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Operational Concept for Deployment of Drones on the TfNSW Transport Network

T MU AM 06015 TI

Technical Information

Version 1.0

Issue date: 05 December 2018

© State of NSW through Transport for NSW 2018

NOT NSW

GOVERNMENT POLIC

Y

T MU AM 06015 TI Operational Concept for Deployment of Drones on the TfNSW Transport Network

Version 1.0 Issue date: 05 December 2018

Important message This document is one of a set of standards developed solely and specifically for use on

Transport Assets (as defined in the Asset Standards Authority Charter). It is not suitable for any

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You must not use or adapt this document or rely upon it in any way unless you are providing

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Standard governance

Owner: Manager Systems Engineering Process, Asset Standards Authority

Authoriser: Chief Engineer, Asset Standards Authority

Approver: Executive Director, Asset Standards Authority on behalf of the ASA Configuration Control Board

Document history

Version Summary of changes

1.0 First issue

© State of NSW through Transport for NSW 2018 of 93



Preface The Asset Standards Authority (ASA) is a key strategic branch of Transport for NSW (TfNSW).

As the network design and standards authority for NSW Transport Assets, as specified in the

ASA Charter, the ASA identifies, selects, develops, publishes, maintains and controls a suite of

requirements documents on behalf of TfNSW, the asset owner.

The ASA deploys TfNSW requirements for asset and safety assurance by creating and

managing TfNSW's governance models, documents and processes. To achieve this, the ASA

focuses on four primary tasks:

• publishing and managing TfNSW's process and requirements documents including TfNSW

plans, standards, manuals and guides

• deploying TfNSW's Authorised Engineering Organisation (AEO) framework

• continuously improving TfNSW’s Asset Management Framework

• collaborating with the Transport cluster and industry through open engagement

The AEO framework authorises engineering organisations to supply and provide asset related

products and services to TfNSW. It works to assure the safety, quality and fitness for purpose of

those products and services over the asset's whole-of-life. AEOs are expected to demonstrate

how they have applied the requirements of ASA documents, including TfNSW plans, standards

and guides, when delivering assets and related services for TfNSW.

Compliance with ASA requirements by itself is not sufficient to ensure satisfactory outcomes for

NSW Transport Assets. The ASA expects that professional judgement be used by competent

personnel when using ASA requirements to produce those outcomes.

About this document

This document provides a broad description of the operational concepts associated with the

deployment and application of drone technology to a broad range of use cases across the

Transport cluster and its operating agencies.

This operational concept should be treated as an informative document to guide development of

future drone policy, standards and procedures for the Transport cluster, and it does not imply

current TfNSW or NSW Government policy.

This document has been prepared by the ASA in accordance with T MU AM 06008 ST

Operations Concept Definition and T MU AM 06008 GU Operations Concept Definition, and in

consultation with TfNSW, its operating agencies and relevant drone industry stakeholders in

government and the private sector.

This document is the first issue.




Table of contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 10

2. Purpose .................................................................................................................................................. 11 2.1. Scope ................................................................................................................................................... 11 2.2. Application ........................................................................................................................................... 12

3. References ............................................................................................................................................. 12

4. Terms and definitions ........................................................................................................................... 14

5. Operational context and environment ................................................................................................. 16 5.1. Regulatory framework .......................................................................................................................... 17 5.2. The Internet of Things .......................................................................................................................... 17 5.3. Big data and predictive analytics ......................................................................................................... 18 5.4. Transport modes and operations ......................................................................................................... 18 5.5. Smart cities .......................................................................................................................................... 19 5.6. Other air traffic ..................................................................................................................................... 19 5.7. Fixed infrastructure .............................................................................................................................. 19 5.8. Terrain .................................................................................................................................................. 20 5.9. Weather ............................................................................................................................................... 20 5.10. Vegetation ........................................................................................................................................ 21 5.11. Wildlife ............................................................................................................................................. 21 5.12. Security, crime and terrorism ........................................................................................................... 21 5.13. Electromagnetic environment .......................................................................................................... 21 5.14. Licensing and competence .............................................................................................................. 22 5.15. Insurance ......................................................................................................................................... 22 5.16. Maritime and riverine environment .................................................................................................. 22

6. Operational benefits .............................................................................................................................. 22 6.1. Risk reduction ...................................................................................................................................... 22 6.2. Cost saving .......................................................................................................................................... 23 6.3. Time saving.......................................................................................................................................... 23 6.4. Improvement of resource utilisation ..................................................................................................... 24 6.5. Improvement of construction assurance .............................................................................................. 24 6.6. Improvement of asset and personal security ....................................................................................... 24 6.7. Improvement of asset condition assurance ......................................................................................... 24 6.8. Improvement of asset maintenance activities ...................................................................................... 24 6.9. Improvement of environmental and land use management ................................................................ 25 6.10. Improvement of public-facing communications ............................................................................... 25 6.11. Improvement of vegetation management ........................................................................................ 25 6.12. Improvement of disaster site management ..................................................................................... 25 6.13. Improvement of certain worker skills and training ........................................................................... 25 6.14. Improvement of data collection ........................................................................................................ 26 6.15. Improvement of sustainability .......................................................................................................... 26 6.16. Improvement of public safety ........................................................................................................... 26 6.17. Provision of novel transport solutions .............................................................................................. 27




7. Operational risks and disbenefits ........................................................................................................ 28 7.1. Risks .................................................................................................................................................... 28 7.2. Disbenefits ........................................................................................................................................... 29

8. Operational constraints ........................................................................................................................ 30 8.1. Geofencing........................................................................................................................................... 30 8.2. Weather ............................................................................................................................................... 30 8.3. Hours of operation ............................................................................................................................... 30 8.4. Remote operation range ...................................................................................................................... 30 8.5. Endurance............................................................................................................................................ 31 8.6. Weight .................................................................................................................................................. 31 8.7. Size ...................................................................................................................................................... 31 8.8. Altitude ................................................................................................................................................. 32 8.9. Security ................................................................................................................................................ 32 8.10. Noise ................................................................................................................................................ 32 8.11. Privacy ............................................................................................................................................. 32 8.12. Human proximity .............................................................................................................................. 32 8.13. Community acceptance ................................................................................................................... 32 8.14. Human factors ................................................................................................................................. 33 8.15. Health and safety ............................................................................................................................. 33 8.16. Airspace ownership ......................................................................................................................... 34 8.17. Insurance coverage ......................................................................................................................... 34 8.18. Radio bandwidth availability ............................................................................................................ 34 8.19. Training and competence ................................................................................................................ 34

9. Operational actors ................................................................................................................................. 34 9.1. Drone mission owner ........................................................................................................................... 35 9.2. Drone pilot............................................................................................................................................ 37 9.3. Drone remote observer ........................................................................................................................ 37 9.4. Drone maintainer ................................................................................................................................. 38 9.5. Accident investigator ............................................................................................................................ 38 9.6. Air traffic control ................................................................................................................................... 38 9.7. P2P last mile drone passenger ............................................................................................................ 38 9.8. P2P last mile freight drone customer ................................................................................................... 38

10. Operational assets and facilities .......................................................................................................... 39 10.1. The drone......................................................................................................................................... 39 10.2. Remote pilot station ......................................................................................................................... 40 10.3. Mobile devices ................................................................................................................................. 40 10.4. Mission payload ............................................................................................................................... 40 10.5. Transport drone despatcher station ................................................................................................. 40 10.6. Differential GPS reference station ................................................................................................... 40 10.7. Stabling facility ................................................................................................................................. 41 10.8. Maintenance facility ......................................................................................................................... 41 10.9. Charging or fuelling facility ............................................................................................................... 41

11. Operational use cases .......................................................................................................................... 41




11.1. Asset management .......................................................................................................................... 41 11.2. Enforcement..................................................................................................................................... 43 11.3. Traffic monitoring ............................................................................................................................. 44 11.4. Transport solution ............................................................................................................................ 45 11.5. Disaster management ...................................................................................................................... 46 11.6. Environmental and heritage management ....................................................................................... 47 11.7. Insurance claim validation ............................................................................................................... 49 11.8. Entertainment .................................................................................................................................. 50 11.9. Crash lab analysis ........................................................................................................................... 50 11.10. Logistics management ..................................................................................................................... 50 11.11. Portable vehicle battery charging .................................................................................................... 50 11.12. Public communications and advertising .......................................................................................... 50 11.13. Telecommunications infill ................................................................................................................. 50 11.14. Parking management ....................................................................................................................... 51 11.15. Safety management ......................................................................................................................... 51

12. Operational interfaces ........................................................................................................................... 51 12.1. Surveyor<->drone ............................................................................................................................ 52 12.2. Construction site supervisor<->drone .............................................................................................. 53 12.3. Construction inspector<->drone ...................................................................................................... 54 12.4. Security officer<->drone .................................................................................................................. 54 12.5. Asset maintainer<->drone ............................................................................................................... 55 12.6. Disaster site manager<->drone ....................................................................................................... 56 12.7. Emergency services<->drone .......................................................................................................... 57 12.8. P2P passenger<->despatcher<->drone .......................................................................................... 57 12.9. P2P freight customer<->despatcher<->drone ................................................................................. 58 12.10. Accident investigator<->drone ......................................................................................................... 59

13. Operational modes ................................................................................................................................ 59 13.1. Normal mode ................................................................................................................................... 59 13.2. Degraded mode ............................................................................................................................... 59 13.3. Emergency mode ............................................................................................................................. 60

14. Operational scenarios ........................................................................................................................... 60 14.1. Mission planning .............................................................................................................................. 60 14.2. Mission payload selection and setup ............................................................................................... 61 14.3. Mission payload integration ............................................................................................................. 61 14.4. Launch and ascent .......................................................................................................................... 62 14.5. Transit to site or destination ............................................................................................................. 63 14.6. Control handover ............................................................................................................................. 63 14.7. Interaction with air traffic control ...................................................................................................... 64 14.8. Identification to third parties ............................................................................................................. 64 14.9. Visual line-of-sight (VLOS) operations ............................................................................................ 65 14.10. Extended visual line-of-sight (EVLOS) operations .......................................................................... 65 14.11. Beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations ............................................................................. 66 14.12. Cyber attack scenario ...................................................................................................................... 66 14.13. Jamming attack scenario ................................................................................................................. 67 © State of NSW through Transport for NSW 2018 of 93



14.14. Criminal or terrorist attack ................................................................................................................ 67 14.15. Drone swarms .................................................................................................................................. 69 14.16. Landing ............................................................................................................................................ 69 14.17. Mission data download .................................................................................................................... 70 14.18. Drone maintenance ......................................................................................................................... 70 14.19. Drone incident investigation ............................................................................................................. 71 14.20. Specific drone mission scenarios .................................................................................................... 72

Appendix A Drone use cases ................................................................................................................ 82 A.1. Use case 1: survey .............................................................................................................................. 83 A.2. Use case 2: vegetation management .................................................................................................. 84 A.3. Use case 3: construction site inspection ............................................................................................. 85 A.4. Use case 4: maintenance inspection ................................................................................................... 86 A.5. Use case 5: disaster site management ............................................................................................... 87 A.6. Use case 6: P2P passenger-carrying .................................................................................................. 88 A.7. Use case 7: composite use case ......................................................................................................... 89 A.8. 'Day in the life of' (DITLO) generic operational scenarios ................................................................... 90 A.9. P2P passenger service - possible DITLO operational scenario (speculative - refer to 14.20.10) ....... 91 A.10. P2P freight service - possible DITLO operational scenario (speculative - refer to 14.20.11) ......... 92 A.11. Disaster site management - possible DITLO operational scenario (speculative - refer to 14.20.7) 93

Table of figures Figure 1 - Operational context and environment ............................................................................................. 16

Figure 2 - Conceptual sketch of the 'Internet of Things' .................................................................................. 18 Figure 3 - Proposed airspace segmentation into drone operating zones ........................................................ 45

Figure 4 - Vegetation management applications for drones........................................................................... 49

Figure 5 - Operational interfaces ..................................................................................................................... 52

Figure 6 - Survey drone mission operational interfaces .................................................................................. 53

Figure 7 - Construction supervision drone mission operational interfaces ...................................................... 53 Figure 8 - Construction inspection drone mission operational interfaces ........................................................ 54

Figure 9 - Security drone mission operational interfaces ................................................................................ 55

Figure 10 - Asset maintenance inspection drone mission operational interfaces ........................................... 55

Figure 11 - Disaster or incident management drone operational interfaces ................................................... 57

Figure 12 - P2P autonomous passenger drone operational interfaces ........................................................... 58

Figure 13 - P2P autonomous mini-freight drone operational interfaces .......................................................... 59 Figure 14 - Mission owner briefs mission plan to drone pilot .......................................................................... 61

Figure 15 - Mission owner selects and configures mission payload ............................................................... 61

Figure 16 - Integration of mission payload onto drone .................................................................................... 62

Figure 17 - Drone launch and ascent phase ................................................................................................... 62

Figure 18 - Drone transit to site or destination ................................................................................................ 63

Figure 19 - Handing over control from one pilot to another ............................................................................. 63 Figure 20 - Interacting with air traffic control ................................................................................................... 64




Figure 21 - Communicating with third parties .................................................................................................. 64 Figure 22 - EVLOS operations ........................................................................................................................ 65

Figure 23 - BVLOS operations ........................................................................................................................ 66

Figure 24 - Cyber attack of drone .................................................................................................................... 67

Figure 25 - Radio frequency jamming of drone ............................................................................................... 67

Figure 26 - Criminal or terrorist drone attack ................................................................................................... 68

Figure 27 - Drone swarms ............................................................................................................................... 69 Figure 28 - Landing the drone ......................................................................................................................... 70

Figure 29 - Mission data download and analysis ............................................................................................ 70

Figure 30 - Maintenance interactions with the drone ...................................................................................... 71

Figure 31 - Drone incident investigation .......................................................................................................... 71

Figure 32 - Use case 1 - survey ...................................................................................................................... 83 Figure 33 - Use case 2 - vegetation management .......................................................................................... 84

Figure 34 - Use case 3 - construction site inspection ...................................................................................... 85

Figure 35 - Use case 4 - maintenance inspection ........................................................................................... 86

Figure 36 - Use case 5 - disaster site management ........................................................................................ 87

Figure 37 - Use case 6 - P2P passenger-carrying .......................................................................................... 88

Figure 38 - Use case 7 - composite use case - all uses .................................................................................. 89 Figure 39 - DITLO generic operational scenarios ........................................................................................... 90

Figure 40 - P2P passenger service - possible DITLO operational scenario ................................................... 91

Figure 41 - P2P freight service - possible DITLO operational scenario .......................................................... 92

Figure 42 - Disaster site management - possible DITLO operational scenario............................................... 93




1. Introduction The Transport cluster, including TfNSW and its operating agencies, private entities and

statutory offices, is constantly and proactively seeking to innovate, improve delivery of transport

services, and manage its assets more efficiently and effectively. The increasing capability and

deployment of drones in the twenty-first century has extended from military applications to the

commercial sector, including transport.

Application of drone technology offers an opportunity to address some of these challenges but

in order to do so, we need to understand how drones could be expected to be applied and

operated on the TfNSW Transport Network conceptually, while maintaining or potentially

improving the integrity and safety of the TfNSW Transport Network.

Deployment and trials of drone technology has started across the Transport cluster, in particular

Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), Sydney Metro and Sydney Trains as operating agencies,

and can solicit interest from other industries and organisations.

The Smart Innovation Centre in Freight, Strategy and Planning has prepared a white paper on

drones addressing whether and how TfNSW should play a role in aerial drone deployment.

The Transport Policy Group in Freight, Strategy and Planning has made written submissions to

the federal inquiry on drones, and to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), that will lead to

future policy development.

There has been engagement with a NSW whole-of-government group that was established to

consider the approach to drone operations and associated data management across NSW state

government organisations, coordinated by the Department of Finance, Services and Innovation

(Spatial Services). This group subsequently evolved into the Sensor Platform Working Group to

address sharing of spatial data from multiple sensor platforms, including drones.

At a national level, there has been engagement with the Queensland Government (Department

of the Premier and Cabinet) to share experiences in the development of their Drones Strategy

(Discussion Paper) and to comment on the TfNSW approach as articulated in this document.

Due to the rapidly evolving environment of drone technology and application, this document

should be considered a live document that will be periodically reviewed and updated.

Unless specifically defined or paraphrased directly from a reference, the word 'drone' is used

throughout this document to mean the following:

• 'remotely piloted aircraft' (RPA)

• ‘remotely piloted aircraft system’ (RPAS)

• 'remotely piloted vehicle' (RPV)

• 'unmanned aircraft' (UA)

• 'unmanned air system' (UAS)




• 'unmanned aerial vehicle' (UAV)

2. Purpose The purpose of this document is to identify and describe at a conceptual level the current and

short term (<5 year range) operational users, use cases and operational scenarios for drones, in

order to inform deployment and management of drone use across a range of applications.

This document is intended in part to respond to the drivers mentioned in Section 1, as well as to

proactively anticipate future innovation and technological drivers of change related to drones.

This document is intended to inform policy and regulation, including standards and procedures

for safe and effective deployment of drones across multiple application use cases throughout

the Transport cluster.

The content of this document represents early research developed and articulated by Transport

cluster stakeholders for the purpose of informing future policy design and deployment in relation

to drone use and deployment.

Note: Views and matters expressed in this document when first published do not as

yet represent TfNSW or NSW Government policy or a position on future drone usage.

