DJI To Improve Airport Geofencing Of Its Drones

DJI’s drones have come with geofencing technology since 2013 but amid recent reports of drones causing disruptions at airports, the company has now decided to further improve the geofencing of its drones. Drones pose serious risks to airplanes and have caused numerous flight delays over the past few years as airports often have to shut down operations until they’re sure that no drones are in the flight path.

The new three-dimensional “bow tie” geofencing technology has been developed by an aviation technology company called Altitude Angel. It further expands the restricted zones for drones from just a two-dimensional circle to a larger three-dimensional zone. This technology will prevent DJI’s drones from flying close to major airports in Europe.

It’s called Geospatial Environment Online 2.0 and it relies on three different sizes of exclusion zone depending on the airport’s size. It restricts flights in an oval around the runway, adds an “Altitude Zone” at both ends of the airport while the last zone is three-dimensional. What that means is that the drone can still fly at lower altitudes once it’s far enough from the runway.

DJI says that the update will be coming to the United Kingdom as well as 32 European countries. The list includes 19 countries which previously had no geofencing support to begin with. The update will be available later this month.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: dji, Drones