Drone maker's flights over people accelerated by Virginia Tech experts

Operators using a drone from the leading manufacturer in the U.S. can now conduct missions over people and vehicles much easier and with even greater confidence in their safety.

In January, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) accepted a declaration of compliance for such flights for the parachute-equipped Skydio X10 drone from Skydio, a San Mateo, California-based company that supplies its drones to customers in public safety, utilities, and national security. The acceptance came as the result of working with Virginia Tech’s Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP) and Center for Injury Biomechanics to complete their FAA-approved means of compliance testing. 

“MAAP is an FAA-designated test site with an excellent reputation for drone-related research and unique expertise in drone impact testing through Virginia Tech’s Center for Injury Biomechanics,” said Jenn Player, Skydio’s vice president of aviation regulatory affairs. “They also developed an FAA-accepted means for demonstrating compliance with Part 107 [Operations over People], including safety evaluations and test methodologies that account for parachute systems. That combination made MAAP the ideal partner for Skydio.”

Part 107 refers to the FAA’s regulations for the use of drones or small unmanned aircraft systems for commercial purposes. Under 107, an operator must avoid flying over people or moving vehicles, making many operations difficult to conduct. However, the regulation also has a method for demonstrating that a drone is safe to operate over people or vehicles, a test method referred to as a means of compliance with an accompanying declaration of passing the test.

“The declaration clears the way for customers of the Skydio X10 to operate over people and vehicles without waiting for individual flight waivers,” Player said. “By enabling operations in populated and dynamic environments that were previously off limits, it removes a major regulatory hurdle and opens up new possibilities.”

In 2021, the Virginia Tech researchers were the first group to have a means of compliance for satisfying the rule’s requirements approved by the FAA, and a year later, the first drone using it was approved. 

During the past year, they have helped other companies demonstrate similar FAA-approved means of compliances, including Sinclair Broadcast Group and the global real estate company CoStar Group Inc. MAAP Chief Engineer Robert Briggs said one of the aspects that made the Skydio X10 stand out was the incorporation of a parachute.

“We worked with the FAA for a couple years and got approval to add parachutes into our means of compliance testing, but this is the first one we’ve done,” Briggs said. “It helped us learn some of what we didn’t know, and now that we’ve successfully done it, we’re definitely well positioned to test more drones with parachutes, which is exciting.” 

Throughout the testing, MAAP and colleagues in the Center for Injury Biomechanics, which is a part of the College of Engineering, and the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab collaborated to determine how the aircraft is most likely to fail and the possible resulting damage. Both the MAAP and the Helmet Lab are part of Virginia Tech’s Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science. 

“The same biomechanical principles we use to prevent sports injuries apply to aviation,” said Steve Rowson, director of the Helmet Lab. “We work closely with MAAP to determine the typical worst case failure impact conditions and replicate them with a custom-built drone launcher that can pretty much hit any speed we need it to.”

At the end of the launcher’s 16-foot track, the drone is briefly released into free flight before crashing into a test dummy equipped with head and neck sensors that record a variety of specific impacts. This allows the researchers to evaluate how the drone’s weight, build, and components will react and what damage they could cause from a real-life blunt impact.    

“So what happens if a drone directly hits someone?” said Rowson, who is also a professor of biomedical engineering. “We’re looking at how rigid the drone is. Does it deflect any? Does it compress? Some drones are made out of softer materials that could essentially work the same way a helmet does to reduce injury by reducing the energy transferred to the person.”

That information is then provided to the FAA to show compliance to the Part 107 operations over people rule, as well as to manufacturers to help them best modify their drones to reduce risk as much as possible. 

“When we designed the means of compliance testing, we were deliberate in making sure it was below a certain injury threshold,” Briggs said. “We’re not just trying to check an FAA box, we want to ensure we do everything we can to make sure drones are designed in as safe a manner as possible.”

Player said Skydio's achieving this milestone will benefit all of their customers and especially the more than 1,000 public safety agencies across the country who often use their drones in busy and time-critical environments. Among those are the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the New York Police Department, the San Francisco Police Department, and the Oklahoma City Police Department.

Briggs said Skydio’s connection to such first responders is the type of mission MAAP enjoys supporting and aligns well with the Test Site’s responsibilities.  

“MAAP is all about ensuring the safe integration of drones into U.S. airspace, and part of that is keeping people on the ground safe,” Briggs said.