2.1. Scope This document establishes an overall operational concept for drones, their use and operations

by the NSW public transport cluster in support of its business operations.

In the context of this document, drones are unmanned aerial vehicles that may be remotely

piloted by a human pilot or operate autonomously.

This document explores the problem and not the solution, for drone deployment across the

Transport cluster. No specific technical solution should be implied from this document.

This document explores the operational concept for drones deployed in the following uses:

• asset management (across the entire asset life cycle)

• security and enforcement

• disaster management (limited to TfNSW services and operations)

• environmental management (limited to the TfNSW context)

• transport (point to point (P2P) passenger or freight)

Drones are one of many means to achieve an outcome, and the mission and associated data

generated by a drone should be the central focus in the consideration of drones as a tool.




2.2. Application This document applies to the Transport cluster including TfNSW and its operating agencies, and

is intended for use by these parties and their authorised supply chain.

The content of this document represents early thinking and research developed and articulated

by the ASA for the purpose of informing future policy design and deployment in relation to the

potential for drone technologies. The potential use cases and scenarios described in this

document do not necessarily represent future TfNSW or NSW Government policy or position on

the subject of drone deployment.

3. References The following documents are cited in the text. For dated references, only the cited edition

applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document applies.

Transport for NSW standards

T MU AM 06008 ST Operations Concept Definition (standard)

T MU AM 06008 GU Operations Concept Definition (guide)

Legislation

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979 (Cwlth)

CASA 96/17 - Direction — operation of certain unmanned aircraft (Cwlth)

Civil Aviation Act 1988 (Cwlth)

Civil Aviation Safety Regulations (CASR) 1998, Part 101 (Cwlth)

Crimes Act 1900 (NSW)

Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cwlth)

Cybercrime Act 2001 (Cwlth)

National Security Information (Criminal and Civil Proceedings) Act 2004 (Cwlth)

Privacy Act 1988 (Cwlth)

Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997

Radiocommunications Act 1992 (Cwlth)

Rail Safety (Adoption of National Law) Act 2012

Roads Act 1993

Surveillance Devices Act 2004 (Cwlth)

Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (Cwlth)




Other reference documents

Airbus 2017, Pop.Up: seamless urban mobility, viewed 13 June 2018,

http://www.airbus.com/newsroom/news/en/2017/03/PopUp.html

Airbus and Italdesign 2017, Pop.Up modular autonomous car / drone hybrid concept by Airbus

and Italdesign, online video, viewed 13 June 2018,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7pFnMNFwDc

Australian Certified UAV Operators Inc. 2014, How do we see them: VLOS, EVLOS, BVLOS &

FPV? http://www.acuo.org.au/industry-information/terminology/how-do-we-see-them/

Boeing 2018, Boeing Unveils New Unmanned Cargo Air Vehicle Prototype, viewed 13 June

2018, http://boeing.mediaroom.com/2018-01-10-Boeing-Unveils-New-Unmanned-Cargo-Air-

Vehicle-Prototype

Civil Aviation Safety Authority 2018, Flying drones commercially, viewed 13 June 2018,

https://www.casa.gov.au/standard-page/flying-drones-commercially

DRONEBLY 2014, Quadcopter vs Hexacopter vs Octocopter: The Pros and Cons, viewed 13

June 2018, http://dronebly.com/quadcopter-vs-hexacopter-vs-octocopter-the-pros-and-cons

EHANG 2018a, EHANG 184 AAV Manned Flight Tests, online video, viewed 13 June 2018,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr1V-r2YxME

EHANG 2018b, EHANG 184 Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV), viewed 13 June 2018,

http://www.ehang.com/ehang184/

Freeze Lists 2016, 4 Ways To Take Down Illegal Drones, online video, viewed 13 June 2018,

https://youtu.be/X27-2WDIZR0

Govtech 2014, Are Drones the Future of Firefighting?, viewed 13 June 2018,

http://www.govtech.com/em/disaster/Drones-Future-Firefighting.html

Intel 2018a, Drone Light Shows Powered by Intel, viewed 13 June 2018,

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/technology-innovation/aerial-technology-light-

show.html

Intel 2018b, Experience the Team in Flight at PyeongChang 2018, online video, viewed 13 June

2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCd6P7Ya160

Intelligent Aerospace 2018, Xcel Energy to fly unmanned helicopter beyond line of sight, a first

under FAA waiver, to inspect infrastructure, Aerospace Defense Media Group, viewed 13 June

2018, http://www.intelligent-aerospace.com/articles/2018/04/xcel-energy-to-fly-unmanned-

helicopter-beyond-line-of-sight-a-first-under-faa-waiver-to-inspect-infrastructure.html

Lilium 2018, The Lilium Jet, viewed 13 June 2018, https://lilium.com/mission/

Meeting and discussion with UAVAIR/Airsight Australia: 18 Lee St, 23 January 2018

Queensland Department of the Premier and Cabinet 2017, Queensland Drones Strategy

(Consultation Paper)


http://www.airbus.com/newsroom/news/en/2017/03/PopUp.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7pFnMNFwDc

http://www.acuo.org.au/industry-information/terminology/how-do-we-see-them/

http://boeing.mediaroom.com/2018-01-10-Boeing-Unveils-New-Unmanned-Cargo-Air-Vehicle-Prototype

http://boeing.mediaroom.com/2018-01-10-Boeing-Unveils-New-Unmanned-Cargo-Air-Vehicle-Prototype

https://www.casa.gov.au/standard-page/flying-drones-commercially

http://dronebly.com/quadcopter-vs-hexacopter-vs-octocopter-the-pros-and-cons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr1V-r2YxME

http://www.ehang.com/ehang184/

https://youtu.be/X27-2WDIZR0

http://www.govtech.com/em/disaster/Drones-Future-Firefighting.html

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/technology-innovation/aerial-technology-light-show.html

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/technology-innovation/aerial-technology-light-show.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCd6P7Ya160

http://www.intelligent-aerospace.com/articles/2018/04/xcel-energy-to-fly-unmanned-helicopter-beyond-line-of-sight-a-first-under-faa-waiver-to-inspect-infrastructure.html

http://www.intelligent-aerospace.com/articles/2018/04/xcel-energy-to-fly-unmanned-helicopter-beyond-line-of-sight-a-first-under-faa-waiver-to-inspect-infrastructure.html

https://lilium.com/mission/



Teleconference with Queensland Department of the Premier and Cabinet, 22 February 2018

Volocopter 2017, Company homepage, viewed 13 June 2018, https://www.volocopter.com/en/

4. Terms and definitions The following terms and definitions apply in this document:

3D three dimensional

ACMA Australian Communications and Media Authority

AGL above ground level

ATC air traffic control

ATSB Australian Transport Safety Bureau

BIM building information modelling (increasingly contextualised within digital engineering)

BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight); flying an unmanned aircraft without the remote pilot having

to keep the unmanned aircraft in visual line-of-sight at all times. Instead, the remote pilot flies

the aircraft by instruments from a remote pilot station. (Australian Certified UAV Operators Inc.)

CASA Civil Aviation Safety Authority (of Australia)

CAV connected and automated vehicle

CCTV closed circuit television

COW cell on wheels

DG dangerous goods

DITLO day in the life of

EAMS enterprise asset management system

EPA (NSW) Environment Protection Authority

EVLOS (extended visual line of sight); relates to the operating method whereby the remote pilot

in command relies on one or more remote observers to keep the unmanned aircraft in visual

sight at all times, relaying critical flight information via radio and assisting the remote pilot in

maintaining safe separation from other aircraft (manned or unmanned).

GNSS global navigation satellite system

GRN government radio network

HazMat hazardous materials

ICON infrastructure control (Sydney Trains)

IED improvised explosive device

IID improvised incendiary device


https://www.volocopter.com/en/



IoT Internet of Things; the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances and other

items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity which

enables these objects to connect and exchange data (Wikipedia, IoT)

IP internet protocol (a set of rules governing the format of data sent over the Internet)

ITP inspection and test plan (or procedures)

ITS intelligent transportation system

LIDAR light detection and ranging

MaaS mobility as a service

NSWPF New South Wales Police Force

P2P point to point

QA quality assurance

ReOC RPA Operators Certificate (issued by CASA)

RePL remote pilot license (issued by CASA)

RMC rail management centre (Sydney Trains)

RMS Roads and Maritime Services

ROC rail operations centre (Sydney Trains)

RPA remotely piloted aircraft (alternative and most commonly accepted definition for drone)

RPS remote pilot station

RPV remotely piloted vehicle (alternative definition for drone)

SES State Emergency Services

smart city an urban area that uses different types of electronic data collection sensors to

supply information used to manage assets and resources efficiently. (Wikipedia, Smart city)

SWMS safe work method statement

TfNSW Transport for New South Wales

TfNSW Transport Network the transport system (transport services and transport

infrastructure) owned and operated by TfNSW, its operating agencies or private entities upon

which TfNSW has power to exercise its functions as conferred by the Transport Administration

Act or any other Act.

TMC Transport Management Centre

UAS unmanned air system (alternative definition for drone)

UAV unmanned air vehicle (alternative definition for drone)

use case a list of actions or event steps typically defining the interactions between a role and a

system to achieve a goal. The actor can be a human or external system (Wikipedia, Use case)




VLOS visual line of sight (VLOS); the unmanned aircraft is in visual-line-of-sight of the remote

pilot in command at all times.

5. Operational context and environment Future drone operations need to be considered within a broader operational context that

includes the physical environment, other operators and the regulatory environment.

This section explores key areas where drone operations need to be contextualised.

Figure 1 shows a summary of the operational context and environment of a drone.


Figure 1 - Operational context and environment



Refer to Section 5.1 to Section 5.16 for contextual and environmental areas of consideration

when developing a plan for drone operations.

5.1. Regulatory framework Drones (in particular commercial drones) need to be licensed and to operate within a range of

existing and future legislation and regulations, including but not limited to the following:

• communications spectrum management legislation (regulating wireless frequencies),

including the Radiocommunications Act 1992 (Cwlth), and the Australian Communications

and Media Authority (ACMA)

• information and cyber security legislation, including the Australian Security Intelligence

Organisation Act 1979 (Cwlth), the National Security Information (Criminal and Civil

Proceedings) Act 2004 (Cwlth), the Surveillance Devices Act 2004 (Cwlth), the

Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (Cwlth), and the Cybercrime Act

2001 (Cwlth)

• aviation legislation, including the Civil Aviation Act 1988 (Cwlth), the Civil Aviation Safety

Regulations (CASR) 1998 (Cwlth), Part 101, and the CASA 96/17 - Direction — operation

of certain unmanned aircraft (Cwlth)

• environmental legislation, for example, noise pollution from drones

• privacy legislation, for example, operations over private residential areas

• transport safety legislation, for example, Rail Safety (Adoption of National Law) Act 2012,

and the Roads Act 1993, that may apply to operation of aerial drones

• criminal legislation associated with malicious or negligent use of drones, including the

Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) and the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cwlth)

Drones used for different purposes and operated by different entities may fall under different

regulations. For example, drones classified as 'delivery' drones should be treated differently to

ones classified as 'service' drones used in emergency situations, even though they both involve

delivering a package.

Drones operated differently, such as manual versus fully automated, and on-demand versus

scheduled service, may need to be regulated differently, similar to commercial and general

aviation being regulated to different standards.

5.2. The Internet of Things The development of low-cost digital devices that include different sensors, computing power

and internet protocol (IP)-based digital communications in a small package that can be

embedded in many areas, provides a data-rich and integrated environment and potential for

improved measurement, management and continuous optimisation of transport services,

vehicles and infrastructure.




Drones in use today operate over WiFi or similar wireless encoded data links and protocols, and

they have IP-enabled control systems and mission payloads.

Drones can thus be considered as ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) devices that may share data with

other IoT devices and systems to achieve an emergent outcome at the transport system level or

even at a broader city or societal level. Figure 2 shows a conceptual sketch of the IoT.

Figure 2 - Conceptual sketch of the 'Internet of Things'

5.3. Big data and predictive analytics Drones can provide real-time or post-processed data as valuable input to big data applications

for faster, more accurate transport enterprise and customer decision-making and analysis in

terms of service offerings and improvements, and strategic asset management decisions.

5.4. Transport modes and operations Drone deployment should be planned and executed within the context of existing and future

transport modal operations, including integration with those modes (where drones are used for

transport), and to ensure that they do not adversely affect safety, efficiency, and availability of

those modes. Transport modes that may be affected include the following:

• rail transport, including suburban commuter, rapid transit metro, and light rail services

• marine transport, including waterways and vessels, ferries and ferry terminals and wharves

as modal interchanges

• buses, including bus routes, stops, and interchanges

• roads and road vehicles, including viaducts, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), traffic

monitoring CCTV masts, digital signs, and connected and automated vehicles (CAVs)

• active transport corridors for cycling and walking

• air transport (civilian and military), including airport operations and active flight corridors




5.5. Smart cities A smart city or precinct is an urban area that uses different types of electronic data collection

sensors to supply information used to manage city or precinct assets and resources efficiently.

The smart city concept integrates information and communication technology, and various

physical devices connected to the network to optimise the efficiency of city operations and

services and connect to citizens.

Smart city technology allows city officials to interact directly with both community and city

infrastructure and to monitor what is happening in the city and how the city is evolving.

Drones within this context should be considered as IP-connected assets that exchange data

with other IP-connected city assets to achieve a wider emergent capability for the city.

This may include data collected from people, devices, and assets that is processed and

analysed to monitor and manage traffic and transportation systems, power distribution, water

supply networks, waste management, law enforcement, information systems, schools, libraries,

hospitals, and other community services.

Within the transport context of a smart city, an example of this integration could involve a traffic

monitoring drone (see use case 11.2) exchanging traffic video data and vehicle count, spacing

and speed data (using machine vision to identify and classify high road traffic congestion at an

intersection), with the metropolitan integrated intelligent traffic management system on the

ground, which in turn adjusts the timing of traffic lights to ease the congestion.

Drones will be useful in safety audits of hot spot intersections and along crash prone road

stretches.

5.6. Other air traffic Drones will need to operate safely and efficiently within the context of a range of other aircraft,

including traditional commercial and private fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft operating around

Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA)-regulated airspace, and other drones operated by second

or third parties near or over TfNSW transport services, assets and land.

Enforcement and monitoring of flying regulations is critical to the success of drone deployment

in the TfNSW Cluster.

5.7. Fixed infrastructure Drones will need to operate safely within the context of a range of Transport cluster and third

party fixed infrastructure, including but not limited to the following specific items:

• buildings and structures (bridges and viaducts)

• high voltage (HV) aerial transmission and distribution feeder towers and cables

• masts and mobile phone, radio and television repeater towers




• roads and road-related areas

• vessel masts and rigging, and vessel superstructure including barge cranes

This context may relate directly to constructing and maintaining these fixed infrastructure

assets, or to navigating around and avoiding collision or interference with them.

5.8. Terrain Drones may need to operate in variable geographic terrain conditions that may obscure visual

line-of-sight (VLOS) operations or present a terrain collision risk.

Terrain conditions will influence decisions as to the most effective piloting mode to use with

drones, that is, VLOS, extended visual line-of-sight (EVLOS) or beyond visual line-of-sight

(BVLOS) that will require more extensive and disciplined operational control processes.

5.9. Weather Drones may be required to operate in variable weather conditions that may adversely affect

drone flight control or the mission itself, including obscuring VLOS operations and creating a

crash risk. Adverse weather conditions may include, but are not limited to the following:

• cloud, fog, mist (condensates); obscures line-of-sight flying

• rain; obscures line-of-sight flying

• snow; obscures line-of-sight flying

• hail; drone damage and flight control stability affected

• wind; affects flying stability control

• dust and smoke (particulates); obscures line-of-sight flying

• night; reduces visibility for line-of-sight flying

• temperature extremes; reduced battery performance at near zero temperatures

The adverse weather conditions affect existing conventional aircraft, however they do have

additional sensors and systems to provide diverse inputs to aid the pilot in the flying and

decision making task.

Additionally, where drones are remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) operating under VLOS conditions,

it is difficult for the drone to observe and judge altitude, attitude, direction and speed under

obscured visibility conditions.

Where drones (in particular RPAs) are required to operate regardless of adverse weather,

suitable arrangements (technology, process, or people) will need to be in place to facilitate the

safe and effective operation of the drone.




5.10. Vegetation Drones will need to operate near various tall trees and bushes that could adversely affect safe

and efficient drone operations, such as risk of collision with trees, or obscuration of visual line-

of-sight by trees that leads to a collision with other aircraft or people.

5.11. Wildlife Lessons shared from drone operations for Hydro Tasmania revealed that birds of prey (wedge

tail eagles) may attack drones as a perceived threat and competitor for territory.

Drones may disturb or frighten certain wildlife due to the noise and the perception of the drone

as a potential threat. Drone operations will need to be sensitively planned in the context of these

wildlife interactions from an environmental assessment perspective.

5.12. Security, crime and terrorism Transport cluster drone operations need to consider the security environment, including the

following:

• cyber attack and jamming of the drone and associated data links

• physical (such as gun or other projectile weapon) attacks on drone operations

• use of drones by criminals and terrorists against Transport cluster assets and people

• trespass and incursion of personal hobby drones into sensitive Transport cluster areas

• management, regulations and licensing of freight transport of dangerous goods by drone

• minor infringements such as most traffic offences

There are international standards for dangerous goods (DG) transport in the context of air,

marine, rail and road transport, but the uniqueness of drones may warrant a new set of

definitions for DG transport. Anything can potentially be a deadly kinetic weapon due to gravity,

with heavier objects having the potential to be more deadly. The content of the delivery package

further increases risk of a package being dropped from the sky, whether intentional or not.

