India’s Civilian Drone Industry: The Need for Greater Civil Society Engagement with Drone Regulations

This is a longish piece on India’s drone regulations I wrote for the Centre for the Advanced Study of India’s blog, which was also published in the Hindu Business Line on the 4th of December 2018.

https://casi.sas.upenn.edu/iit/shashanksrinivasan2018

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/drones-must-serve-a-larger-populace/article25664471.ece

On October 7, 2014, India’s aspirations of becoming a global leader in the manufacture and operation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs; commonly known as drones) for civilian use were seemingly crushed overnight. The Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA), India’s civil aviation regulator, issued a short public notice that prohibited any non-governmental entity in India from launching UAVs for any purpose whatsoever due to safety and security issues until regulations were issued. Luckily for India’s nascent drone industry, while the notice ended by demanding strict compliance, it did not articulate the mechanisms or identify the government agencies that would be responsible for enforcing this compliance.

As a result, while the ban was effective in curtailing the widespread use of drones, the regulatory chaos provided just enough space for the creation of a stunted industry. In the past four years, it has been relatively easy to contact and hire individual drone owner-operators for tasks as mundane as mapping farms, conducting event videography and taking photographs for real-estate marketing. These individuals have been able to obtain drones by purchasing them in various urban electronic grey markets, getting friends and family to import them in their personal luggage or by purchasing the required parts and building their own drones. A few businesses that have also managed to navigate the complex set of relationships required to manufacture or operate drones in India, without attracting hostile government attention, provide products and services primarily for the cinematography, agriculture, and infrastructure sectors. However, without regulations in place that guarantee the legality of their products and services, it has been difficult for these businesses to attract investors, limiting their ability to grow. It is not surprising to note that India has no indigenous drone manufacturer capable of competing on the global stage against drone industry giants such as DJI, Parrot, and Yuneec.

In the next few weeks, this may change. On December 1, 2018, the first version of India’s Civil Aviation Requirements for the Operation of Civil Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, also referred to as the Drone Regulations 1.0, was implemented. These regulations have emerged from two public consultations and an unknown number of private meetings, and have been vetted by many government agencies before finally seeing the light of day.

This initial version makes it legal for non-governmental agencies, organizations and individuals to use UAVs for specific operations after they obtain permission from a defined set of government agencies. The Drone Regulations 1.0 also include minimum standards for the manufacture of drones, whether made in India or abroad, information on the mandatory training required by drone operators, and various permission forms for specific drone operations. Under this version of the regulations, some activities with the potential for market transformation are not currently permitted. For example, while functional drone-based delivery is considered to be a major growth area for the drone industry and is a focus for research and development—as it will have a significant impact in online retail and healthcare—it is not allowed at this point of time. This is because it requires the operator to conduct beyond visual-line-of sight (BVLOS) operations and for the drone itself to release payloads while in flight, both of which are explicitly prohibited by the Drone Regulations 1.0.

However, subsequent versions of the Drone Regulations are expected to take the industry’s collective experience into account and widen the scope of permissible operations, thus eventually permitting drone-based delivery and other drone applications that are currently prohibited. The DGCA has designated a set of test sites across the country where drone manufacturers and operators can innovate in a safe and secure environment. The question remains as to whether the Drone Regulations will be able to keep up with the pace of growth of the drone industry.

The primary innovation in the Drone Regulations is the introduction of the Digital Sky platform. This is an online platform where a drone operator can obtain all the necessary paperwork required to conduct an operation, including final flight permission immediately before the operation, as part of an enforcement system designated as No Permission No Takeoff (NPNT). This is an ambitious system with a number of complex moving parts, and it remains to be seen how effective this will be in practice.

Aside from technical issues regarding implementation, one societal issue that the regulations as currently framed do not address is that of inclusivity. Drone applications are extremely relevant to large swathes of India’s rural population. For example, farming communities could cooperatively own and operate drones to map vegetation stress, prevent crop-raiding by wild animals, and even conduct precise spraying of fertilizers and pesticides. As currently framed, the processes and fees involved in obtaining permission to fly a drone would render it extremely difficult for them to conduct the drone operations they need most without hiring companies, which again would increase the costs of such operations. The Drone Regulations 1.0 are far more navigable by start-ups and corporations than by India’s non-governmental organizations and rural communities, which is something that must be addressed in future versions of the regulations.

It is clear today that India is ready to begin incorporating drones into its civilian airspace, and drone applications into society. As was evident even four years ago, drones are here to stay. While it is still possible to meet people today who have not yet seen a flying robot in action in India, this is unlikely to be the case even five years in the future. The range of operations that drones will be legally allowed to conduct within the country will expand, and should not be limited to only those with access to capital, as this will exacerbate existing inequalities in Indian society. It is thus imperative that more representatives from outside the drone industry, such as civil society organizations and advocacy groups, become involved in framing subsequent versions of India’s Drone Regulations to ensure that drones are used for the good of the larger population

Drones, spatial analysis and a 3D model: Asola Bhatti WLS

I recently collected some aerial imagery at the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary in Delhi in collaboration with the people who run the outreach centre. I've really been enjoying working with the data, and this project has helped me clarify the various processes I use while using drones. So far, I have a three page checklist and am maintaining a mission log-book as well; keeping all the documentation up to date is hard! In this post, I'll be detailing the various applications I'm using to control the UAV and process the aerial imagery+data it generates, and will then describe a couple of the outputs.

TL;DR: Come for the aerial footage and the 3D models; stay for the process walk-through.

I'm using a DJI Phantom 3 Advanced; the P3A can be manually flown using the controller like a regular R/C plane. To tap into its more advanced functions, fly safely and troubleshoot issues though, it  needs to be connected to a smartphone. I use the DJI Go app on a OnePlus3 (Android) for regular flights, but may switch to an iPad soon; DJI-related apps apparently work better on iOS than on Android.

