This October, AUVSI held their annual regional event, The New England UAS and AAM Summit at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Industry leaders from the New England area and beyond came together to discuss the latest trends, biggest challenges, and current projects related to Advanced Air Mobility and the integration of autonomous systems into their workflows.

This event and its sessions homed in on what is happening at a state level in terms of drone and AAM operations, what needs to be done to gain widespread adoption, and how we can set up each state for success in the future. Speakers included drone pilots, local government officials, investors, the FAA, and OEMs. Conversations at this event all tied back to what are the unique needs of each state where it would make sense to implement some type of drone program. There was also a large emphasis on the need for educating the public and supporting the younger generation who will support the drone industry in the future.

Here are four key take aways from the event:

1. Establish best practices for working with the FAA

Working with the FAA is a critical step towards success in creating an AAM operation. To make this step as smooth and efficient as possible, it’s important to be direct and transparent with what your plans are.

Trevor Woods, Executive Director at Northern Plains UAS Test Site shared with the audience his team’s experience with building a relationship with the FAA as they expanded their operations. “We strive to be one step ahead, having direct asks and bringing forward real ideas versus speculative ones, and once you have approval, being very transparent about the progress of the project,” said Woods. “We constantly leave that door open to allow the FAA to come and observe and participate in all parts of our process.”

2. Show How Drone Operations Benefit the Community

Drone operations in public areas are still a foreign idea to most communities. People are likely to reject an idea if they are not aware of how it is benefiting them. Having the opportunity to educate the community on how your AAM operation is bringing value to that specific demographic will lead to support and acceptance.

For example, Massachusetts DOT conducts aerial inspections of commuter rails often, “We’ve had over 5,000 BVLOS flights over the MBTA lines to do inspections and collect data” explains Robin Grace, Chief of Advanced Air Mobility Integration and Strategy at MassDOT. This included an inspection flight in response to a parking garage collapse that affected a line of the railway last year. Having that inspection was vital in getting that line up and running again. While the public may not be aware of these drone operations, they are crucial in maintaining the MBTA lines that serve hundreds of thousands of commuters each day. Without this maintenance, there would be a major disruption in this commuter rail which serves upwards of 800,000 riders a day.

We continue to see these drones for good use cases throughout the country, especially in the wake of natural disasters. This year, drones were relied on in hurricane relief efforts after Hurricanes Milton and Helen. Drones provided critical storm data and aided in rescue and recovery missions post storm. In these instances where the land has been completely resurfaced and there is debris everywhere, ground crews look to aerial solutions to get a better view of the area and to aid in finding missing people. Crews used drones with thermal imaging to spot missing people who were trapped under debris piles where they otherwise would not have been seen.

3. Getting Local Government on Board

As drone inspections become more common, a hurdle many companies face is dealing with local governments and zoning laws. This is another area where education and verbiage in legal documents can make a significant difference in project efficiency. Addison Ferrell, Director of Infrastructure & Head of Americas at Skyports explained the need behind this educational gap and how to help the issue. “Local government is an important stakeholder because licensing and permits are at a local level,” Ferell said. “We need to get the local government educated on aviation and show them that it’s not something to fear. Even something as small as adding the term ‘vertiport’ into zoning documents will make a huge difference being able to build somewhere.”

4. Addressing Fear of Autonomous Solutions

One of the largest barriers to adoption is a lack of public acceptance of autonomous solutions. In a lot of cases, the public includes key stakeholders like local government officials and organizations that could reap the benefits of AAM solutions. Education around AAM programs is crucial for understanding, acceptance, and adoption.

Beyond the uncertainty of seeing drones fly overhead, the other fear factor is the autonomous system that might be operating that drone. The idea of having zero human factors in a system, especially one that is operating an aircraft, has become controversial. The question has become “is it truly autonomous if there is human oversight?”

Speakers at the event discussed what exactly this means. “Removing the human as a backup means you’ve reached true autonomy. We are used to having a pilot to fall back on. We must get pass this and let the system be the last authority” states Parker Vasick, Autonomy Systems Architect at Joby Aviation. Other speakers agreed with this sentiment, noting that with resistance comes change. “To combat this resistance to automation, we must allow people to push the envelope. The more people pushing this problem the more it will succeed,” said Rese Drucker, Director of Product Management at DroneUp.

Others argued that there needs to be a human in the loop somewhere to be accepted. There is trust behind a pilot who has had thousands of hours of experience to be the supervisor of the system.

As an industry, it is our responsibility to educate the public on the many benefits that drones and autonomous systems can offer to eradicate prevailing fears. By shifting the narrative from fear to the understanding of the vital role drones can play, we can foster a more positive perspective. Through increased education and awareness, we can encourage the public to support the adoption of drone technology by agencies, recognizing its potential to improve their daily lives. This shift in mindset would be transformative, driving both the growth of the drone industry and accelerating the adoption of autonomous systems.