Minor infringements include violation of a no-fly zone, flying at the wrong altitude, flying

excessively fast or close to people or property, stalking a particular person or house, or

otherwise causing a nuisance or unnecessary risk to people and property.

5.13. Electromagnetic environment Drones and their wireless radio-based data links will need to operate safely and reliably in a

contested electromagnetic (EM) environment, in accordance with ACMA regulatory

requirements. This environment consists of many potential emitters that could interfere with and

adversely affect drone flight control and mission payload radio data links.

These EM sources include the following: © State of NSW through Transport for NSW 2018 of 93



• natural EM emissions, such as lightning

• unintended manmade EM emissions, such as RADARs, 3G/4G phones, WiFi hotspots

• intended hostile EM jammers, such as 3G/4G and WiFi jammers (see Section 5.12)

5.14. Licensing and competence Commercial drone operations across the TfNSW Transport Network will require individual drone

pilots to be licensed under the Remote Pilots License (RePL) scheme as regulated by CASA.

Additionally, the organisation that provides drone pilots, whether it is TfNSW and its operating

agencies, or a contracting drone operator, will need a Remote Operators Certificate (ReOC).

Demonstration of competence to pilot and operate drones is a mandatory requirement.

5.15. Insurance Commercial drone operations across the TfNSW Transport Network will require insurances

against damages claims resulting from drone operations, whether they are physical damages

due to drone collisions and crashes, or 'soft' damages such as invasion of privacy claims.

5.16. Maritime and riverine environment Drone operations may need to be conducted over water in a maritime or riverine environment

(on-shore and off-shore), which may present constraints in terms of conflicts with vessel

movements (in particular ferries in the TfNSW context) and the effects of sea air conditions.

6. Operational benefits The current and future extended use of drones across the TfNSW Transport Network identifies

a range of potential operational benefits to be exploited, including but not limited to those

benefits described in Section 6.1 to Section 6.15.

6.1. Risk reduction Drone operational risks may include safety, service disruption, business, environmental and

reputational risks.

From a safety risk reduction perspective, drones can be deployed in place of humans to carry

out hazardous activities previously carried out by humans, including work at heights, access to

hazardous locations, and monitoring and inspecting assets from a safe location.

From a business risk reduction perspective, drones can facilitate tasks normally carried out by

other means to be carried out with reduced risks to non-safety business functions. Drones may

also facilitate monitoring transport construction or maintenance works for compliance to contract

service level agreements to reduce commercial risk.




Environmental risk reduction through the use of drones is already being demonstrated by the

NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for monitoring and surveillance of the natural

environment, and for compliance with EPA regulations. The Transport cluster has a legal

responsibility to manage the environmental impact of its business operations, and can similarly

use drones to monitor and enforce environmental protection compliance on work sites.

Security risks to transport assets and operations can be reduced through improved surveillance

of restricted areas, detection of possible offences and improved response to offences using

drones. Note that responding to criminal offences is the responsibility of law enforcement.

Reputational risks are a consequence of other risks such as safety risks that arise in an

accident and can lead to loss of reputation for TfNSW, its operating agencies, the NSW

transport and infrastructure ministry, and broader NSW state government. The use of drones to

control the risks identified above may lead to a reduction in reputational or political risk.

Reducing operational risk through use of drones can also result in reduced insurance premiums

or reduced claims for injuries and other losses related to the Transport cluster operations.

6.2. Cost saving Use of drones could potentially reduce labour costs to carry out missions involving working at

heights or covering large areas, or it can make existing labour more cost-efficient and effective.

Some areas in the Transport cluster where operational costs may be reduced through use of

drones include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:

• site survey and other surveys (during planning, design, construction and maintenance)

• site inspections (during construction phase)

• structural inspections (during operate/maintain phase)

• surveillance (less security personnel to cover a wider patrol area)

• contract staff with specialist skills and equipment (for example, climbing and abseiling) to

access dangerous and inaccessible locations

6.3. Time saving Drones could reduce the time required to conduct tasks such as surveys, construction site

inspections, asset and maintenance inspections, disaster management, surveillance, and so on.

The mission planning and execution time, including accessing the area of interest, could be

reduced when compared to traditional methods, particularly for remote, inaccessible or

hazardous sites that may require specialised heavy equipment and onerous procedures.

Additionally, in the passenger and freight carrying use case, drones offer the potential for more

direct point to point (P2P) transport with shorter travel times compared to land transport modes.




6.4. Improvement of resource utilisation Drones can reduce the need for additional staff and equipment resources to carry out tasks, or

conversely could improve the utilisation of existing limited resources (people, equipment). This

is partially offset by the increased use of drones as an alternative additional resource.

6.5. Improvement of construction assurance Drones can improve the level of detail and extent of construction site supervision and site

inspection activities during the construction phase, thus improving visual assurance that the

constructed asset will meet its requirements and be fit for purpose.

6.6. Improvement of asset and personal security Drones can enhance the security of both assets and people, in terms of persistent surveillance

coverage of the extensive TfNSW Transport Network over wider areas at higher frequencies,

and faster response when a security-related incident is detected, in a way that is difficult to

achieve with current security resources and methods.

Drones will have a limited to no role in actually deterring theft or offences against the person,

due to lack of a capacity to intervene during an incident.

The following security risks may be better controlled with the use of drones:

• vandalism and graffiti

• trespass

• terrorism and sabotage

6.7. Improvement of asset condition assurance During the operate and maintain stage, drones can augment existing asset condition

assessment tools and methods to increase the frequency of assessment as well as the scope

and depth of condition assessment, particularly visual (and thermal or infrared) asset condition

assessments of tall structures that are difficult to safely access.

Faster, more thorough and more frequent monitoring of wider geographic areas by drones will

contribute to an enhanced overall assurance of the integrity of the TfNSW asset base.

6.8. Improvement of asset maintenance activities The potential exists to use drones to carry out certain asset maintenance activities (other than

inspections and condition assessments mentioned earlier), such as aerial spray painting and

application of corrosion protection or lubricating agents, or provision of site lighting.




6.9. Improvement of environmental and land use management Drones can be used to facilitate rapid aerial monitoring and notification of, and response to, the

environmental impacts on flora and fauna from spills, discharges and contamination resulting

from TfNSW or third party activities adjacent to transport sensitive receivers. Other benefits

include transport data collection (for example, waterway user survey showing congestion and

user demand) and monitoring for catchment changes over time (such as erosion profiles).

6.10. Improvement of public-facing communications Drones could be used to produce promotional videos and images in support of TfNSW projects

and other initiatives (for example, live-stream or recorded aerial footage of the Sydney Metro

Skytrain and Windsor Rd bridge), thus enhancing the quality of external communications and

improved customer service. The opportunity exists to stream drone video and still images to

social media sites to enhance customer and stakeholder engagement.

6.11. Improvement of vegetation management Drones could be used to improve the frequency and coverage or footprint of monitoring of the

vegetation growth in and adjacent to transport corridors, as well as facilitating the proactive

control of vegetation that may adversely affect transport operations (for example, gum trees

falling onto overhead wires and tracks, trees obscuring signals, roadside weed management or

root damage to buildings).

6.12. Improvement of disaster site management Drones could be used to rapidly respond to remote disaster sites in or near the TfNSW

Transport Network for monitoring, coordination, communications and delivery of emergency

supplies and equipment. Response times using drones could be significantly lower than

traditional land-based disaster response operations, particularly for remote and inaccessible

locations. Some characteristics of improved disaster site management include the following:

• improved disaster recovery

• faster assistance from emergency services in terms of response time to site

• improved overall situational awareness and plan view of disaster site

6.13. Improvement of certain worker skills and training There is a potential for drones to be used for augmenting training and skills development. For

example, site safety inductions on large complex sites could be facilitated by using aerial video

footage of the site that indicates where facilities are located or where hazards may exist.




Train drivers could have route knowledge training enhanced by providing an aerial plan view of

complex stations, junctions and stabling yard layouts via live video footage from a drone that

shows how shunting and turnback movements are executed efficiently and safely.

General railway knowledge development for new staff inducted into the industry could be further

enhanced in general with an aerial viewpoint provided via drone footage.

6.14. Improvement of data collection Since timely, complete and accurate data is essential for decision-making and management of

assets, drones offer the potential to provide the following improvements in data collection:

• real time data streaming

• monitoring and enforcement of parking time limits

• light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and photogrammetric scanning of future transport

infrastructure corridors

• faster, more reliable, accurate, real-time acquisition of road accident and congestion

management to feed directly to customers (road users)

• lower data capture costs per area, leading to improved road network optimisation

• additional data acquisition tool to assist human decision making

• improved crash analysis, particularly overhead views of crash tests

• identification, analysis and classification of traffic and transport incidents

• integration of drone-acquired data with existing data sets

• Drones and Lidar data are useful for risk rating of the road network.

• Improved understanding of vessel wash impacts on infrastructure and shorelines.

6.15. Improvement of sustainability The use of drones in place of existing transport solutions, as proposed in the potential use

cases (and more specifically for P2P passenger and freight transport) identified in Section 11,

could lead to improved sustainability outcomes.

Battery-electric drone propulsion in place of traditional fossil fuels could lead to improved energy

efficiency and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, particularly if the batteries could be charged

via renewable energy sources such as solar or wind power.

6.16. Improvement of public safety Data from drones can be used to improve public safety for road users. For example, data can

be processed and outputs such as trees, rock faces/objects capable of causing injury to road

users are extracted for risk rating on our roads. Also, drones could be used to monitor activities




such as aquatic events, dredging operations, bar crossings (where rivers meet the sea) to

inform operational safety decision making and or countermeasures for future activities to

support safer people.

6.17. Provision of novel transport solutions Larger drones are already being developed and trialled for carrying passengers or light freight,

and these solutions need to be explored as viable additional transport modes.

6.17.1. Facilitation of faster, direct point to point personal mobility Recent progress in electrically-powered passenger-carrying drones requires consideration by

TfNSW as a potential future on-demand point to point (P2P) transport mode.

Airbus (Europe), Boeing (USA), Lilium (Germany), Bell (USA), eHang (China) and others are

currently leading development of person-carrying electric battery-powered drones for on-

demand P2P transport over relatively short (that is, intra-urban) distances.

Policy development in this space can encourage the supply chain to expand their research and

development in P2P transport solutions, which supports the Future Transport 2056 vision.

While TfNSW may not directly procure and offer these future P2P services, it needs to be in an

informed position to develop policy and regulation and create the framework that will enable

private sector operators to develop and deliver this potential future service successfully.

This option can be added to a wide selection of existing and emerging P2P mobility options.

6.17.2. Facilitation of faster, direct P2P mini-freight and parcel delivery Similar to passenger-carrying drones, freight-carrying electrically-powered drones are being

developed that offer light parcel deliveries to remote and difficult locations, as well as within

CBDs where road traffic congestion presents a challenge.

Boeing, Amazon (Prime Air), Google (Project Wing), Walmart, Australia Post and other parcel

courier service companies are exploring, or are already in the process of developing and

trialling, mini-freight or parcel delivery solutions using drones.

These freight drone options could improve consumer choice and diverse access to goods, by

reducing delivery times and improving efficiencies in the mini-freight supply chain, particularly

for those with limited mobility or who live in remote and rural communities.

While TfNSW and its agencies may or may not themselves become operators of drone-based

mini-freight services, management of mini-freight airspace corridors above Transport Cluster

assets could fall within their control, particularly if the freight drones operate at altitudes below

120 m.

These mini-freight options may improve engagement with not only transport service and asset

providers, but also with the logistics supply industry.




7. Operational risks and disbenefits Conversely to the operational benefits of novel disruptive technology such as drones, there are

a range of new risks and adverse impacts or disbenefits that should be identified and analysed.

7.1. Risks This section identifies some of the key operational risks that a drone may be exposed to during

a mission within a specified use case, under certain operational scenarios. They are listed here

for identification and inclusion in a risk assessment process supporting a safety case or mission

plan, as follows:

• collision with other air vehicle (passenger or military aircraft, other drone)

• collision with fixed infrastructure, terrain or trees

• collision with a vehicle on the ground (car, bus, motorcycle, truck, bicycle, train)

• collision with human(s) on the ground

• invasion of privacy (operator error, operator violation)

• loss of mission-critical information (not due to cyber attack)

• malicious third party attack on TfNSW drone operations

o physical attack (rocks, guns, other drones)

o cyber attack (flight control or mission payload data link)

o jamming (flight control or mission payload data link)

• unintended radio interference (third party operator, lightning, RADARs, other transmitter)

• adverse weather (rain, wind, dust, smoke, cloud, fog, mist, snow)

• loss of situational awareness of drone position, attitude, altitude (by pilot or observer)

• birds of prey attacking drone

• loss of flight control (due to drone or remote pilot station failure, operator error,

electromagnetic interference)

• uncontrolled loss of altitude (due to failure of drone propulsion subsystem)

• environmental disruption (drone noise scaring animals, toxic payload release)

• fire or explosion (battery failure or fuel leak or flammable payload)

• incursion into third party restricted airspace (Defence or security area)

• incursion of external third party drone into TfNSW airspace (multiple causes)

• unintended mission payload loss or drop (drone failure, payload failure, weather)




• increased automation and artificial intelligence (AI) removing human operators from the

control loop, resulting in job displacement

• distraction of transport conveyance operator (train, bus, tram, ferry, taxi) or active transport

user (pedestrian or cyclist)

• distraction of all motor vehicle operators (car drivers, heavy vehicle drivers, motorcycle

riders)

• drone operator harmed (due to lack of competence and awareness of safe procedures)

• mission data quality does not meet expectations (operator error, equipment failure)

The use of drones also introduces unique security risks such as hacking and jamming of the

drone flight control data link and the mission payload data link, which is discussed in the

operational scenarios in Section 14.12 and Section 14.13.

Additionally, the increased use of commercially available drones by terrorists and criminal actors

poses a security threat to TfNSW transport assets, staff and customers, requiring suitable

countermeasures as discussed in Section 14.14.

7.2. Disbenefits Outcomes associated with adoption of drones that may incur additional time, cost and effort or

other adverse effects or disbenefits to the Transport cluster and staff may include the following:

• increased capital cost for drones as depreciating assets (where TfNSW owns them)

• increased asset inventory (if the Transport cluster owns and operates its own drone fleet)

• increased storage space required for increased asset inventory (where TfNSW owns them)

• additional assets that need to be configured and maintained (condition monitoring)

• additional training and competency management (drone operators and maintainers)

• job displacement (surveyors, freight, logistics, security)

This operational concept is an informing document that identifies potential risks, but does not

attempt to specify any controls at this stage, although they are suggested in a risk register.

It is intended that future drone-related reference documents including regulations, standards

and divisional and agency operational procedures will be developed that specify appropriate

controls for these risks and any additional drone-related operational risks that may arise.

Where a proposed use case or operational scenario exceeds the provisions of existing CASA

regulation, the proposer of the use case will need to engage CASA to develop appropriate risk

management arrangements and associated approvals.




8. Operational constraints Drones are expected to operate within a range of operational constraints, including but not

necessarily limited to those described in Section 8.1 to Section 8.18.

8.1. Geofencing Depending on drone size, weight (such as >100 g), speed, operating altitude and mission, it

may be required to operate within specific geographic flight corridors or CASA defined zones.

CASA provides rough map-based drone flight restrictions around civilian and military airports,

helipads and flight corridors.

The more expensive drones have capability to have geofencing constraints programmed into

the flight control system in order to prevent inadvertent incursion into unauthorised areas.

8.2. Weather Due to their small size and relatively low weight compared to conventional aircraft, drones are

more susceptible to wind, where loss of horizontal position control could pose safety risks. The

more sophisticated and expensive drones will have some degree of automatic stabilisation and

wind shear compensation built into the flight control system.

While light rain may not constrain certain drone operations, if it is associated with low cloud and

low-visibility conditions, it may affect line-of-sight (LOS) operations and degrade visual imaging

payload data quality for certain missions (for example, video or imaging quality from surveys,

asset inspection and security patrols).

8.3. Hours of operation Time constraints on drone operations may include restrictions on drone operation in the dark, as

well as allowable hours of certain drone missions at night near residential areas out of hours,

and over weekends and public holidays. This may also include limits on drone mission duration.

CASA limits drone flight operations to daylight hours and visual line-of-sight (VLOS), unless

otherwise agreed to with demonstrated controls in place. Security patrol missions at night may

require prior CASA approval (at least for approving the generic patrol mission schedule).

8.4. Remote operation range Depending on prior notification and agreement with CASA, drones may be constrained to

VLOS, EVLOS and BVLOS remote operation. These constraints are discussed in more detail in

the operational scenarios in Section 14.9, Section 14.10 and Section 14.11.

Additionally, drones are limited by the range of their wireless radio data link (generally based on

WiFi communications), both for flight control and for mission payload (such as streaming video).




8.5. Endurance Drone operational endurance may be subject to constraints such as fuel limits (for fossil-fuelled

drones) or battery charge limits (battery-powered drones). This may affect range of operations

and mission duration, including loiter time over the mission area and total range.

Just like a larger sized aircraft, a drone faces a payload versus range trade-off, and this is

currently a more pronounced issue with battery-powered drones until the technology improves.

This may drive decisions to procure a larger long endurance drone, or to procure a fleet of

smaller drones to be deployed in a relay as each drone consumes its fuel or energy supply.

