If you think Subaru was just a manufacturer of reliable, reasonably priced 4×4 cars, think again. The company started as Nakajima Aircraft Company more than 90 years ago producing aircraft. And now, renamed Subaru, but thanks to its experience and expertise in the aerospace field, the company has just been approved as the bearer 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 Japan Self-Defense Forces, aircraft boosters, and center wings for the Boeing 777 and Boeing 787. .
Now, in an unexpected development, Subaru, the maker of attack helicopters and a six-bladed flying car concept, learned last October that the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) had accepted its proposals for anti-collision criteria for aerial vehicles. unmanned, or more. commonly called drones. This means that the regulations preventing drone collisions created through Subaru are the global standard.
“The approval procedure was long, but someone wanted to do it,” says Akihiro Yamane, general manager of Subaru’s aerospace engineering progression division. Ultimately, drones wanted protective rules for widespread global implementation, just like cars want traffic rules.
For those regulations to be accepted globally, they first had to pass 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 in London.
The collision avoidance procedure used through Subaru is made up of six steps: check for possible obstacles, detect aircraft, take evasive action, confirm if other aircraft are approaching, return to the original route, and continue on that specific route.
Subaru learned early on that the proliferation of drones brought increased risks of mid-air collisions, as evidenced by accidents, the 2017 collision of a civilian drone and a Black Hawk helicopter in New York City, a collision in the air between a drone and a hot vehicle in a hot air balloon 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 convinced it would win because they believed that the inclusion of more specific stages in the regulations would hinder technological development. The working group adopted the Japanese proposal after the Subaru-led team persuaded members of the group of the benefits of their plan.
The next obstacle was a subcommittee that determined whether or not the proposed regulations should be put to a full vote. Strategically, that crucial decision would be made by 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 witness a drone verify its stopover in Japan in 2019.
This inspired the president to the point that he ended up protecting Subaru’s rules. In the end, 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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