Drexel University Researchers Advising FAA Drone Regulators
By Ian Bush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- Amazon wants to use them to deliver packages. The White House has been locked down because of them. Drones promise revolution -- but the government says they require regulation, warning of increasing dangers in a crowded airspace.
That's where Drexel University comes in.
Drexel researchers and students are part of the team advising the feds on what to do about unmanned aircraft.
"A lot of research needs to be done before the FAA comes up with rules and regulations," says biomedical engineering professor Dr. Kurtulus Izzetoglu.
Izzetoglu says they're helping to sort out the human factors in drones. Air traffic controllers, for example, will have more on their plates.
"Now they have to communicate with those ground controllers which pilot those drones," he says. "So we have to make sure they're not overloaded."
To do that, Drexel monitors the brain activity of flight controllers, with testing happening at an FAA facility in Atlantic City.
Izzetoglu says they're working on similar tools for drone pilots for training and to check competence.
The FAA has proposed allowing businesses to fly drones below 500 feet and no faster than 100 miles an hour, with pilots certified by written test.
Recreational flights would remain unregulated -- at least at the federal level -- despite dangerous close calls with passenger aircraft, because of a 2012 law to exempt drone hobbyists from such rules.