8.6. Weight Drone weight limits are regulated by CASA in terms of licensing and restrictions on operations

and depending on the particular use case and associated mission requirement, the drone size

and weight may be relevant as an operational constraint.

CASA limits drone weight to less than 100 g for personal recreational use within 5.5 km of

controlled airports. Operating a drone exceeding 100 g within 5.5 km may require prior CASA

notification and approval of a flight plan.

If the operator is unlicensed, CASA requires commercially operated drones under 2 kg to be

flown in the 'excluded' category, which requires notifying CASA before flying and operating

within a set of standard operating conditions.

If intending to fly outside these operating conditions (including drones above 2 kg), a remote

pilot's licence (RePL) is required. The drone pilot needs to also either personally hold an RPA

Operators Certificate (ReOC), or work for a company that holds the required ReOC certification.

Since 29 September 2016, CASA has authorised RPA operator’s certificates (ReOC) in the

following weight categories:

• very small (100 g to <2 kg)

• small (2 kg to <25 kg) (where required with 7 kg restriction)

• medium (25 kg to <150 kg)

• large (>150 kg)

Reference: Civil Aviation Safety Authority 2018.

8.7. Size Operations involving larger drones will be affected by CASA regulations and restrictions on

usage, as is the case with the drone weight constraint identified in Section 8.6.




8.8. Altitude CASA limits drone flight operations to 120 m above ground level (AGL) for most civilian drone

operations (recreational or commercial) and will require prior CASA notification and approval to

exceed this altitude constraint.

8.9. Security Depending on the particular use case and associated mission profiles, drones will require some

level of security against criminal attack, including both physical and cyber security controls.

In addition to security constraints placed by TfNSW on its drone operations, there are security

constraints placed by third party agencies, including Defence, for security-sensitive sites.

8.10. Noise Drones may be constrained by environmental noise emission limits and how these may affect

operations over or near residential areas and hospitals, as well as other areas where the noise

may have adverse environmental effects on nesting birds and other animals.

Drone operators will need to ensure compliance of their operations with the Protection of the

Environment Operations Act 1997.

8.11. Privacy Drone operations may be constrained by privacy requirements, such as in private residential

areas, but even in public places there are requirements in the law that limit or prohibit the

unauthorised video or imaging of private persons without their express authorisation.

Mission plans will need to account for these privacy constraints as per the Privacy Act 1988.

8.12. Human proximity CASA limits drone flight operations to no less than 30 m from humans (other than the drone

pilot, mission owner and other authorised staff).

Depending on particular use cases and drone weight constraints, a drone may need to operate

within the 30 m human proximity limit, provided it is operating within a controlled site with safe

working arrangements including physical barriers, and authorised staff working with suitable

personal protective equipment (such as hard hats, protective eyewear and gloves).

8.13. Community acceptance Local communities may place constraints in advance of planned drone operations, or may take

retrospective action following drone operations, particularly with respect to security, noise,

privacy and safety concerns. Community engagement will be important during planning and

execution of drone missions.




8.14. Human factors Drones that require manual remote piloted operation will place constraints on the operator

workload, situational awareness, and other human factors and ergonomic constraints that may

limit safe and efficient operation within that use case.

Increasing drone automation may improve this, but degraded and emergency modes will need

to be considered where automated functions fail and result in reversion to human operation.

In the case of the future P2P passenger drone use case, human factors constraints associated

with a human passenger carried by an autonomous drone will need to be considered.

Capability, training and competence of the drone operator is an important human factor.

8.15. Health and safety Recent technology developments are leading to an increasing feasibility for passenger-carrying

drones, particularly the quadcopter configuration. However, safety requirements for the P2P

passenger drone use case will need to consider a range of physical and operational safety

controls, including but not limited to the following:

• certified safety-critical flight control systems and avionics

• crashworthy body design with crumple zones and impact protection

• redundant power, propulsion and flight control subsystems

• passenger warning systems and indicators

In addition to passenger health and safety concerns on possible future passenger-carrying

drones, the health and safety of persons on the ground needs to be assured, which places

constraints on drone flight operations.

Commercial and military pilots have a strict zero drug and alcohol policy. Drone pilots will likely

be subject to a similar requirement, with penalties associated with flying a drone under the

influence of drugs or alcohol, and this will need to be regulated, monitored and enforced.

Safety features such as obstacle avoidance, automatic return to base on low battery, prevention

of injury in case of critical flight system failure, may need to be provisioned in drone regulations.

Drones, including fully autonomous ones equipped with pre-programmed routes, may suffer

from poor visibility in some weather conditions, requiring regulations on flying in bad weather.

Many of these safety constraints are addressed within other constraints imposed by CASA,

such as drone weight, operating height, proximity to humans, and line-of-sight.




8.16. Airspace ownership Local councils own all airspace above roads, and Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) owns all

airspace above major roads, including toll roads in NSW. Similar airspace ownership exists

above the NSW rail network and waterways.

Permission will be required from these authorities before flights are undertaken by drones.

TfNSW, its operating agencies, and any drone operator that it subcontracts should identify any

airspace ownership constraints and seek approval to operate in that airspace.

8.17. Insurance coverage Availability of sufficient insurance coverage for drone operations is a key constraint that will

need to be proportional to an assessed level of risk associated with the proposed use case and

operational scenarios.

The insurance will need to cover damage to the drone, damage or losses to TfNSW staff and

fixed assets, and third party (public) losses due to damage, injury, death, or service disruption.

8.18. Radio bandwidth availability As the population of drones and the density of drones in a given local airspace increases, the

WiFi bandwidth could become congested, leading to potential radio frequency interference

between different TfNSW and third party drone operators and resultant degraded performance.

8.19. Training and competence Commercial and military pilots undergo strict training and refresher courses before they are

allowed to fly due to the critical and complex nature of aviation. Much of the training is focused

on their actions in an emergency. Depending on the use case and mission parameters, certain

drone pilots may need to go through different levels of training to prepare them for, for example,

dead stick landings (for fixed wing drones) or autorotation (for rotary wing drones).

9. Operational actors An operational actor is an entity (human or non-human) that interacts with the drone by either

performing an action on the drone, or having an action performed on it by the drone, under a

specific operational use case (Section 11) via a specific operational interface (Section 12).

Operational actors may be direct users of the drone, but they may also include other affected

parties or stakeholders that are not direct users of the drone, but who may need to interact with

it before, during or after a mission.

These operational actors may include:

• First party actors, who operate or maintain the drone, and are directly responsible for its

safe operation in a broader context (for example, the drone pilot and maintainer),




• Second party actors, who derive direct benefit from use of the drone operation as a service

(for example, mission owner, passengers, and freight customers),

• Third party actors, who derive no direct benefit from the drone operation, but who may be

affected by the drone operation, or may need to intervene as a result of drone operations

(for example, members of the public, emergency services, accident investigators).

Transport cluster organisations that may benefit from drone usage include the following:

• Freight, Strategy and Planning (transport network planning, corridor preservation)

• Infrastructure and Services (project contract and maintenance contract assurance)

• Sydney Trains (infrastructure asset maintenance and condition assessments)

• RMS (road infrastructure project contract and asset maintenance contract assurance)

Specific examples of possible operational actors are identified and discussed in Section 9.1 to

Section 9.8.

9.1. Drone mission owner Mission owners are identified as those operational actors who may not actually pilot the drone,

but who define and own the mission and require the services of the drone in order to carry out

specialist work, including the mission owners described in Section 9.1.1 to Section 9.1.6.

9.1.1. Surveyors For the survey use case, surveyors are responsible for establishing survey mission parameters,

configuring the mission payload prior to the survey mission, undertaking the drone operation,

and for downloading the survey data (such as geo-located photogrammetric or LIDAR data),

either in real time during the mission flight as a data stream, or at the end of the survey mission.

9.1.2. Construction staff Construction site supervisors and site inspectors are responsible for planning and executing the

site supervision or specialist works inspection mission plan for the drone pilot to follow.

They also download and analyse site supervision and inspection data (for example, digital

images, video, LIDAR or other sensor data) at the end of the site inspection mission.

9.1.3. Asset maintainers Transport asset maintainers establish asset maintenance inspection mission parameters for the

drone pilot to follow. Asset maintainers 'own' the maintenance inspection mission, and they may

include but are not necessarily limited to the following roles:

• bridge and structure inspectors

• road inspectors




• track inspectors

• drainage inspectors

• building inspectors

• telecommunications inspectors (radio equipment mounted on towers)

• electrical power distribution inspectors (high voltage aerial feeders), and so on

9.1.4. Security officers Security officers plan and provide a security patrol mission to a qualified drone pilot to fly, or

they could be trained as specialist drone pilots themselves for simple missions. The security

officer remains the competent party that is accountable for the security mission.

Given the demands of flying the drone safely and carrying out a security surveillance or patrol

mission (including initiating a response in the event of detecting a criminal act or a security

breach), it is possible that the security mission owner may not be the drone pilot.

Consideration should also be given to the role that security plays in providing counter-drone

services, where third party drones have been detected in unauthorised areas or potentially

conducting illegal activities. Whether this is a role of TfNSW Security or NSW Police would

depend on the type of counter-drone operations being undertaken.

It is unlikely that TfNSW Security would be involved in any kinetic counter-drone operations.

However, non-kinetic options are available which can render a drone safely inert.

9.1.5. Emergency services As a rail operating agency, Sydney Trains has a Rail Emergency Response Unit that can

respond to rail incidents, and coordinate and communicate with the emergency services in the

event of an incident on the TfNSW Transport Network.

Emergency services may be direct first or second party users of drones, or they may be third

party stakeholders who need to respond to a transport incident, and may include the following:

• Sydney Trains Rail Emergency Response Unit

• police and related law enforcement services, who may operate their own drones, or who

need to seize the drone and all data as evidence to investigate causes of a drone accident

• NSW Ambulance and related medical services, who may operate their own drones

• Fire & Rescue NSW, including HazMat, who may operate their own drones

• NSW State Emergency Services (SES), who may operate their own drones

• Traffic Commanders and Traffic Emergency Patrol units

• other specialist emergency services, including tactical response and bomb disposal, who

do operate their own land and aerial drones




9.1.6. Drone transport service operators Drone transport service operators would typically be organisations, and not individuals, who

operate autonomous drone services to carry people or freight.

In this proposed use case there is no human drone pilot involved, so interaction with the drone

would likely involve automated service booking software systems interacting with the customer

(P2P on-demand passenger, or freight customer booking software application), and reserving

and despatching an autonomous passenger or freight-carrying drone for that service booking.

Reference: EHANG 2018a.

Reference: Airbus and Italdesign 2017.

P2P passenger service despatcher

The P2P on-demand 'mobility as a service' (MaaS) passenger service company is identified in

this case as a single entity (despatcher, including support systems) that interacts with a fleet of

autonomous P2P passenger drones, by issuing despatch and return commands to the drones

to travel from a stabling depot (or similar) to the passenger pick-up and drop-off points.

P2P last mile freight service despatcher

The parcel freight distribution company is identified in this case as a single entity (despatcher)

that interacts with the autonomous parcel drone, by issuing despatch and return commands to

the freight drone to travel from a supplier's (who may also be the freight drone operator) depot

or parcel distribution centre, to the customer point of delivery of the parcel.

9.2. Drone pilot Regardless of the use case and the 'owner' of the particular mission, and with the exception of

P2P drones that are likely to be autonomously controlled, every remotely piloted drone mission

will require a suitably qualified drone pilot, who may or may not also be the mission owner.

The drone pilot is responsible for safely flying the drone mission set by the mission owner, and

needs to have the necessary RePL qualifications to remotely pilot the drone.

In the case where autonomous drones are providing a service without a human pilot, the drone

service owner or drone mission owner will need to have suitable ReOC certification in place to

operate an autonomous P2P transport service (such as passenger or freight drones) safely.

9.3. Drone remote observer In the case of extended visual line-of-sight (EVLOS) drone operations, the remote observer is a

suitably qualified drone operator who provides critical flight information for the drone via a voice

or data radio link to the primary drone pilot.




The remote observer may in certain scenarios be required to assume or hand back remote

control of the drone with the primary drone pilot.

9.4. Drone maintainer The drone maintainer is responsible for ensuring that the drone is fit for air service operations

prior to a mission, for inspecting the drone for defects following operations, and for returning the

drone to safe operational capability following preventative or corrective maintenance actions.

Similar to the drone pilot, the drone maintainer will be required to hold appropriate certifications.

9.5. Accident investigator In the event of a drone accident during operations within TfNSW property, external accident

investigators from CASA or Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) may need to access the

drone accident site and obtain drone flight records and mission data, in order to investigate the

events leading up to, and the cause of the drone accident.

9.6. Air traffic control Depending on the mission type and scope, drone size, payload weight, payload type, operating

height and operating area of the drone, federal and regional air traffic control (ATC) authorities

may need to be notified and have an approved flight plan logged by the drone pilot or operator,

and to track movements of the drone relative to other regulated air traffic.

Responsibility for ATC and the ATC system within the Australian flight information region rests

with Air Services Australia.

9.7. P2P last mile drone passenger For the P2P, on-demand, 'mobility as a service' (MaaS) passenger use case, this is the paying

passenger or customer who does not have access to drone flight controls, other than to order

the service from a P2P service operating company and provide trip details via an online app.

For the purpose of this document, the use case for a personal, owner-operated person-carrying

drone is not considered.

9.8. P2P last mile freight drone customer For the P2P, on-demand, freight drone use case, this is the customer who does not have any

access to the drone flight controls, other than to order the service via a P2P freight drone

service via an online app. For the purpose of this document, the use case for a personal, owner-

operated freight-carrying drone is not considered.




10. Operational assets and facilities Operational assets, those physical assets associated with operating drone systems, may

include, but are not necessarily limited to, the assets described in Section 10.1 to Section 10.9.

10.1. The drone As with other jurisdictions, drone technology will likely be deployed in different configurations

across the Transport cluster, depending on specific use cases and mission requirements.

It is expected that drones carrying small, light payloads for shorter missions will likely use

battery electric power and propulsion, whereas those deployed for carrying heavier mission

payloads over longer ranges may use liquid fossil fuel combustion engine propulsion.

Recent developments in technology have raised the performance of battery electric propulsion

to be used for increasingly heavier payloads (including transporting human passengers).

While current popular literature identifies drones as quadcopters, this document should be read

with the understanding that drones could be fixed-wing (the original common configuration from

the early days of remote control hobby aircraft), or rotary-wing (single rotor, quadcopter,

hexacopter or octocopter) configurations.

Selection of a preferred drone configuration depends on a range of criteria, as listed in Table 1.

Table 1 – Criteria for selecting preferred drone configuration

Selection criteria Fixed wing

Single rotor

Quad-copter

Hexa-copter

Octo-copter

Price ($) Variable Lowest Medium High Highest

Manoeuvrability Lowest Low Medium High Highest

Power (kW/HP) Variable Lowest Medium High Highest

Speed (km/h) Fastest Slowest Medium Fast Faster

Stability Lowest Low Medium High Highest

Altitude (m) Highest Lowest Medium High Higher

Payload weight (g/kg) Heaviest Lightest Medium Heavy Heavier

Drone size (cm) Largest Variable Medium Large Larger

Endurance (mins/hrs) Longest Variable Short Medium Long

Range (m/km) Longest Variable Short Medium Long

A criterion for selecting or operating drone types is control method, which includes the following:

• remotely piloted (currently the most common method for most drone use cases)

• autonomous (currently envisaged for P2P passenger and freight applications)

• tethered (for a persistent loiter mission over a specific area)




Note: Measurement of the above criteria can vary significantly between suppliers.

Fixed-wing and single-rotor vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drones are often

larger than 4/6/8-rotor drones, with heavier payloads due to use of petrol engines.

Reference: DRONEBLY 2014.

10.2. Remote pilot station For the majority of use cases that involve a remotely piloted drone, this applies to and describes

the radio control workstation used to remotely pilot the drone.

Depending on the drone remote operating range constraints, the remote pilot station may have

additional 'beyond visual line-of-sight' (BVLOS) capability to relay drone flight control and

mission payload data over some distance, via an intermediate radio data network such as the

3G, 4G or 5G mobile network or even a satellite data feed for more sophisticated systems.

10.3. Mobile devices In addition to the dedicated remote pilot station, mobile devices (smartphones, tablets and

laptops) may also be used to remotely pilot the drone or capture drone mission payload

downlink data, or provide other potential data interactions.

10.4. Mission payload The mission payload will depend on the purpose of the drone, and what kit has been included to

meet this purpose (such as cameras, carry-alls, and so on). This is important because drones

can often be multipurpose, with swappable payloads (particularly in the surveillance space).

10.5. Transport drone despatcher station This considers the use cases that propose autonomous P2P freight or passenger-carrying

drones that will not be remotely piloted by a human, but will rely on a pre-programmed route

map, some level of artificial intelligence (AI), and automatic 'sense and avoid' technology.

This facility could be similar to a taxi or Uber or Amazon despatching facility.

In the P2P passenger-carrying drone use case, the customer may request a P2P service via a

mobile app, which will be processed at the P2P service provider centre, where a despatcher

(human or automated) will despatch a passenger-carrying drone to the customer.

10.6. Differential GPS reference station For use cases and missions requiring high positional accuracy, a differential GPS (D-GPS) base

station may be required that communicates wirelessly with the drone to compare the drone's

onboard GPS position with the GPS position of a fixed reference site, to reduce position error.




Position accuracy of less than 10 cm is possible for survey missions using differential GPS, and

should only be undertaken by a qualified and experienced surveyor.

