Drones are being used in all aspects of personal and professional life and are rapidly increasing in popularity as the technologies develop. Drones are currently used for cinematography, emergency and first response, medical supply deliveries, mapping, security monitoring, agricultural spraying, infrastructure inspections, light shows, and competitive racing. Naturally, drone safety is of concern especially when operating near people, critical structures, moving traffic or controlled airspaces. For authorized operation (whether with VLOS, BVLOS or night operations) drone operators need to follow the requirements set out by the civil aviation authorities (CAA) worldwide including aspects of registration/ID, restricted operations and flight parameters, and safety performance assessments.
Biokinetics helps drone manufacturers, aftermarket suppliers and operators meet the latest CAA safety requirements, such as those issued by the FAA to address flight operations over people (OOP). Demonstration of compliance with the safety requirements is essential for OOP, where previously only exemption waivers were required. Compliance involves impact tests into a crash test dummy and all measurements must remain below the safe thresholds in the regulation.
Biokinetics has leveraged its decades of expertise in injury biomechanics and crash testing to develop a rigorous test methodology that fulfills the FAA’s requirements with a strong focus on the repeatability, traceability and confidence in the measurements. An innovative computer-controlled accelerator sled was developed to ensure that drone impacts speeds and strike locations are repeatable, and with the integrated software, results are immediate with associated low cost and quick response times.
