Detect and avoid tech is here, but needs regulatory support

Though multiple “detect and avoid” technologies exist, they are not used widely enough, and humans remain an obstacle to implementation through lack of regulation and noncooperation.

As more uncrewed aircraft take to the skies, detect and avoid (DAA) becomes increasingly important to prevent mid-air collisions, especially as the industry pushes for BVLOS flying for approved operators, panelists agreed at AUVSI Xponential 2025 in Houston last month.

[caption id="attachment_57289386" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Panelists discuss 'detect and avoid' technology and current bottlenecks at AUVSI Xponential 2025 in Houston in May. (Photo/Cargo Facts)[/caption] DAA is the blanket term for technologies onboard uncrewed air vehicles (UAV) that can detect other UAVs, allowing operators to avoid collisions.

“ Detect and avoid was supposed to be this enabler, this game changer for the UAS industry, unlocking beyond visual line of sight ,” Erin Roesler, deputy executive director at Northern Plains UAS Test Site, said during the discussion. “But I think we'll all say it has also been a bottleneck for business plans or commercial operations and moving forward in this industry.”

The Northern Plains UAS Test Site, in Grand Forks, N.D., partners with the FAA to conduct flight testing, consultation and research.

Tech solutions DAA should stand for “detect, alert, avoid,” Jon Damush, president and chief executive of aviation communication and coordination technologies company uAvionix , said on the panel.

“You have to detect traffic, then you have to alert the human that [they] have to execute some avoidance maneuver,” Damush said. “The avoidance maneuver [they] have to execute is 100% dependent on [their] ability to detect .

“Farther away, the more accurately you can detect, the less you have to worry about avoidance,” he said. “If I can detect sixty miles away, I can make a half-degree change on my heading and satisfy ‘well clear’ against them. If I can only detect 1,000 feet in front of my own ship going 100 knots, I might not be able to avoid at all, even with the most drastic maneuver.”

“Well clear” is the degree of separation between aircraft that ensures safe operations and prevents collisions. This space of separation is affected by the speed of the aircraft.

DAA systems allow UAV operators to track all aircraft within their airspace, Damush said.

In one such system, the Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B), aircraft periodically broadcast their position and other relevant data to air traffic control receivers. ADS-B is a form of electronic conspicuity.

Tech drawbacks “Each system [used in DAA] has limitations,” Charlton Evans, founder and CEO of drone certification adviser End State Solutions, said during the panel. “Even when we get to full electronic conspicuity, there will still be limitations. ADS-B is very good [but] it has limitations.

“Overall, all those limitations are being brought down,” he said. “As those systems get accepted, the limitations will be ironed out.”

The technological limitations are “remarkably similar” to human pilot limitations, Damush said.

“All of us in this room have evolved with five ... senses because they complement each other,” he said. “If we're going to put technology on aircraft to be able to be the last line of defense for avoiding bigger collisions, then it's going to have to be some sort of multimodal solution because no single load can really satisfy the requirements.”

Human intervention Said Joe Darden, associate director of aviation business development at communications company Iridium: “I don't think we have a technology problem, it's a human problem.”

ADS-B raises privacy concerns for some operators, who may be all right with their aircraft being tracked for DAA but do not want their identity to be revealed.

“One of the most persistent challenges that we have in DAA is detecting other aircraft pilots that don't want to be detected or can't be detected,” Roesler said.

This is where regulation must come in, according to Damush.

“If a human is just obstinate about not being seen, they're not going to do anything, which brings regulation back into the equation,” he said. “Safety has to be first, and being conspicuous, meaning other people can see you, is critical to that.

“I would actually like to be the one that puts a call out to the FAA for universal [DAA] equipage. ... I would personally like to see the regulator say, ‘You know what, if you're going to put a vehicle in the air of any kind, whether it's piloted or unpiloted, you need to make your position known.’”