10.7. Stabling facility For the parcel freight drone and P2P passenger drone use case, the drone stabling facility is

where the drones are stored when not carrying out a transport mission, or when constrained by

permitted operational hours (for example, no night flights near residential areas).

10.8. Maintenance facility The drone maintenance facility, which may be combined with the stabling facility, contains all

the necessary specialist drone inspection, test and maintenance equipment, and suitably

qualified drone maintainers. This facility may belong to an off-site contractor.

10.9. Charging or fuelling facility The drone charging (for battery-powered drones) or refuelling (for fuel-powered drones) facility

may be a standalone facility or be combined with the drone stabling and maintenance facility.

11. Operational use cases Operational use cases describe how drones may be used for a particular commercial or security

use, and include the operational asset or system (drone in this case), operational actors, and

the operational interfaces between the actors and the system.

11.1. Asset management Drones are already used in many industries, including the transport industry, to augment the

traditional asset management activities across the asset life cycle. Some examples are

described in Section 11.1.1 to Section 11.1.3.

11.1.1. Survey and mapping There are currently two types of survey payload sensors that can be mounted on a drone:

LIDAR (or laser scanner) and camera, which produce a data point cloud and photogrammetry

outputs respectively.

Both these sensors and associated methods can be used as inputs to produce a topographic or

detailed survey, which can be fed into a reality or building information modelling (BIM) model.

• LIDAR or laser scanning produces a point cloud of spatial data which can be tagged with

global navigation satellite system (GNSS) information for geo-referencing, and overlaid and

integrated into 3D BIM as part of digital engineering (DE).

• Photogrammetric surveys provide imagery and video that can be integrated with point

cloud data, geographic information system (GIS) models and maps, and 3D BIM models. © State of NSW through Transport for NSW 2018 of 93



• Topographic or detail surveys - information collected by drones can be used to develop

these types of surveys, including for example volumetric surveys.

• Cadastral (boundary) definition surveys cannot be undertaken using drones, as they

require the acquisition of detailed terrestrial information.

The survey use case is illustrated in Appendix A.1, Figure 32, and identifies the key actors as

being the surveyor (survey mission owner), the survey drone pilot, the GPS satellites (for survey

position location), and differential GPS fixed beacon (for enhanced position accuracy).

Additional actors that are likely to be associated with this use case include the drone maintainer,

air traffic control, other aircraft or drones, drone charging station, and accident investigator.

Note: All surveys undertaken by drones need to be complimented by appropriate

ground based survey investigations to identify site constraints and they need to be

validated by independent survey methods to check the accuracy of data.

11.1.2. Construction site management Drones could facilitate certain construction site management tasks, including the following:

• construction site logistics management

Drones could be used in future in a construction site logistics role (similar to the P2P mini-

freight use case) to ferry smaller items to, from and around construction sites:

o construction materials, such as small items that form part of the constructed asset

o construction equipment and tools, such as small tools or test instruments

o construction consumables, such as oils, lubricants, fuel or welding materials

o construction site documentation, such as manuals, schedules, ITPs or certificates

• construction site inspections

Site inspections are technical verification methods to assure that the asset being

constructed will be safe, fit for purpose, and in accordance with the design requirement.

Some site inspections carry an inherent safety risk (such as working at height or in

proximity to high voltages), and requires the use of large expensive machinery and plant

(such as cherry-picker, scissor lift, ladder, or climbing gear) to access the inspection area.

The use of drones to carry out such site inspections has potential to reduce risk and cost.

• construction site videography and photography

Drones are already used, and will continue to be used, to provide real-time site video and

photography, including monitoring and coordinating complex movements of plant and

machinery at construction sites, recording progress of the works, and for public relations

and promotional communications.




The construction site management use case is illustrated in Appendix A.3, Figure 34, and

identifies the key actors as being the construction site manager or inspector (site management

mission owner) and the drone pilot.



11.1.3. Maintenance management Drones could be used in the maintenance phase of the asset life cycle as follows:

• Maintenance site operations management, particularly on large extended sites that require

oversight and supervision of the movement of heavy machinery and materials

• asset condition inspections, such as visual (photographic or videographic) inspections and

possibly other spectral (ultrasonic, x-ray or magnetic) inspection techniques

• thermal image scanning of operational assets, such as electrical switchgear, insulators and

transformers to identify hot spots that may lead to future equipment failure

• preventative maintenance, such as spraying anti-corrosion coatings on structures before

corrosion occurs

• corrective maintenance actions, such as spraying over graffiti or removing corrosion

• delivering maintenance spares or small maintenance equipment to site, such as welding

rods, tools, test instruments

The maintenance inspection use case is shown in Appendix A.4, Figure 35, and identifies the

key actors as being the asset maintenance inspector (mission owner) and the drone pilot.



11.2. Enforcement Drones could be used to carry out enforcement functions, including but not necessarily limited

to those described in Section 11.2.1 and Section 11.2.2.

11.2.1. Compliance inspections The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) already uses drones to monitor parties (including

TfNSW and its supply chain) for environmental regulatory compliance.

TfNSW and its operating agencies may also carry out environmental, health and safety

compliance inspections for enforcement of regulations, using drones on or near its assets.

Road user/drone user distraction related to advertising would need to be managed.

For example, this could include the following activities:




• Waterways compliance and enforcement of antisocial or illegal boating operator

behaviour

• Surveillance of heavy vehicle road side inspection stations or bays.

• Compliance of priority access roads e.g. – Bus or Transitway lanes.

11.2.2. Security patrols Drones are increasingly being used by law enforcement agencies and infrastructure owners,

operators and maintainers such as TfNSW and its operating agencies, to patrol the transport

infrastructure for a range of security or criminal-related activities, including the following:

• vandalism and graffiti detection and monitoring

• theft of assets (such as cable theft)

• trespass in the transport (particularly rail) corridor, including potential suicide attempts

• terrorism and sabotage attacks on transport assets, staff, customers and operations

As briefly mentioned previously in Section 5.12, in addition to use of drones to carry out

security-related operations, TfNSW needs to identify and manage threats to its transport

operations from drones operated by hostile third parties (criminals and terrorists).

TfNSW and its operating agencies may need to protect critical infrastructure (such as container

port perimeters, major rail heads, intermodal facilities, control centres) from hostile externally

operated (terrorist or criminal) drone incursions with counter-drone methods, including:

• nets to capture or block drones

• radio jamming (that is, flight control data link, video data link and GPS positioning signal)

• methods proven to be effective in other jurisdictions

There are a range of kinetic and non-kinetic drone counter-measures, although most come with

their own licencing and regulatory framework, such as firearms, targeted electromagnetic

interference equipment, and even lasers (if the threat is a surveillance one).

There also exists the future potential for autonomous security drones to be configured for a

particular security patrol mission, and to fly that pre-programmed mission autonomously on

behalf of the security mission owner (security officer).

11.3. Traffic monitoring Drones may be used to monitor and manage road traffic and maritime traffic flows where

RADAR or other surveillance is not available. Monitoring of rail traffic flow is not considered in

this use case, since it is already monitored and controlled via integrated signalling systems.

This use case could augment, or possibly even replace (with the integration of machine vision

and AI) current helicopter-based 'eye-in-the-sky' traffic monitoring and reporting services.




11.4. Transport solution Recently a range of companies have turned their attention to exploring, developing and offering

transport solutions using autonomous drone technology. These transport use cases include

those described in Section 11.4.1 and Section 11.4.2.

11.4.1. P2P passenger last mile Airbus (Europe), Lilium (Germany), Volocopter (Germany) and eHang (China) are among a

range of existing and new technology companies developing on-demand P2P passenger

drones. Boeing has acquired Aurora Flight Sciences, an autonomous drone company that has

developed a concept autonomous electric drone. Uber is developing its Elevate concept.

Reference: Airbus 2017.

Reference: Volocopter 2017.

Reference: Lilium 2018.

Reference: EHANG 2018b.

The P2P passenger-carrying use case is shown in Appendix A.6, Figure 37, and identifies key

actors as being the P2P passenger service despatcher (mission owner) and passenger. The

P2P drone service despatcher receives an online request for a P2P service, processes the

request and allocates a drone, notifies and books a flight plan with air traffic control.



11.4.2. P2P mini-freight last mile Amazon and other companies have developed and are deploying drones for last-mile mini-

freight delivery. Amazon has proposed a 'drone highway' and a defined airspace for freight

drones with exclusion zones, as illustrated in Figure 3, which would need to be agreed to by

CASA in consultation with freight drone operators.


Figure 3 - Proposed airspace segmentation into drone operating zones



The drone operating airspace is proposed to be segmented as follows:

• ground to 61 m: 'low speed localized traffic' - survey, inspection, security, delivery

• 61 m to 122 m: high-speed transit 'drone highway' - drones operate autonomously

• 122 m to 152 m: no-fly zone

• 152 m and above: low-risk area normally used by passenger and freight aircraft

Boeing is developing an unmanned electric cargo air vehicle prototype (eVTOL).

Reference: Boeing 2018.

11.5. Disaster management Drones have been used for disaster management and humanitarian aid, and the potential to

apply this to the TfNSW transport context is significant. Where a disaster has occurred within a

transport corridor, potential disaster management special use cases may include the following:

• disaster site assessment; assessing the extent and severity of damage and casualties

• disaster site relief monitoring; monitoring progress of site relief operations (passive)

• disaster site relief coordination; coordinating site relief operations (active)

• disaster site communications; routing and relaying disaster site radio communications

• emergency supplies delivery; delivering small parcels of food, water and clothing

• first aid delivery; delivering small parcels of medical supplies to first responders on site

• emergency evacuation; using an emergency version of a P2P person-carrying drone

The disaster site management use case is shown in Appendix A.5, Figure 36, and identifies the

key actors as being the disaster site coordinator (mission owner), the drone pilot (or multiple

drone pilots flying different disaster site management missions).



11.5.1. Flood management Drones could be deployed following a Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) warning of impending

flooding in a specific geographic area, to monitor progress of rising water levels and to relay

real-time video, images and water height (LIDAR) alarms to disaster management operations.

In the public transport context, drones could be used to monitor and assess potential flood risks

in subways, underpasses and bridges over rivers, as well as general monitoring of flood levels

on railway lines and roads.




11.5.2. Bushfire management Similar to the flood management use case, drones could be used to patrol areas on or near the

transport corridor where extreme fire warnings have been issued, and to manage bushfire risks

in the following ways:

• fuel load monitoring and assessment; monitoring the potential for fires, and the severity risk

assessment associated particularly with high flammability vegetation such as eucalypts

• fire monitoring and warning; to rapidly identify bush fires when they start, monitor their

progress spread and direction, and relay video data to bushfire management authorities

• fire suppression; disperse fire suppressant material (chemical foam or water)

Reference: Govtech 2014.

11.5.3. Landslide and subsidence management Drones could be deployed to monitor areas where landslides, mudslides or subsidence have

been assessed as imminent risks, to provide early warning to transport operators, in particular

railway and road and motorway embankments.

11.5.4. Rail accident management Drones could be used to manage the site of rail accidents, as a special case of the general

disaster management use case. For example, the Waterfall rail disaster occurred in a deep

cutting in a relatively inaccessible area, and may have benefited from the use of drones.

11.5.5. Road accident management

Drones could be used to manage road accidents, particularly in the case of a road tunnel crash,

where fire and life safety applies.

11.5.6. Major maritime incident management Drones could be used to manage some major maritime incidents e.g. maritime pollution event

involving a bulk carrier on a remote coast.

11.6. Environmental and heritage management While the EPA carries out its own environmental compliance inspections, TfNSW and its

operating agencies have a duty of care for managing the natural environment in and near NSW

transport corridors, particularly where affected by major construction and maintenance. These

activities may include those described in Section 11.6.1 to Section 11.6.4




11.6.1. Wildlife management Drones could be used to monitor vulnerable fauna on or near TfNSW property that is

undergoing construction, operation, maintenance or disposal of TfNSW transport assets,

including but not limited to the following:

• land fauna (such as mammals and reptiles)

• flying fauna (such as birds and bats)

• waterborne fauna (fish, amphibians)

While shark monitoring is not a function for the Transport cluster, it indicates how drones could

be used to monitor dangerous fauna that may present a risk to staff and customers.

11.6.2. Vegetation management Drones could be used to monitor terrestrial and aquatic vegetation distribution, as well as

manage the adverse effects of certain vegetation on reliable and safe operation and

maintenance of transport assets, including the following vegetation management activities:

• vegetation inspection; such as aerial monitoring of blue gum trees near railways

• vegetation eradication; such as aerial spraying of weed killer on road-side areas

• vegetation seeding; such as aerial seed dispersal to rehabilitate construction sites

• vegetation fertilising; such as aerial spraying of liquid fertiliser on trackside plants

• vegetation irrigation; such as aerial irrigation of difficult-access vertical gardens

Figure 4 illustrates potential drone uses for vegetation management (example of an herbicide or

fertiliser spraying helicopter drone), including management of vertical gardens (example from

Leppington station) and managing road or railway embankment re-vegetation.




Figure 4 - Vegetation management applications for drones

The vegetation management use case is shown in Appendix A.2, Figure 33, and identifies the

key actors as being the landscaper (mission owner) and the drone pilot.



11.6.3. Waste and contamination management Drones could be used to monitor and manage stockpiles of spoil and waste on construction and

maintenance sites, as well as the dust generated from various transport asset management

activities and operations. In some instances, drones could also be used to monitor airborne or

waterborne pollutant migration to or from third property land.

11.6.4. Heritage (indigenous and non-indigenous)

Drones could be used to monitor and manage heritage sites, including both indigenous and

non-indigenous sites for degradation or damage, and planning for future restoration.

11.7. Insurance claim validation Insurance companies may use their own, or contract a third party to provide, drones to inspect

an incident site on transport property to assess the loss and to validate an insurance claim. © State of NSW through Transport for NSW 2018 of 93



TfNSW holds significant insurance cover for its assets and operations, and it may be either

subject to an independent claim validation by an insurance company using a drone, or may

consider using its own contracted drone service to support an insurance claim against losses.

11.8. Entertainment While this use case does not usually fall within the TfNSW scope of services, it is worth noting

the use of drones for recreational use, and of drone swarms to provide light shows at large night

time events, such as New Year's Eve and Vivid, which TfNSW could contribute to.

Reference: Intel 2018a.

11.9. Crash lab analysis The Crashlab facility, a business unit of Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) that works closely

with the TfNSW Centre for Road Safety, carries out vehicle crash tests to support vehicle safety

certification. Drones can enhance the test and evaluation outputs by providing aerial viewpoints

of vehicle active safety features from a vertical plan viewpoint (such as stability control, braking

distance, crumple zone effectiveness, CAV driving algorithms).

11.10. Logistics management The management of logistics could be enhanced by the use of drones in stocktaking and

inventory management in large warehousing and distribution centres, such as Amazon.

11.11. Portable vehicle battery charging A recent use case has emerged that proposes use of drones to charge vehicle batteries. While

the size and payload capacity of current drones probably precludes re-charge capability for a

fully discharged battery electric vehicle (BEV) traction battery, these could be used to 'jump

start' a vehicle with a flat battery.

11.12. Public communications and advertising Drones could in future be used to deliver public communications broadcasts (including

important emergency messages) or advertising (audio or sky writing using drone swarms).

11.13. Telecommunications infill Drones could form part of a cell on wheels (COW) technology, a portable mobile 3G, 4G or 5G

cellular (or UHF, trunk radio or WiFi hotspot) site that provides temporary network and wireless

coverage to locations where cellular coverage is minimal or compromised.

COWs are used to provide expanded cellular coverage or capacity or both to meet short-term

demand, such as at major public events or during natural disasters.




Given the static and localised boundary of a portable mobile phone site, the type of drone in this

use case could be tethered and based on aerostat (blimp) technology for persistence.

11.14. Parking management Drones could be used for enforcement and monitoring of public parking lots for violations,

identification of free bays, assisting drivers in driving to the empty bays thus saving time and

fuel, and maximising utilisation of parking spaces.

Given the static and localised boundary of car parks, the type of drone used in this use case

could be tethered, and may be based on aerostat (blimp) technology for persistent presence.

11.15. Safety management Data from drones can be used to improve road safety. For example, data can be processed and

outputs such as trees, rock faces/objects capable of causing injury to road users are extracted

for risk rating on our roads. Also, the use of drones could be used to augment traditional safety

site inspections or crash events.

12. Operational interfaces There are a wide range of possible operational interfaces between operational actors and the

drone, some of which are identified in Figure 5 and elaborated in Section 12.1 to Section 12.10.




Other aircraft

P2P PassengerDespatcher

P2P PassengerDespatcher

Fly drone

Drone Pilot

Drone Pilot

P2P Passenger

P2P Passenger

Manage P2P Mission

Use P2P Service

Report/Track

Sense/Avoid

SurveyorSurveyor

Construction Site SupervisorConstruction

Site SupervisorConstruction

InspectorConstruction

Inspector

SecurityOfficer

SecurityOfficer

Asset Maintainer

Asset Maintainer

Disaster SiteController

Disaster SiteController

Emergency Service

Emergency Service

P2P FreightDespatcherP2P FreightDespatcher

Other DronePilot

Other DronePilot

Fly drone

Man

age s

urve

y miss

ionSu

perv

ise si

te o

pera

tions

Insp

ect c

onst

ruct

ed a

sset

s

Insp

ect a

sset

cond

ition

Disaster Site Mission

Emergency Service Mission

Security Mission

Manage P2P Miss

ion

Drone Maintainer

Drone Maintainer

Air TrafficControl

Air TrafficControl

MaintenanceInspector

MaintenanceInspector

Maintenance inspection m

ission

Maintain drone

P2P FreightCustomer

P2P FreightCustomer

Load/Unload Freight

Coordinate/ Communica

te

Order/Confirm

Order/Confirm

Coordinate/ Communicate

Track

Trac

k

Other drones

Sense

/Avo

id

Accident Investigator


Examine Drone

Figure 5 - Operational interfaces

12.1. Surveyor<->drone The surveyor provides survey mission requirements and parameters to the surveyor drone pilot

in terms of the geographic extent of the survey mission and the subject of survey. This interface

between the surveyor and the drone survey mission payload is illustrated in Figure 6.

