UK tech startup claims “world first” with air traffic control system for drones

Cloud based software that offers real-time air traffic control for drones, could help address the growing safety concerns prompted by recent “near-misses” its developers have claimed.

Airspace Alerts, designed by software engineers at UK startup Altitude Angel, enables drone operators to specify ‘alert regions’ that the firm’s cloud platform monitors in real-time for low-flying manned aircraft, proactively sending a push notification via email or SMS to the drone operator to ensure they have time to move out of the way safely.

The technology watches aviation traffic globally in real-time, aggregating data from multiple sources. It receives around 12 million messages every minute, which are then filtered to provide updates on low-altitude air traffic (below 800m) – the kind that drone users need to be aware of.

“Once we have a filtered set of aircraft data, we perform analysis to determine if the aircraft’s trajectory is likely to encroach on an area our users are flying within, and can tell the drone operator where to look – and when – to help them avoid being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Richard Parker, founder and CEO of Altitude Angel.