City of Romulus officials are among those crafting the future of an air-traffic route for drones as plans for the first highway for autonomous aircraft in the nation near completion.
The corridor, which could include sky taxis sometime in the future, will begin with a route between Ann Arbor and Detroit, is a concern of Aerotropolis Corporation leaders and aviation officials, along with Romulus Director of Fire Services and Emergency Management Chief Kevin Krause. While autonomous aircraft carrying passengers as well as freight may be in the future, the need for regulations, permissions and traffic management is being crafted now.
Three phases of development of the highway in the sky are currently predicted by Aerotropolis Executive Director Christopher Girdwood and Krause.
“We are working to build three industries that have a growing partnership with the Detroit Metro Airport,” Girdwood said in a recent interview with Chronicle Tech News. “The state of Michigan wanted to see industry, not residential new construction around the airport. So we are working with transport and logistics, then advanced manufacturing, and finally with mobility” to create new industry connected with air traffic around Detroit Metro.
Girdwood said that the highways in the sky are being planned across the country but the Detroit Metro route, at the 18th busiest airport in the country will be more complicated than others. Plans are to first allow drones to fly in permitted spaces, something that is currently in place, Krause said. Drones are often sent ahead to a fire to inspect the scene and send back information and images to approaching fire trucks.
“They feed high-res video to the fire engine,” Krause said. This technology will be expanded as more drones are used by public safety officers throughout the area, he noted.
Officials agree that utilizing drones to deliver needed or emergency materials and parts to manufacturers could be a savings of both time and money.
Girdwood said this use, on a regular sky route, is about three to five years in the future.He said that package delivery by drone aircraft is about seven to 10 years ahead as it will take that amount of time to complete the necessary infrastructure. The logistics of delivering packages like those from Amazon will have to travel across unpredictable terrain and through mapped air space. Krause noted that mapping airspace has to be done in a separate dimension, which creates a challenge.
“We're asking you to tilt your head up and find a way point in the sky,” Krause explained. “Uber Eats can struggle with the last 100 feet of mapping delivering food to your door. How do we plot that extra dimension?” The reason it could take so long is that the tech is still being developed to safely map air spaces for these complex uses that expand into the business sector,” Krause said.
This air delivery system isn't as futuristic as it sounds as drones are already used for delivery in Western Wayne County according to Krause. He said it won't be too long before drones might deploy directly from local fire stations-and that's just the start of the possibilities.
“We want to be a part of the tech as it evolves,” Krause said. “We train for issues with the airport, with trains. We're trained [to think] what are the hazards? We want to be a part of the conversation early on to get ahead of the hazards.”
Girdwood confirmed that officials from both the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA are working with drone manufacturers.
“Now you'll see the city of Romulus integrate where you can see drones and pilots, where they are in the air, what drones are flying,” Girdwood said.
The biggest apparent challenge he said is to determine which drones have approval.
“This is the biggest apparent challenge: mapping out who is where and what has approval to fly. It's an entire new infrastructure,” Girdwood said.
“Maybe the next century for southeast Michigan is putting the world in the sky,” he added.
