NASA just awarded the NASA Small Business Innovation Research to the enterprise Near Earth Autonomy for software development Safe50 by which any drone that implements it is allowed to take off and land completely autonomously. Thanks to this award, according to those responsible for Near Earth Autonomy, they will be able to continue evolving, developing and, above all, perfecting this project.
Going into a little more detail, we find that Safe50, among other things, allows drones to be guided autonomously to maintain their safety at all times. first and last 15 meters of flight which in turn, as we have already mentioned, includes the take-off and landing phases. Another vitally important detail is that the software allows you to operate safely in areas plagued with obstacles without the need to use any type of georeferencing system.
Going into a little more detail, we learn that Safe50 has been jointly developed by Near Earth Autonomy and NASA's Ames Research Center. As has been advanced, the use of this software could be the first step so that both the FAA and NASA itself can allow drone flights out of sight of the operator. Not in vain, and according to the statements made by Sanjiv singh, CEO and co-founder of Near Earth Autonomy:
The requirements for the FAA to allow drone flights out of sight of the operator are three, that the device could survive if it loses the radio connection, if it is in its way with some type of obstacle, which has ability to dodge and that you can continue to operate normally even if your GPS system stops working.
Undoubtedly, through the use of this software, many of the problems that drones have today can be solved since, for the FAA, the main obstacle to solve lies precisely in those last 15 meters of operations where the drone should take off or land.