cargo Next: What process was used to develop this technology? Smulders: The idea of layering security to get stronger security is a concept as old as time: I have a castle with tall walls and then I add a moat, and then I add a guard or bridge or whatever. We originally started with radio frequency detection, which is indeed the way 99% of all Class 1 and Class 2 drones operate … because you’ve got the remote telling the drone what to do and you detect that communications link. But most recently, we’ve added camera, radar and acoustics. Air Cargo Next: As drone technology advances, so do drone detection and mitigation technologies. Is the airspace security industry keeping up with drone technology? Smulders: The technology is absolutely keeping up with it. … But what is not, what is painful for the security people is that the legislation is not keeping up with it. So today, [a drone is] an aircraft. So, a drone has the same protections as a 777 full of people. The mitigation authorities in the U.S. around a drone are limited. Mitigate , go talk to the pilot and say, “Hey, dude, you should really bring it down.” Law enforcement can do that. They can write some citations. That’s fine. But [what if] there’s imminent danger? There is a drone coming over an open-air concert, and it’s got a payload. There are only four U.S. federal authorities that are allowed to do something to the drone. That’s crazy. Let’s say you have a cadre of law enforcement protecting this fine open-air concert, and a drone flies over and it’s got payload, and they just have to stand there and watch it. They can’t do anything. [ Editor’s note: The four U.S. authorities permitted to use drone jamming technology are the U.S . Defense , Energy , Justice and Homeland Security departments .] Air Cargo Next: What other regulations is Dedrone working with lobbyists to alter? Smulders: Along the lines of airspace security, the laws in place today require any uncrewed aircraft to only be flown within visual line of sight. I can’t operate my drone beyond where I can see it. The reason for that law is they’re worried that it’s going to run into something. ... But that makes things like infrastructure inspection, precision agriculture, emergency response by drone, very difficult. But if you could create a technology, which we have, that actually monitors the airspace — and the word is “deconflict” the airspace — in order to allow that drone to fly without concern of running into something, now you’ve really pushed forward the capabilities of that drone as a first responder. Air Cargo Next: Earlier you mentioned Dedrone supporting “smart cities.” What vision do you have for the Dedrone City-Wide Drone Detector? Smulders: I touched on the “city of the future” and enabling all of this drone capability, drone highways in the sky. I know it sounds fantastical, but it is coming. We have over 40 cities in the U.S. today that can tap into that citywide drone detection capability and have the ability to protect basically 50% of U.S. citizens. And we are expanding that network globally as we speak. Join Air Cargo Next for the upcoming webinar , “What’s new in digital cargo systems,” on Tuesday, June 13, at 11 a.m. ET. F or more information on the webinar and to register , click here.

Cargo Chat: Dedrone’s Smulders on AI-driven drone mitigation tech, regs

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