US aviation regulators approved the first commercial flights of fully automated drones, granting a small Massachusetts-based company permission to operate drones without practical piloting or direct observation by human controllers or observers.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s decision limits the operation of automated drones to rural areas and altitudes below 120 meters, but is a potentially significant step in the expansion of commercial drone applications for farmers, utilities, mining companies and other customers.
It also represents another step in the FAA’s broader effort to authorize widespread flights, shifting exemptions on a case-by-case basis for specific vehicles that perform specific tasks.
In approval documents posted on a government website on Thursday, the FAA said that once such automated drone operations are conducted on a broader scale, they can mean “efficiencies for many of the industries that power our economy, such as agriculture, mining, transportation “and certain manufacturing segments.
The FAA previously allowed drones to inspect railroad tracks, pipelines and some industrial sites beyond the sight of pilots or observers on the ground, as long as these individuals were located relatively close.