For mapping missions, there are a number of steps involved. The drone must fly a preset pattern autonomously, collecting images at regular intervals. These images can then be processed into a georeferenced mosaic and used to generate a 3D model. Depending on the use case, these can either be used as-is for visualisation, or analysed further to obtain specific outputs.

For mapping, I use DJI Go to configure the camera settings (exposure and shutter speed), and then use DroneDeploy to take-off and fly the drone along the preset mapping pattern. I'm also experimenting with Pix4D Capture; the UI isn't as clean as DroneDeploy's but the app itself is free, and you don't have to buy into the rest of the Pix4D ecosystem. Once the mapping is complete, I disable DroneDeploy and use DJI Go to manually collect more images from different angles and land the drone at the end of the flight. Once back at base, the images are uploaded into PrecisionMapper, where they're processed in the cloud to create:

  1. a RGB orthomosaic depicting reflectance values (.tif)

  2. a digital surface model representing elevation (.dsm)

  3. a 3D model (.ply and .las)

  4. a KML file for visualisation in Google Earth/Maps (.kml)

  5. a design file for visualisation in CAD software (.dxf)

So far, I've worked with all five of these products; there are more advanced ones available in PrecisionMapper, but I prefer to work directly with these products. I use QGIS and ArcGIS for almost all my satellite imagery analysis work, and these products feed directly into that workflow. The primary output I can create are basic maps; I've never had access to such high-resolution imagery before, so just the simple act of putting a scale bar onto one of these maps is exciting.

The images above are true-colour RGB composites, where the red, green and blue layers have been combined to represent the terrain as a human with unimpaired vision would observe it. The thing with composite bands is that they can also be combined to extract information that it's hard for a human observer to see. In a follow-up (more technical) post, I'll discuss the differences between false-NDVI, SAVI, VARI and TGI, which are all indices that use the RGB layers in interesting ways. In this post though, I'm just going to put in two images that depict the Triangular Greenness Index (TGI), which enhances chlorophyll-containing pixels; the greener the pixel, the more likely it is to contain vegetation.

There are various other algorithms that can be applied to the orthomosaic imagery; PrecisionMapper itself offers a couple that can delineate individual trees or count plants in rows. I'm going to be studying up on what else can be done with this imagery, especially with supervised classification and AI-based analysis processes.

And finally, my favourite output: the 3D model! With enough images from multiple perspectives, modern photogrammetry algorithms can generate vertices and meshes that depict an object or a landscape to scale and in three dimensions. I'm excited about these because while it's really cool to see these embedded in a web-page (as above), it's even cooler to see them carved out in wood or 3D-printed in ABS plastic. It's even possible to pull this into a VR system and explore the terrain in person, or make it the basis of an interactive game or... you get the drift; this is exciting stuff!

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Drones, aerial imagery, 3D models and VR.

I've been working a lot with drones and aerial imagery recently, and have been really enjoying myself. I'll be writing about a specific project I'm currently undertaking in another blog post, which will include pictures and 3D models. In this post, however, I wanted to jot down a few of the things that are possible with a cheap source of high-quality aerial imagery.

Satellite imagery is amazing; I have made use of it extensively in the past, and continue to do so today. For most applications, the only technical requirements needed to access and use satellite imagery are a good internet connection and a decent computing device.* Satellite imagery has its limitations though; between cheap, timely and high quality, you'll be lucky to get two out of three. This isn't necessarily a problem if you want to understand the movement of glaciers or look at how wetlands have vanished in a region. However, if you want high-quality data depicting a post-disaster site today to help plan humanitarian interventions tomorrow, you may have access to all the satellite imagery in the world but it isn't of much use if there are clouds covering the site.**

There are  applications that satellite imagery isn't suitable for; mapping small areas at a very high resolution, at a chosen time, is a task that drones are far better suited to.*** When I first started using drones, this was what I first thought of drones as: another source of aerial imagery with both advantages and disadvantages. However, prolonged use, lots of reading and lots of tinkering with various photogrammetry software packages has also made me aware of how much more than that they can be.

Drones aren't just flying toys; they're robots. They can be programmed to fly specific patterns while collecting data at specific points. In the case of imagery, which is the application I'm limiting this post to, mobile-based software tools such as DroneDeploy and Pix4Dcapture can make a drone collect imagery automatically over a large area. With a large number of images covering the same area, it's possible to create a very accurate 3D model with 1cm/pixel resolution or better.

For me, this is truly where it gets interesting. With this 3D model, it's possible to undertake formerly-laborious tasks, such as quantifying the biomass in a stand of trees, very easily; 3D models are great for volumetric analysis. It's also possible to use a 3D printer or CNC router to create a physical model, which would make a great art piece or communication tool. Finally, it's possible to use the 3D model as a basemap for a virtual reality experience set within the landscape. In combination with data on the local biodiversity, this could result in amazing products for conservation outreach and research.

*One of the reasons that led me into spatial analysis was that Landsat data became free to use in 2007, right when I was first learning how to use GIS.

** Another issue with satellite imagery used to be overpass times; no matter how large your budget for satellite imagery was, it was still possible that no satellite was in the right position to collect the imagery you wanted. That's rapidly changing; satellite imagery providers such as Planet state that their goal is to have enough satellites in orbit to image the Earth's entire surface once a day.

*** There's a lot of discussion about appropriate nomenclature; do we call them UAVs or drones? My take is that if it's a technical piece where the distinction between robots of various kinds (UAVs, UCAVs, AUVs, ROVs, UGVs) etc is important, then I use the acronyms; if it's just a placeholder for 'flying-robot-without-a-person-inside', I'm going to call it a drone.