The surveyor drone pilot sets up and calibrates survey-related payload equipment carried by the

drone, undertakes appropriate ground based investigations, and ground control surveys (that is,

traversing and levelling).

The surveyor drone pilot flies the drone according to the survey mission parameters and the

drone interacts with the subject of the survey (terrain) via the survey mission payload in terms of

sensing and measuring.




The survey drone determines its position location from available GPS satellites, and enhances

the accuracy of this position data via differential GPS fixed beacons.

The surveyor downloads and analyses survey data, which needs to include an independent

ground based check of data collected by the drone to validate accuracy and project tolerances.

Terrain to be surveyedSurvey Drone Pilot

Survey Drone Pilot

SurveyorSurveyor

Configure survey drone mission sensor payload (pre-flight)

Download survey drone mission sensor data (real-time or post-flight)

Provide survey drone

mission (pre-flight)

Fly survey drone

mission (in flight)

GPS Satellites

Position

Location

Differential GPSFixed Beacon

Enhance

Position Location

Figure 6 - Survey drone mission operational interfaces

12.2. Construction site supervisor<->drone Supervision of the site includes monitoring of the safe and efficient placement and movement of

people, materials and machinery around the construction site. Figure 7 shows the possible

operational interfaces between the construction site supervisor, pilot and drone on complex and

dynamic construction consisting of moving vehicles, people and materials.

Figure 7 - Construction supervision drone mission operational interfaces

The construction site supervisor provides construction site monitoring and supervision mission

details to the drone pilot, and monitors video or other sensor data from the drone, either in real

time or at the end of the mission.

Drone PilotDrone Pilot

ConstructionSite SupervisorConstruction

Site Supervisor

Configure video camera Payload (pre-flight)

Monitor & manage site

operations via video (real-time)

Prov

ide

site

mon

itorin

g m

issio

n (p

re-fl

ight

)

Fly site monitoring

Mission (in flig

ht)




The drone pilot (if not the construction site supervisor) flies the site monitoring drone mission

provided by the supervisor.

12.3. Construction inspector<->drone Construction inspection activities are part of overall assurance of the asset construction, and

include visual or other sensor inspection of the particular asset under construction to verify that

it meets design requirements. Figure 8 shows the possible operational interfaces.

Figure 8 - Construction inspection drone mission operational interfaces

The site inspector provides specific inspection and test mission parameters based on an

inspection and test plan (ITP) to the drone pilot, and monitors the video or other sensor data

feed from the drone, either in real time (video) or post-mission.

The drone pilot (if different from the site inspector) flies the drone according to the mission

provided by the site inspector as mission owner, and is not competent to interpret and analyse

the sensor data. The site inspector is competent to analyse the sensor data (video, photos,

other) to determine whether the inspection has met ITP criteria.

12.4. Security officer<->drone The security officer (if not also the drone pilot) prepares and provides the security mission to the

drone pilot, and monitors the security video or photographic data feed from the drone, either in

real time (video) or post-mission.

The security officer is competent to interpret sensor data (video, photos) and is authorised to

initiate appropriate security actions.

The drone pilot (if different from the security officer) flies the drone according to the security

patrol mission provided by the security officer as mission owner, and is not competent or

authorised to interpret the data or initiate security actions.


ConstructionSite InspectorConstructionSite Inspector

Configure site inspection sensor payload (pre-flight)

View site inspection images/videos

(real-time or post-flight)

Prov

ide

site

insp

ectio

n m

issio

n (p

re-fl

ight

)

Fly site inspection

mission (in flight)

Assets under construction to be inspected




Figure 9 shows the possible operational interfaces between the security officer, pilot and drone

for a security surveillance mission.


SecurityOfficer

SecurityOfficer

Configure security patrol mission sensor payload (pre-flight)

View security patrol mission sensor

video/images (real-time or post-flight)Pr

ovid

e se

curit

y pa

trol

m

issio

n (p

re-fl

ight

)

Fly security patrol

mission (in flight)

Fleet Maintenance

Facility

Fleet Stabling facility

Figure 9 - Security drone mission operational interfaces

12.5. Asset maintainer<->drone Asset maintenance inspection activities are part of overall assurance of the asset construction,

and include visual or other sensor inspection of the particular infrastructure asset to verify that it

continues to meet design requirements.

Figure 10 shows the possible operational interfaces between the asset maintenance inspector,

drone pilot and the drone for a typical asset condition inspection mission.


Asset Maintainer/Inspector

Asset Maintainer/Inspector

Configure maintenance inspection sensor payload (pre-flight)

View/analyse maintenance inspection

images/videos (real-time or post-flight)

Prov

ide

insp

ectio

n m

issio

n (p

re-fl

ight

)

Fly maintenance inspection

mission (in flight)

Maintained assets to be inspected


Figure 10 - Asset maintenance inspection drone mission operational interfaces



The asset maintainer provides specific maintenance inspection mission parameters based on

an asset inspection plan to the drone pilot, and monitors the video or other sensor data feed

from the drone, either in real time (video) or post-mission.

The drone pilot (if not the asset maintainer) flies the drone according to the asset maintenance

inspection mission provided by the asset maintainer, and may not necessarily be competent to

interpret, analyse and act on the sensor data associated with the asset condition.

The asset maintainer or inspector is competent to analyse the sensor data (video, photos,

other) to determine whether the maintenance inspection has met condition criteria.

12.6. Disaster site manager<->drone In the event of a major disaster or accident that requires the attendance of more than one of the

emergency services (for example, train collision or derailment), a disaster site controller will

need to be established to coordinate and communicate with multiple emergency service types

across multiple operational interfaces.

The use of one or more drones on a complex disaster site will require identification, analysis

and careful management of these multiple operational interfaces.

Emergency services types typically deployed to site may include the following:

• NSW Ambulance

• Fire & Rescue NSW

• NSW Police

• NSW State Emergency Services (SES)

• Hazardous Materials Response Unit (part of Fire & Rescue NSW)

It is expected that a temporary command post may be set up on or near the disaster site,

populated by senior control representatives from each emergency service, who will

communicate with each other and with an emergency services (or disaster site) coordinator.

The actions and mission plan of each service may need to be communicated via the disaster

site coordinator to one or more licensed drone pilots.

The drone pilot (who may not be emergency services) prepares and flies the drone according to

instructions from a mission plan provided by one or more of the emergency services.

The emergency service specialists may configure the drone payload (such as camera for

disaster site surveillance, radio repeater for relaying communications, loaded medical supplies).

Once the drone has arrived over the disaster site under control of the drone pilot, it interacts

with the following actors via its mission payload:

• emergency services assisting on site (observing disposition, delivering supplies)

• disaster victims (observing disposition, condition, delivering supplies)




• general public in the vicinity (observing disposition and warning to keep clear)

These interactions may involve surveillance (video or photographic), delivery of emergency

medical supplies, and possibly even the emergency evacuation of injured victims.

Figure 11 shows the possible operational interfaces that could occur at a major disaster site.

Drone Pilot(on site)

Drone Pilot(on site)

Emergency ServicesCoordinator

Emergency ServicesCoordinator

Configure emergency site

management payload (pre-flight)

View/analyse emergency site management

data (real-time or post-flight)Provide emergency sit

e

management missi

on (pre-flight)

Fly emergency site managementmission (in flight)

Disaster Victims(on site)

Disaster Victims(on site)

Emergency Services(on site)

Emergency Services(on site)

General Public(near site)

General Public(near site)

Deliver supplies

Render emergency service

Monitor disposition

Assess (visual)

Fire ServicesFire Services PolicePolice

AmbulanceServices

AmbulanceServices

SES/RescueSES/RescueHazardousMaterials

HazardousMaterials

Provide informationMonitor disposition

Advise/warn (audible/visual)

Deliver supplies

Monitor disposition

Disaster

Figure 11 - Disaster or incident management drone operational interfaces

12.7. Emergency services<->drone This operational interface relates to 0, however this describes individual emergency services

actors and their operational use of drones in specific emergency scenarios (such as fire

services monitoring and managing a trackside bushfire via a drone), and not a more complex

multi-service disaster site requiring coordination of all or most emergency services.

12.8. P2P passenger<->despatcher<->drone For the P2P autonomous drone passenger service use case, this operational interface identifies

the possible interactions between the passenger or the owner or user (in the case of a personal

P2P passenger drone), the P2P despatching service, and the passenger drone.

In both cases considered, it is expected that user controls and interactions will be limited, and

that the drone will most likely operate in autonomous or highly automated mode.

Figure 12 shows some possible (illustrative) operational interfaces for a P2P passenger drone

use case, involving the passenger, despatcher and drone.




P2P DroneDespatcherP2P DroneDespatcher

P2P DronePassengerP2P DronePassenger

Enter drone safely

Order P2P drone service

Despatch P2P trip

Set P2P travel destinationUse emergency functionsExit drone safely

Figure 12 - P2P autonomous passenger drone operational interfaces

Possible interactions between the human passenger and a P2P passenger drone operating

under a MaaS model may include the following:

• order P2P drone service (for example, via remote mobile app)

• access and enter drone safely (start of journey)

• set P2P travel destination (and route with intermediate waypoints if necessary)

• use passenger help or emergency features (if required)

• exit drone (end of journey)

12.9. P2P freight customer<->despatcher<->drone For the P2P autonomous parcel distribution drone service use case, this operational interface

identifies the possible interactions between the freight customer and the freight drone service.

It is expected that customer controls and interactions will be limited, and that the drone will most

likely operate in autonomous or highly automated mode.

Possible interactions between the freight customer and drone (or overall drone service) may

include, but are not limited to the following:

• request P2P freight drone service (for example, via remote mobile app)

• freight customer (sender) accesses drone and loads freight (start of journey)

• set travel destination (and route with intermediate waypoints if necessary)

• freight customer (recipient) accesses drone and unloads freight (end of journey)

Figure 13 shows some possible (illustrative) operational interfaces for a potential freight drone

use case, which is illustrated in more detail in Appendix A.10.




P2P FreightDespatcherP2P FreightDespatcher

Freight Customer(Sender)

Freight Customer(Sender)

1. Order P2P Freight service

2. Des

patch

freig

ht

dron

e to s

ende

r3. Advise sender: drone arrived to collect

4. Load mini freight

6. Advise recipient: flight progress

9. Advise recipient: delivery complete

Freight Customer(Recipient)

Freight Customer(Recipient)

7. Unload mini freight

5. Advise despatcher: drone loaded

6. Advise sender: flight progress

9. Advise sender: delivery complete

10. Despatch freight

drone back to depot

8. Advise despatcher: drone unloaded

Figure 13 - P2P autonomous mini-freight drone operational interfaces

12.10. Accident investigator<->drone In the event of a drone operated by the Transport cluster being involved in an accident that

results in loss and damages, an accident investigator may need to access the drone flight

control and mission data as evidence.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is limited to investigating air transport incidents

involving people and freight, and CASA does not have a primary role of investigating air

accidents and incidents.

13. Operational modes The previous topics have touched on normal, degraded and emergency modes; therefore this

section intends to briefly define how these modes relate to drone operations. The drone

operator should identify possible degraded and emergency modes, and work these into the

operational procedures as part of risk assessment and control.

13.1. Normal mode Normal mode is the default mode, where the drone operates without failure, according to its

mission plan, within its defined use case and the operational scenarios defined in Section 14.

13.2. Degraded mode Degraded mode considers partial loss of drone functionality and performance, for example:

• low visibility (night time, smoke, dust or low cloud or mist) will adversely affect missions

and use cases involving video or imaging, but will not affect overall safety of the mission




• intermittent or total loss of mission payload wireless data link (such as video or imaging)

due to radio interference, but not affecting the safety-critical flight-control data link

• intermittent or total loss of the GPS satellite downlink, where the drone is fitted with a GPS

receiver for positional accuracy and geolocation, and is remotely piloted

• windy conditions adversely affect drone flying stability according to the mission plan

• low drone propulsion and payload battery conditions

• operating at the limit of the drone's wireless data link

13.3. Emergency mode Emergency mode considers complete loss of critical functionality or performance, for example:

• loss of drone flight-critical controls (hardware or software fault or both, data link error)

• intermittent or total loss of the GPS satellite downlink, where the drone is fitted with a GPS

receiver for positional accuracy and geolocation, and operates autonomously

• loss of drone situational awareness or line-of-sight (LOS) by the drone pilot

• loss of drone propulsion or power - sudden loss of lift and altitude

• extreme weather (leading to loss of control or situational awareness)

• multiple functions go into degraded mode

14. Operational scenarios Given the range of use cases, actors, constraints and operational interfaces, each operational

scenario describes elements of the 'day in the life of' the drone and its particular mission,

starting with mission planning, and ending with mission closeout and maintenance support.

14.1. Mission planning As discussed earlier in this document, it is envisaged that the mission owner (that is, the actor

who directly benefits from use of a drone for a particular purpose) may not be the drone pilot.

As is often the case in other drone operational sectors (for example, military), the drone pilot is

tasked with and pre-occupied with flying the drone within safe parameters, and does not have

the capacity to manage the actual mission payload (cameras, sensors, other).

The mission owner (for example, surveyor) has to plan the mission (such as route, waypoints,

operating altitude, payload deployment) and communicate this plan to the drone pilot.

In the case of simple drone missions with limited tasks, the mission owner or specialist may also

be the drone pilot, however the mission should still be properly planned regardless.

Figure 14 illustrates this drone mission planning operational scenario.




MissionOwner

MissionOwner

Mission Plan

DronePilot

DronePilot

Mission briefing

Figure 14 - Mission owner briefs mission plan to drone pilot

14.2. Mission payload selection and setup This document proposes a diverse range of drone use cases, and these will result in a diverse

range of missions to be set up by a diverse range of actors and users. This section identifies the

need, once mission planning is complete, to select and configure the mission payload.

Figure 15 illustrates this mission payload selection and configuration operational scenario.

LIDARMissionOwner

MissionOwner

Camera

Payload setup

Figure 15 - Mission owner selects and configures mission payload

For example, in the survey use case, the surveyor may set up and calibrate the LIDAR and

camera to take samples at a certain rate, altitude, resolution and lighting level.

In the security patrol use case, the security officer may need to change the camera setting (or

replace the camera) for low light level or operations at night or low visibility conditions.

14.3. Mission payload integration This phase of the mission involves the loading and integration of the mission payload (for

example, camera or LIDAR scanner in the survey use case), or loading a mini-freight pallet

(P2P freight use case), or loading an herbicide canister (vegetation control use case).

This scenario would follow the drone mission payload selection and configuration setup, but

may occur simultaneously if the drone is permanently fitted with the mission payload.

Figure 16 illustrates this drone mission payload integration operational scenario.




LIDARCamera

MissionOwner

MissionOwner

Payloadintegration

Figure 16 - Integration of mission payload onto drone

14.4. Launch and ascent This phase considers the take-off phase of a drone mission. Matters to consider are proximity to

third parties (in particular people) and vehicles, route to be followed away from the take-off

point, buildings and terrain obstacles on or near the take-off route.

Figure 17 illustrates this drone launch and ascent operational scenario.

Fly drone

Take-offDronePilot

DronePilot

Observe drone

HumansHumans


Figure 17 - Drone launch and ascent phase

The mission plan may depend on the launch method, for example, horizontal or vertical take-off,

hand-launch, sled-launch, and small runway launch. Some drone types may require some

limited fixed infrastructure, or mobile vehicle, or no launch infrastructure at all (hand-launched).

In certain circumstances the drone pilot or transport despatching service may need to notify

third parties in the vicinity of the imminent take-off and route.

The take-off route profile may need to be altered to comply with CASA geographic limits around

airports and helipads (such as maintain altitude below 120 m).

Larger drones, operating over longer mission ranges with heavier payloads and complex

missions, may need to notify air traffic controllers, if operating within CASA restricted zones.



14.5. Transit to site or destination Similar to the take-off phase, the transit to site or destination phase may require the drone pilot

or drone despatching service to carry out additional precautionary actions, including notifying

third parties and air traffic control (ATC) of the drone flight path, avoiding CASA restricted zones

around airports, maintaining regulation altitude, as well as sense and avoidance of fixed

infrastructure, people and other aircraft.

Figure 18 illustrates this drone transit to site or destination operational scenario.

Fly drone

DronePilot

DronePilot

Observe drone

Figure 18 - Drone transit to site or destination

For the P2P last-mile passenger or freight use case, this mission phase would be the primary

element of the use case, that is, transporting people or freight from source to destination.

14.6. Control handover This scenario considers where control of the drone is safely handed over from one remote pilot

to another, and would apply in the case of extended BVLOS missions.

This scenario also considers the situation where the drone pilots are co-located.

Figure 19 illustrates this operational scenario for handover of control from one pilot to another.

