DJI Aeroscope Helps Track Inflight Drones

DJI just took a bold step in the direction of safety with the announcement of the new DJI Aeroscope.

Drone makers are often caught in between two very demanding groups; officials who want to protect the integrity of the National Airspace and drone enthusiast who may have concerns about other people seeing what they are doing with their own property.

Safety and privacy are on opposite ends of the scale and regulators are looking to manufacturers to keep them in balance.  It’s a delicate dance with no clear way to keep all parties satisfied.  DJI’s new tool will help bridge that gap while offering officials an important new tool in an effort to reduce the likelihood of mid-air collisions, near misses, and other drone-related incidents. In doing so, it helps provide an additional sense of security that some feel will improve relations between drone operators and airport employees.

The Aeroscope does this by scanning the channels used for aircraft C2 (command & control) and looking for signals unique to drones. The system then interprets this signal to provide with basic information about the drone such as Serial Number, Aircraft Type, Telemetry Data, and even username and contact information (if the drone is registered.) While the system only recognizes DJI drones, for now, company representatives indicate that they are working on a way to see drones from other manufacturers as well.