PrecisionHawk eyes an air traffic control system for drones

With companies like Amazon and Google pushing for commercial use of drones, the U.S. government is under tremendous pressure to develop a control system that keeps order when hordes of drones flock to the skies. Professional drone-maker PrecisionHawk is one of the companies working on this problem. At the drone Data X Conference in San Francisco last week, the company showed off LATAS (Low Altitude Traffic and Airspace Safety), a system which uses cell networks and satellites to map the flying area around a drone and ensure that is has a clear airspace. Such systems are vital if commercial drone services such as package delivery, photography and surveying are to get off the ground. Current regulations restrict drone use to line-of-sight and impose restrictions on flight that could be eased if safety is assured. "We are taking lots of satellite data that we collect via satellites and we are processing that data into a very high resolution, 3D map of the Earth.