If you think Subaru was just a maker of reasonably priced, reliable 4×4 cars, think again. The company began as Nakajima Aircraft Company more than 90 years ago producing airplanes. And now, renamed Subaru, but thanks to its expertise and experience in the aerospace field, the company has just been approved as a carrier of global popularity for drone safety.
Wait, let’s break down this story a bit. In more succinct terms, today, Subaru Corporation manufactures Subaru-branded automobiles, while its aerospace department still produces attack helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, educational aircraft, and the medium wings of the Boeing 777 and Boeing 787.
Now, in a surprising development, Subaru, the maker of attack choppers and a six-rotor blade flying concept car, received news last October that the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) accepted its proposed anti-collision standards for unmanned aerial vehicles, or more commonly known as drones. This means that rules preventing drone collisions created by Subaru have become the global standard.
“The approval procedure is long, but someone had to do it,” says Akihiro Yamane, general manager of Subaru’s aerospace engineering progression division. Ultimately, drones required large-scale protective regulations to be implemented on a global scale, just as cars want road regulations.
For those regulations to gain global acceptance, they first had to go through ISO’s multi-stage approval regime, a procedure that takes 3 to 4 years. Subaru partnered with Japan Radio and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) to present its proposal at the ISO 2019 foreign convention held in London.
Subaru’s collision avoidance procedure consists of six steps: check for possible obstacles, detect aircraft, take evasive action, confirm whether other aircraft are approaching, return to the original direction, and continue in that specific direction.
Subaru learned early on that the proliferation of drones led to increased risks of mid-air collisions, as evidenced by injuries, the 2017 collision of a civilian drone and a Black Hawk helicopter in New York, a mid-air collision between a drone and a hot vehicle. hot air balloon ride in Idaho in 2018 and the 2021 collision of a Cessna with a police drone in Ontario in 2021.
ISO’s international working group that reviewed Subaru’s proposed regulations exposed them to parties with conflicting interests. Subaru claims that South Korea unveiled its own proposed regulations with more detailed protocols for preventing crashes.
The Japanese side, however, was confident of victory because it believed that adding more express measures in regulations would hinder technological development. The organization followed the Japanese proposal after the Subaru-led team convinced members of the organization of the benefits of their plan.
The next hurdle was a subcommittee tasked with determining whether or not the proposed regulations would be put to a full vote. Strategically, this very important resolution would be made through experts from the United States, South Korea, China and other countries.
The Subaru team had been preparing behind the scenes and took the opportunity to invite the chair of the ISO subcommittee to attend a drone verification at their stopover in Japan in 2019.
They inspired the president so much that he ended up advocating for Subaru’s rules. Ultimately, the regulations were voted on by ISO members, approved and officially identified as global criteria in October last year.
From drones to those used for the delivery of medical materials and packages, mapping and fertilizer application, they are being used more now that protective regulations have been implemented. Subaru aims to meet global demand and commercialize its collision-avoidance technology in an ever-growing network of drones manufactured through corporations such as China’s DJI, Croatia’s Orqa, U. S. AeroVironment, and the U. S. UU. , Jothrough y Skydio, PowerVision en China, Parrot y Delair en Francia y Flyability. in Switzerland.
Meanwhile passenger drones, or electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, such as Subaru’s Air Mobility Concept or Joby’s flying car, should be subject to the same drone collision prevention regulations as standard drones, says Yamane. That makes sense to us.
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