From firefighters and law enforcement to inspectors and environmentalists, safety professionals use uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) — or drones — to provide important visuals in dangerous or precarious scenarios where line of human sight has been previously limited.

Recreational drone users share the same airspace, flying for enjoyment rather than commercial purposes. And the development of new technologies, such as vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft and other advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicles, represents the future of sustainable flight, air travel and transportation.

While the progress of UAS presents an exciting development for the aviation industry, its rapid advancement has also posed challenges. Two areas of immediate concern for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are 1) the access to and oversight of the amount of data surrounding drone activity within the National Airspace System (NAS), and 2) a lack of overall data related to drone traffic.

Because the FAA has identified the safety of people, vehicles and property as the most important factor for the successful adoption of urban air mobility, data analysis related to these two areas of concern is key to continued development.

There is general acknowledgment that safety can be improved by reducing risk. Risk is reduced by lessening the severity of the accident or lowering the likelihood that an accident will occur. And the way to understand what current risks exist is through the analysis of good data.

Embry‑Riddle’s Role in Data-Driven Drone Safety

That’s where Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University researchers come in. The university recently received two separate sources of funding from the FAA to gather, analyze and integrate data in order to better manage our national airspace.

Approximately $1.2 million has been awarded through FAA Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) funding to analyze and integrate small UAS survey and registration data to forecast drone flight activity across the NAS while enhancing risk assessment capabilities. Additionally, approximately $2.7 million has been received — along with partnering universities — for data collection, analysis and performance related to drone traffic safety risks.

According to research lead Dr. Ryan Wallace, an associate professor of and faculty affiliate for the , “This funding — in partnership with other universities — will allow us to significantly contribute to the overall safety of our skies, particularly when it comes to drone activity.”

In addition to the analysis of potentially millions of data points related to drone usage and integration of that information with other non-compatible data sets, the team will also gather and use detection data. This information — including registration, survey, surveillance and navigation data — will help the team analyze drone traffic and drone traffic collision risks at up to 40 urban locations across the NAS.

Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

To accomplish those lofty goals, many disciplines — involving a team of student researchers — will need to collaborate to analyze and interpret the massive data sets to make sound and useful correlations.

Dr. Mihhail Berezovski — associate professor, director of and program coordinator for the — recognizes the opportunity this important research presents to students.

“As we prepare our Eagles for the workforce, we do our best to ensure they have the capability to conduct authentic data-enabled research based on problems that impact businesses and industry,” he explained, while also acknowledging the monumental nature of the task and the opportunities presented by the work. “Because of the unique challenges of the sheer amount of data and the complex integration, the students involved with this project will have the opportunity to work with real-world data and solve emergent safety challenges for not only the FAA but the aviation industry as a whole.”

The student and faculty researchers will work on a number of tasks in support of the research grants, including identifying data indicating high-traffic activities, traffic management, traffic surveillance and trends, along with future airspace integration. At the same time, they will consider new technologies, small UAS and third-party provider traffic management and services.

The Human Element

An additional nuance to this project is the human factor involved in interpreting data surrounding drone usage.

“Part of the challenge will be to look at a variety of UAS users — both commercial and recreational — to understand their use and performance,” said Dr. Steven Rice, professor of . “It’s about integrating science with psychology to make better predictions and create advanced forecasting models.”

“The research will involve a bit of detective work,” said Wallace. “Right now, we don’t have strong insight into correlations between location characteristics such as population density and demographics, geographic characteristics with UAS registration and flight activity data. Understanding the connections between those characteristics and small UAS registrations, fleet and flight activity will allow us to develop a clearer understanding of usage and also forecasting.”

The Future Safety of Our Skies

Beyond the correlations between demographics and flight activity, Drs. Wallace, Rice and Berezovski and their team of student researchers will look at safety implications such as the identification of geographic areas with an elevated risk of UAS collisions, determination of AAM priority areas and traffic patterns, and developing a framework for assessing the total risk profile associated with UAS flights leading to better risk management and decision-making.

Said Dr. Rice, “At the end of the day, this research and work is all about safety — ensuring continued safe air travel and air traffic management for not only commercial aircraft but also to account for our ever-expanding fleet of new technologies. And Embry‑Riddle is up to the challenge.”