Fly drone

DronePilot 1DronePilot 1

DronePilot 2DronePilot 2

Fly drone

Transfer flight control

Communicate/coordinate

Observe droneObserve drone


Figure 19 - Handing over control from one pilot to another



The drone pilot should establish suitable protocols to assure proper handover of control without

adversely affecting in-flight characteristics and loss of control that could lead to a crash and

potential harm to people or assets.

14.7. Interaction with air traffic control Larger drones (that require RePL and ReOC certification from CASA to operate) may need to

interact with air traffic control authorities and systems to safely avoid other aircraft, where the

drone is required to operate in or near controlled airspace as defined by CASA.

Figure 20 illustrates this operational scenario for interacting with air traffic control.

DronePilot

DronePilot ATCS

operatorATCS

operator

Track drone

Communicate/authorise

Track aircraft

Fly drone

Other aircraft

Observe drone

Figure 20 - Interacting with air traffic control

The drone pilot may need to communicate the flight plan to air traffic controllers, and to

coordinate with controllers all phases of the flight mission with other air traffic movements.

The air traffic controller will track and monitor drone movement by RADAR or other means.

14.8. Identification to third parties The drone may be required to identify itself by markings, indicators or other means to third

parties affected by drone overflights of their property, including restricted areas such as

Defence or other security-sensitive property.

Figure 21 illustrates an operational scenario for identifying and communicating with third parties.

Fly drone

DronePilot

DronePilot Third

partyThird party

Visual indicator

Communicate/confirm

Observe drone


Figure 21 - Communicating with third parties



The drone pilot may need to communicate the drone's intended mission (such as carrying out a

survey on behalf of TfNSW, or conducting a security surveillance operation on or near the rail

corridor, or vegetation management) to affected third parties prior to the mission.

14.9. Visual line-of-sight (VLOS) operations Visual line-of-sight (VLOS) operations involve keeping the drone in visual-line-of-sight of the

drone pilot at all times.

This means not flying a drone into clouds or fog, not behind trees, buildings or other partial

obstructions. VLOS also means unaided vision except for prescription glasses or sunglasses,

and not having to use binoculars, telescopes or zoom lenses to see the unmanned aircraft.

In Europe, maximum VLOS is typically set below 122 m AGL vertically and 500 m horizontally.

In Australia, CASA has not set a limit. Maximum VLOS will vary according to the size and

‘visibility’ of the unmanned aircraft at extreme range. VLOS range can vary from about 200 m to

300 m horizontally for the popular small 'quadcopter' UAS, out to maybe 3 km to 4 km if the

unmanned aircraft is of a suitable size and colour and fitted with high-visibility lighting.

Ref: Australian Certified UAV Operators Inc.

14.10. Extended visual line-of-sight (EVLOS) operations Extended visual line-of-sight (EVLOS) operations involve the remote pilot in command relying

on one or more remote observers to keep the drone in visual sight at all times, relaying critical

flight information via radio, and assisting the remote pilot in maintaining safe separation from

other aircraft (manned or unmanned).

Figure 22 illustrates this EVLOS operational scenario involving the pilot and remote spotter.

DronePilot

DronePilot

RemoteSpotter

RemoteSpotter

Observe drone

Communicate/coordinate actions

Observe other

dronesFly drone

Other drone


Figure 22 - EVLOS operations

In theory a drone could traverse the Australian continent under EVLOS conditions, assuming

that enough remote observers are deployed across the continent to keep it in visual line-of-sight

at all times.



EVLOS operations require advanced flight-crew experience, coordination, and communications

infrastructure. EVLOS flight operations have to be notified, assessed and approved by CASA.


14.11. Beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations Beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations involve flying a drone without the remote pilot

having to keep the drone in visual line-of-sight at all times. Instead, the remote pilot flies the

drone by instruments from a remote pilot station (RPS).

BVLOS operations require higher pilot qualifications and experience to operate safely. BVLOS

operations will only be approved by CASA in specific circumstances where safe separation

standards can be ensured (that is, remote or segregated airspace), or where traditional 'see and

avoid' methodologies or new 'detect and avoid' technologies are deployed (that is, chase-plane

or approved ‘detect and avoid’ technologies).


Figure 23 illustrates this BVLOS operational scenario using radio data link range extension.

control uplink

DronePilot

DronePilot

video downlink

sense/avoid

sens

e/av

oid

sense/avoid

Other aircraft

Other drone

Figure 23 - BVLOS operations

Xcel Energy will become the first US utility to routinely fly drones beyond the operator’s line-of-

sight using advanced command and control technology, when it begins surveying electrical

transmission lines and related energy infrastructure near Denver, Colorado. The Federal

Aviation Administration (FAA) has authorised the flights by approving a waiver.

Reference: Intelligent Aerospace 2018.

14.12. Cyber attack scenario


The possibility of criminals or terrorists hacking the drone and its mission payload data needs to

be considered in terms of risk (likelihood, consequence and severity).

Related to the jamming scenario (Section 14.13), the remote drone flight control channel or

drone mission payload channel is not jammed, but the data link is intercepted and tapped, or

the integrity of the data is compromised, leading to loss of control or mission data.



Cyber security measures may need to be taken to defend against cyber attack of the drone

flight control data link or mission payload (such as video streaming) data link.

Figure 24 illustrates this drone cyber attack operational scenario.

HackerLo

se co

ntro

l

DronePilot

DronePilot

Hack droneHack controller

???

Figure 24 - Cyber attack of drone

14.13. Jamming attack scenario The drone may be expected to operate under conditions where either its remote flight control

radio link or mission payload (such as WiFi) radio data link may be jammed by a third party

electronic radio frequency emitter.

Jamming may result from natural phenomena such as lightning, or could be man-made.

Figure 25 illustrates this operational scenario for hostile radio frequency jamming of the drone.

Lose

cont

rol

DronePilot

DronePilot

Jam drone

Jam controller

???

Jammer

Figure 25 - Radio frequency jamming of drone

Man-made jamming may be unintentional (such as accidental use of another system that

operates in the same frequency band), or intentional (such as deliberate radio frequency

jamming for criminal, terrorist or military purposes).

14.14. Criminal or terrorist attack The use of drones by terrorist or criminal organisations to attack and disrupt operations in the

TfNSW transport corridors represents an existing and growing risk.

This attack and disruption could extend from interfering with transport staff carrying out their

operational and maintenance duties, to flying in the path of transport services (such as trains,

buses or ferries), to the dropping of explosives onto people and assets.




Evidence from recent global conflicts demonstrates the ease with which terrorists can obtain a

cheap commercial drone and attach an improvised explosive device (IED) for use against

troops and civilians.

While there are currently limited countermeasures that can be taken against this in the civilian

arena, NSW transport organisations need to identify and consider this risk, and consider

reasonable measures to minimise the consequence and severity of this risk.

Figure 26 illustrates this operational scenario for a criminal or terrorist attack using a drone.


Figure 26 - Criminal or terrorist drone attack

Electronic jamming devices that can disrupt the drone flight control data link and GPS receiver

(if equipped) have been deployed in military conflict areas, and may offer some mitigation

against a drone attack.

Other counter-drone solutions exist, including the use of portable net-firing launchers, anti-drone

drones that fire a net, and raptors (eagles).

Ref: Freeze Lists 2016

Criminal and terrorist incidents may seek to use drones to interfere with critical safety equipment

or to impede Transport workers from carrying out their duties.

A more aggressive application includes the use of drones to provide criminal or terrorist agents

with a surveillance or counter-surveillance capability, so as to allow them to commit offences

without being detected, or to continue to commit offences without being apprehended. The

drone itself is not the threat, but the enabler of a threat.

Finally, whilst historically state-based actors have used drones to deliver explosive weapons,

the possibility exists that criminal or terrorist actors may attempt to use drones to deploy smaller

IEDs or improvised incendiary devices (IIDs), either to create distractions or to cause terror.



14.15. Drone swarms There exists a potential scenario for use of drones in swarms. Possible examples may include a

swarm of drones operating under semi-autonomous (pre-programmed) control to carry out

vegetation control over a transport corridor.

Drone swarming capabilities demonstrated recently by Intel could be used for light displays at

New Year's Eve or Vivid events.

Other potential applications of drone swarms could be for delivering emergency medical

supplies to a disaster site, monitoring a wider area than a single drone for a security patrol, or

monitoring of passenger overcrowding following transport disruption incidents.

Where these drone swarms may be used by Transport cluster members, or by third parties on

or near to TfNSW transport assets and service corridors, suitable arrangements will need to be

established to safely manage these swarms.

Figure 27 illustrates this possible operational scenario for the use and control of a drone swarm.

control

DronePilot

DronePilot

Figure 27 - Drone swarms

Reference: Intel 2018b.

14.16. Landing This scenario considers the mission phase for landing the drone safely after completion of its

mission and return to the original launching point.

Figure 28 illustrates this operational scenario for landing the drone safely.




Fly droneDronePilot

DronePilot Landing

Observe drone

HumansHumans

Figure 28 - Landing the drone

The mission plan will need to consider how the drone will be safely piloted back to its base of

operations, without introducing safety risk or disrupting ongoing transport-related operations.

As with launch and take-off, this may differ for certain drone types (fixed wing or copter), and

suitable controls need to be in place, for example, small runway, level landing area, capture net.

14.17. Mission data download This scenario considers the mission phase involving the extraction or post-mission download of

mission data (video, LIDAR point cloud, images or other sensor data) after the drone has

returned to the base and safely landed.

Mission data could also be streamed live (such as video) during the mission, for example

security patrol missions that require real-time situational awareness and immediate reaction.

Figure 29 illustrates this operational scenario for post-flight download of mission data.

MissionOwner

MissionOwner

Mission Data Analysis Equipment

Mission data

(real-ti

me or

post-missi

on)Analyse mission data

Figure 29 - Mission data download and analysis

14.18. Drone maintenance The drone fleet, ground control and support assets will need to be maintained by a CASA-

certified maintenance facility (either operated by an entity within the NSW Transport cluster, or

by an external third-party service provider), in order to meet air certification requirements.

Figure 30 illustrates this operational scenario for maintaining the drone.




DroneMaintainer

DroneMaintainer

MaintenanceDiagnosticEquipment

Diagnostics d

ownloadPreventative/Reactive

Maintenance actions

Diagnoseproblem

Figure 30 - Maintenance interactions with the drone

A suitably CASA-qualified drone maintainer will need to access drone diagnostic data in order to

determine the health of the drone, or in the case of a fault, the cause of the fault.

The drone maintainer will also need to perform either preventative or corrective maintenance

actions on the drone with suitable tools, spares and maintenance support systems in order to

keep the drone airworthy, or to return the drone to an airworthy state following a fault.

14.19. Drone incident investigation This scenario considers the extraction or post-mission download of flight control data and

mission data (video, LIDAR point cloud, images or other sensor data) after a drone has crashed

or has caused a serious incident (such as security overflight breach by drone), or can assist in

the investigation of a serious incident (for example, crime or terrorism incident).

The accident investigator would need to be granted access to the drone and support systems,

including all data associated with the mission and flight control, as well as the mission plan and

any contractual arrangements between the mission owner and the RePL and ReOC entity.

Liability attribution will need to be determined in the event of an incident, especially in the case

of larger, fully autonomous passenger or freight carrying drones, where the safe operation of the

drone rests with software and varying degrees of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Figure 31 illustrates this operational scenario for investigating an incident involving a drone.

IncidentInvestigator

IncidentInvestigator

Incident AnalysisEquipment

Download flight d

ataPhysical inspection of drone

Analyse flightdata


Figure 31 - Drone incident investigation



14.20. Specific drone mission scenarios In addition to the generic scenarios identified in Section 14.1 to Section 14.19 that might be

common to all or most drone use cases, this section describes specific drone mission scenarios

associated with the use cases identified in Section 11.

Note: These specific operational scenarios are shown for illustrative purposes only,

and do not necessarily mandate a particular series of mission steps. They are based

on observation and analysis of a range of potential use cases and scenarios

associated with recent drone offerings, and provide a speculative insight into how

these scenarios might unfold.

14.20.1. Survey The following 'day in the life' operational scenario for a survey mission by a drone was explored

at TfNSW Drone Workshop #2:

• The client requests a survey project.

• The surveyor determines the survey data deliverables to satisfy the clients' requirements,

and establishes the drone survey mission scope.

• A survey party is assembled, including appropriate equipment (such as camera, scanner).

• The survey party establishes the drone survey control framework, including ground control,

survey targets and GNSS base stations if required.

• The survey party employs worksite protection arrangements for both the ground party, and

the drone operation in the air above and around the worksite. These arrangements include

undertaking the following activities:

o risk assessment

o safe work method statement (SWMS)

o pre-work brief

• Drone carries out survey data acquisition mission (drone pilot operating under instruction

from the surveyor, or the surveyor may fulfil both roles, depending on the complexity of the

mission), including laser scanning, photogrammetry, LIDAR survey.

• Field verification includes multiple iterative passes by drone over survey target area, using

alternative sensor technology and employing independent survey checks.

• Post-processing of survey data is done using specialist survey processing software and

skilled human operators.

• A surveyor carries out a final quality assurance (QA) verification of the survey data as an

independent check.

• Final post-processed and checked survey data deliverables are provided to the client.




14.20.2. Construction management The following 'day in the life' operational scenario for construction management missions within

the NSW transport network by a drone was explored at Drone Workshop #2:

• A range of actors could be involved in construction management using drones:

o national parks (significant transport corridors run through and near parks)

o Environment Protection Authority (EPA) for site environmental compliance

o locality stakeholders (local councils)

o emergency responders (for smaller localised incidents - not major disasters)

o security

o RMS and Transport Management Centre (TMC) (for construction on or near roads)

o rail operator, for example, rail management centre (RMC), infrastructure control

(ICON), and future rail operations centre (ROC)

• Construction management, in collaboration with the maintenance engineer (particularly on

brown field sites) and safety personnel, prepares a coordinated drone-based inspection

and surveillance requirement to the project manager.

• Key risks include, but are not necessarily limited to, site communications, ownership,

reliability and interfaces.

• The project manager engages a drone provider and briefs chief pilot on the mission plan.

• The chief pilot engages with CASA to determine the mission flight plan, particularly for

heavy drones operating outside the CASA parameters for drone flights. Depending on

mission location, the chief pilot may need to engage Defence and the TMC and RMS.

• The chief pilot appoints a certified drone pilot, who works with the construction team to

carry out appropriate inspections or other construction site management activities identified

above, each of which will require detailed planning and sequencing.

• Use of drones could support and augment existing construction management activities

needs and challenges, including the following:

o providing access to difficult-to-reach hazardous areas on site

o enhancing inspections (quality and environmental), including use of night vision

o identifying fauna (especially rare and endangered species disrupted by works)

o establishing physical construction baselines to track progress of the works

o delivering light equipment and parts to site (limited by drone payload capacity)

o identifying and eliminating construction site hazards

o monitoring construction works progress (augmenting site webcams)




o monitoring and coordinating safe, efficient site vehicle traffic movements

o monitoring ongoing site safety

o managing construction defects

o supporting and augmenting estimation activities

o optimising resource allocation

14.20.3. Maintenance inspection The following 'day in the life' operational scenario for an asset maintenance inspection (in this

case a bridge inspection) using a drone was explored at Drone Workshop #2:

• enterprise asset management system (EAMS) identifies planned bridge inspection

• asset manager (bridges) issues bridge design and inspection criteria to bridge inspector

• EAMS and relevant asset manager issues inspection order to chief pilot of drones

• chief pilot and bridge inspector establish safe site controls for drone operation, including

traffic controls, communication and coordination

• chief pilot obtains necessary approvals (CASA, RMS, and so on) for drone mission

• bridge inspector provides bridge inspection criteria for mission to drone pilot, who flies the

drone to the identified inspection points

• maintenance inspections may also include the following:

o slope inspections

o confined spaces (such as tunnels), although aerial drones don’t add value here

o critical equipment (such as electrical high voltage feeders) inspections

o any inspections requiring working at height

o rock fall and cliff stability monitoring

o erosion inspection and management

• bridge drone inspection data is downloaded from the drone (either in real time for video) or

as a post-mission download, where it goes through post-processing, analysis and upload to

the asset management system as a record

14.20.4. Security and enforcement The following 'day in the life' operational scenario for security surveillance patrols (rail

infrastructure security) by a drone was explored at Drone Workshop #2:

• the Security Control Centre plans surveillance patrol missions for known 'hot spots', or

responds to ad-hoc security incidents by despatching drone to investigate




• security surveillance drones are launched as required, carrying thermal imaging cameras

that can detect humans hiding in bushes, particularly in low light levels

• security foot patrols with dogs are still carried out, but are limited in terms of visibility and

detection of criminal perpetrators at ground level, general range of operation, and the dog's

ability to pick up the scent of perpetrators that are down wind

• in the event of the drone detecting perpetrators, the Security Control Centre can despatch

foot patrols or vehicles to the site

• NSW Police Force (NSWPF) vehicle patrols can also be coordinated and vectored to the

site of the perpetrators

• in the event of a crime in progress or detected after the fact, the NSWPF patrol vehicle and

the Security Control Centre will contact police headquarters to escalate the incident

• drone patrols are currently limited to 15 minutes duration, whereas foot patrols with dogs

are limited to 60 minutes duration

• all communications between the Security Control Centre, foot patrols, and NSWPF

vehicles are via the government radio network (GRN)

• drone missions may also be flown for post-incident forensic investigations

14.20.5. Traffic congestion and incident monitoring The following 'day in the life' operational scenario for a traffic monitoring and traffic incident

management drone was explored at Drone Workshop #2:

• customer (road user) contacts TMC to report road congestion event or incident

• traffic monitoring systems (including CCTV) send traffic flow and congestion data to TMC

• TMC contacts emergency services to respond if congestion is due to an accident

• TMC deploys drone (either directly operated by TMC or via an external operator)

• TMC notifies air traffic control that traffic monitoring drone is in the air and enroute

• TMC flies drone BVLOS to localised site or extended patrol area along motorway

• depending on incident location relative to drone launching point, drones are likely to be the

first reporting presence on site to provide initial situational awareness

• drone provides live feed to TMC, including video or static images if required

• implementation of automated machine vision and image recognition with vehicle marking

and identification may enable monitoring of shared mobility services (such as P2P, taxis)

for effectiveness in traffic

• drones may also deploy emergency equipment payload to traffic incident site (similar to

generic disaster site management, but related to specific road traffic incident)




• drones may also be used to monitor maritime traffic (such as ferries and other vessels)

• drone returns to base on completion of mission, or to recharge (in which case for extended

traffic congestion missions that exceed the drone endurance, additional drones may need

to be launched in a relay to maintain continuous coverage)

• download mission payload data (video or still images) for post-mission analysis

14.20.6. Vegetation management The following is a potential 'day in the life' operational scenario for vegetation management:

• asset manager identifies areas of high vegetation growth and impact on operations

• engage with asset disciplines affected by vegetation, for example electrical for trees

growing near electrical exclusion zones, trees and bushes obscuring railway signals or

road traffic signals, weeds and bushes growing onto pavements and road side

• develop annual vegetation management plan and inspection and treatment schedule

• engage drone operator and brief chief pilot on annual vegetation management plan

• vegetation management staff brief drone pilot on mission type, which may include the

following:

o vegetation inspection; such as aerial monitoring of blue gum trees near railways

o vegetation eradication; such as aerial spraying of weed killer on road-side areas

o vegetation seeding; such as aerial seed dispersal to rehabilitate construction sites

o vegetation fertilising; such as aerial spraying of liquid fertiliser on trackside plants

o vegetation irrigation; such as aerial irrigation of difficult-access vertical gardens

• establish safe operating conditions and exclusion zone for third parties for aerial drone

vegetation survey or inspection mission

• drone surveys vegetation growth around transport corridor or other assets, including the

following:

o LIDAR survey of vegetation around transport corridor (rail, road, ferry, active)

o photogrammetric survey of vegetation growth to overlay on LIDAR point cloud

o multi-spectral (that is, infrared) camera to identify health of trees (rot, termites)

• compare vegetation survey with previous survey to measure growth and infringement

• use human skill or specialist software to identify vegetation growth that may impact

operations, either by obscuration of line-of-sight, electrical clearance incursion, or trees

falling onto transport corridors (hazardous trees)

• conduct vegetation control and spraying mission, including the following:




o plan vegetation control and spraying operations based on growth survey

o engage drone operator to conduct vegetation spraying operations

o establish safe operating conditions and exclusion zone on site for aerial delivery of

herbicide sprays

14.20.7. Incident and disaster management The following is a potential 'day in the life' operational scenario for disaster management:

• emergency response centre receives notification of disaster or major incident

• emergency response coordinator (within TfNSW) assesses the nature and severity of the

incident, and identifies appropriate emergency services to contact or deploy

• due to the nature of emergency incidents and disasters, TfNSW and its agencies may need

to own and operate their own fleet of emergency response drones, however TfNSW may

need 'on-call' arrangements with certified and approved drone operators

• the emergency response coordinator or disaster site manager communicates and

coordinates disaster site operations, including drone mission planning with emergency

services (police, ambulance, fire, SES and rescue, hazmat)

• brief one or more specific emergency services drone missions to respective pilots

• establish safe site conditions for carrying out drone operations, including spotters and geo-

fenced exclusion zones

• configure specific emergency drone mission payloads (including but not limited to video

and still cameras for surveillance, night vision cameras for night-time operations,

searchlights for site illumination at night, or medical payloads for disaster relief)

• fly drone mission including, but not necessarily limited to the following actions:

o fly within the constraints set by the safe site operating conditions for drones

o stream video of disaster site and relief operations to response centre

o record video and static images for post incident analysis

o monitor disposition of victims, emergency personnel and general public

o assess severity of the situation, and potential subsequent hazards to victims,

emergency responders and general public in the vicinity

o deliver emergency supplies to emergency responders and victims on site

o assist in the efficient deployment of emergency responder resources

o provide audible notifications and warnings to emergency responders, victims and

general public in the vicinity

o provide post-disaster and incident forensic analysis and investigation




o provide human rescue and extraction services (human-carrying drone)

o while not necessarily a disaster, facilitate large event crowd control

• if necessary, operate drone missions in relays where disaster site management operations

require a continuous drone presence over many hours

• conduct post-incident analysis of disaster site drone mission for lessons learned

14.20.8. Work health and safety (WHS) on-site training The following 'day in the life' operational scenario for use of drones to augment on-site training

was explored at Drone Workshop #2:

• take inductee or trainee to the drone viewing centre

• drone operator flies drone over specified site where WHS induction is needed

• trainer identifies potential site-specific hazards to inductee prior to drone arrival

• interactive question and answer session between trainer (WHS manager) and inductee

• trainer identifies potential site hazards to inductee on site via live video feed

• continue drone travel to specified sites for situational awareness and hazard training

• drone operator flies drone back to stabling

• the workshop identified the following 'actors' associated with training using drones:

o trainers and facilitators (WHS trainers)

o trainee (worksite inductee)

o drone operator (pilot)

o site manager (responsible for safe, efficient management of site operations)

o safety manager (specifically responsible for site safety)

o site safety auditors

o technical managers, engineers (technical subject matter experts)

• the following potential topics for use of drones in training were identified:

o virtual reality or augmented reality tours

o hazard identification to site safety auditors and inductees

o WHS 'fit for work' inspections

o site inductions to create and verify induction checklists

o 'gamification' to solve problems

• the following risks are associated with the introduction of drones for training:

o potential distraction of on-site staff from their normal tasks © State of NSW through Transport for NSW 2018 of 93



o replacement of other human senses by visual-only sense

o potential complacency due to reliance on drones for site induction

• the following risks could be removed by introducing drones for training:

o identification and removal of personnel not competent to work on site

14.20.9. Entertainment light show The following 'day in the life' operational scenario for use of drone swarms for entertainment

light shows was explored at TfNSW Drone Workshop #2:

• TfNSW collaborates with an event coordinator to plan a light or fireworks show such as

New Year's Eve or Vivid, by establishing customer needs for a drone-based light show

• these customer needs lead to planning and logistics for the show

• key risks are identified for a drone light show, including but not limited to drone data link

communications disruption, public relations risks associated with an incident at the show,

and drones (drone swarms) crashing into people or vehicles on the ground

• the show plan and logistics drives a concept design for the show, including timing and

choreography of drone resources

• a suitably licensed and authorised drone operator is procured or hired for the show

• drone operator engages and notifies CASA of the drone light show concept design

• drone operator tests the show concept design in safe environment prior to the event

• drone operator implements the drone light show on the night (this will in itself consist of

multiple actions executed during the display)

• relevant actors evaluate post-show results and provide feedback to all key actors to ensure

that lessons are learned, shared and implemented effectively for future events

• potential actors or stakeholders involved in a drone-based light show may include the

following:

o TfNSW as potential event sponsor

o event coordinator

o marketing companies

o drone operator companies

o drone chief pilot

o Sydney Trains (particularly train operations on the Sydney Harbour Bridge)

o RMS (particularly Sydney Harbour Bridge, including road traffic)

o Sydney Metro




o Sydney Buses and other relevant private bus operators

o CASA

o emergency services

o members of public (via public advertising)

14.20.10. P2P on-demand passenger transport trip Expanding on the 'P2P on-demand passenger drone' operational use case in Section 11.4.1

and the operational interfaces identified in Section 12.8, a possible 'day in the life' operational

scenario is described below and illustrated in Appendix A.9:

• the customer orders a P2P on-demand passenger trip via a mobile app

• the app prepares and sends a secure digital order to the P2P trip order server

• the P2P trip order server and human trip despatcher checks validity of the order and drone

availability, and sends a 'trip order confirm' back to the online customer

• the P2P trip order server sends a 'trip mission initiate' command to a P2P passenger trip

mission server, which checks drone availability at the drone stable, and uploads the

specific P2P trip mission (including waypoints) to the selected available drone

• the P2P trip order server sends 'P2P passenger drone on its way' notification to customer

• the P2P passenger drone launches from a drone stable and flies autonomously to the

passenger pickup point, where the passenger boards the P2P passenger drone

• the P2P passenger drone autonomously launches and flies to the passenger drop-off point

identified in the passenger's online order, where the passenger disembarks

• the P2P trip order server sends 'confirm passenger dropped off' notification to the customer

• the P2P passenger drone launches from drop-off point and flies autonomously back to the

drone stable, where the trip mission data is downloaded and trip mission closed

• the P2P trip mission server sends a 'trip mission complete' notification to the P2P trip order

server, which sends a 'P2P trip order completed' notification to the customer

• throughout the P2P autonomous launch and flight between drone stable, passenger pickup

and drop-off points, the P2P trip drone is tracked by air traffic control

14.20.11. P2P on-demand freight transport trip Expanding on the 'P2P on-demand freight drone' operational use case in Section 11.4.2 and the

operational interfaces identified in Section 12.9, a possible 'day in the life' operational scenario

is described below and illustrated in Appendix A.10:

• The customer places a freight delivery order for an item via a mobile app.

• The app prepares and sends a secure digital order to the P2P freight order server. © State of NSW through Transport for NSW 2018 of 93



• The P2P freight order server and human freight despatcher checks validity of the order and

item availability, and sends a 'freight order confirm' notification to the online customer.

• The P2P freight order server sends a 'mission initiate' command to a P2P freight drone

mission server, which checks drone availability at the drone stable, and uploads the

specific P2P freight mission (including waypoints) to the selected available drone.

• The P2P freight order server sends 'confirm freight item despatch' notification to customer.

• The P2P freight drone launches from a drone stable and flies autonomously to a freight

pickup point where the ordered item is located. The freight pickup point may be part of the

P2P freight operator's premises (for example, Amazon Prime is trialling its own P2P drone

delivery service from its own warehouses), or it could be a third party supplier.

• The supplier loads the item onto the drone, which autonomously launches and flies to the

freight drop-off point at the customer's premises, where the item is unloaded.

• The P2P freight order server sends a 'confirm freight delivery' notification to the customer.

• The P2P freight drone launches from the freight drop-off point and flies autonomously back

to the drone stable, where the mission data is downloaded and closed.

• The P2P freight mission server sends 'freight mission complete' notification to the P2P

freight order server, who in turn sends a 'freight order completed' to the customer.

• Throughout the P2P autonomous launch and flight between the drone stable, freight pickup

and drop-off points, the P2P freight drone is tracked by air traffic control.

• P2P freight services over waterways could be considered.




Appendix A Drone use cases A use case diagram, as shown in the figures below, is a graphic depiction of the interactions

among the elements of a system. The box depicts the boundary of the "system-of-interest" (in

this case the drone system). The stick figures represent external "actors" that interact with the

system functions via the system boundary. Actors may be human or other systems. The ellipses

within the boundary box represent the functions that the system provides or enables.




A.1. Use case 1: survey

Use Case 1: Surveyor Drone

Surveyor

Drone Pilot

Drone Maintainer

Charging Station

Enter SurveyMission

Charge DroneBattery

«uses»

«uses»

«uses»

Fly Drone Mission

Provide DroneFault Diagnostics

«uses»

Provide Access toDrone Maintainer«uses»

Perform DroneMaintenance Action

«uses»

Other Air Vehicles

Notify/Book FlightPlan

«uses»

Confirm Flight Plan«uses»

Sense/AvoidCollisions

«uses»

Other Drones

Fixed Structures

«uses»

«uses»

Log Flight /Incident Data

Monitor FlightPlan Progress


«uses»

«uses»

Extract SurveyResults Data

«uses»

Close Flight Plan

«uses»

Air Traffic Control

Differential GPS Fixed Station

Drone Position FixEnhancement

GNSS (GPS) Satellites

«uses»Drone Survey Position Fixing

«uses» «extends»


Figure 32 - Use case 1 - survey



A.2. Use case 2: vegetation management

Use Case 2: Vegetation Control Drone

Maintainer/Landscaper

Drone Pilot

Drone Maintainer

Charging StationEnter VegetationControl Mission

Charge DroneBattery

«uses»

«uses»

«uses»Fly Drone Mission


«uses»

Provide Access toDrone Maintainer

«uses»


«uses»

Other Air Vehicles


«uses»

Confirm Flight Plan «uses»


«uses»

Other Drones

Fixed Structures

«uses»

«uses»




«uses»

«uses»

Load Vegetation Control Payload

«uses»

Close Flight Plan

«uses»

Air Traffic Control

Load Liquid Herbicide

Load Water

Load Liquid Fertiliser

Load Seed


Figure 33 - Use case 2 - vegetation management



A.3. Use case 3: construction site inspection

Use Case 3: Construction Site Management Drone

Construction Site Inspector

Drone Pilot

Drone Maintainer

Charging Station Enter ConstructionSite Management

Mission

Charge DroneBattery

«uses»

«uses»



«uses»


«uses»


«uses»

Other Air Vehicles


«uses»



«uses»

Other Drones

Fixed Structures

«uses»

«uses»




«uses»

«uses»

Access ConstructionSite Management

Data

«uses»

Close Flight Plan

«uses»

Air Traffic Control

ConstructionSite Activity Monitoring

Mission

Enter ConstructionAsset Inspection

Mission

ConstructionSite Activity Monitoring

Video/Images

Enter ConstructionAsset Inspection

Images


Figure 34 - Use case 3 - construction site inspection



A.4. Use case 4: maintenance inspection

Use Case 4: Maintenance Inspection Drone

Maintenance Inspector

Drone Pilot

Drone Maintainer

Charging Station Enter MaintenanceSite Inspection Mission

Charge DroneBattery

«uses»

«uses»



«uses»


«uses»


«uses»

Other Air Vehicles


«uses»



«uses»

Other Drones

Fixed Structures

«uses»

«uses»




«uses»

«uses»

Access MaintenanceSite Inspection Data

«uses»

Close Flight Plan

«uses»

Air Traffic Control


Figure 35 - Use case 4 - maintenance inspection



A.5. Use case 5: disaster site management

Use Case 5: Disaster Site Management Drone

Disaster Site Manager

Drone Pilot

Drone Maintainer

Charging Station

Load Drone withEmergency Supplies

Charge DroneBattery

«uses»

«uses»

«uses»

Fly Drone Mission

Pickup/DropoffVictim«uses»


«uses»

Provide Access toDrone Maintainer«uses»


«uses»

Disaster Victim

Provide EmergencySupplies

«uses»

Other Air Vehicles

Notify/Book FlightPlan«uses»



«uses»

Other Drones

Fixed Structures

«uses»

«uses»




«uses»

«uses»

Air Traffic Control


Figure 36 - Use case 5 - disaster site management



A.6. Use case 6: P2P passenger-carrying

Use Case 6: Passenger-Carrying Drone

Drone Despatcher/Controller

Drone Passenger

Drone Maintainer

Charging Station

Air Traffic Control

Other Air Vehicles

Issue/ReceiveDespatch Order

Charge DroneBattery

«uses»

«uses»

«uses»


«uses»

Process PassengerBooking Request

«uses»


Pickup/DropoffUser/Passenger

«uses»Sense/Avoid

Collisions

«uses»


«uses»

Other MaaS P2P Drones

Fixed Structures

«uses»

«uses»


«uses»



«uses»

«uses»

PerformMaintenance Action

«uses»

Provide PassengerLife Support

«uses»



Figure 37 - Use case 6 - P2P passenger-carrying



A.7. Use case 7: composite use case

Use Case 6: All

P2P Service Provider

P2P Passenger

Drone Maintainer

Charging Station

Charge DroneBattery

«uses»

«uses»

Book P2P FlightPlan (Autonomous)

«uses»

Book & Confirm P2PPassenger Trip

«uses»

Transport P2PPassenger

«uses»

Access Drone FaultDiagnostic Data

«uses»

Maintain Drone

«uses»

Provide PassengerLife Support

Air Traffic Control

Other Air Vehicles

Accept Flight Plan(large drones only) «uses»


«uses»

Fixed Structures, Trees, Terrain

«uses»«uses»

Access Flight LogData

Track FlightProgress (large drones)

«uses»

«uses»


Suveyor

Drone Pilot

Enter SurveyMission Data

«uses»

Fly Various PilotedMissions (Manual)Request Flight Plan

(Large Drones Only)

«uses»

Extract SurveyResults Data

«uses»

Close Flight Plan(Large Drones Only)

«uses»

Landscaper

Monitor VegetationGrowth

«uses»

Deliver HerbicideTreatment

«uses»

Constructor (various)

InspectConstruction Site

«uses»

Access ConstructionSite Inspection Data

«uses»

Maintainer (various)

Plan MaintenanceInspection Mission

«uses»

Access MaintenanceInspection Data «uses»

Disaster Victim(s)

Transport DisasterVictim

«uses»

Disaster Site Manager

TransportEmergency Supplies

«uses»

Monitor DisasterSite Operations

Survey DisasterSite

«uses»

«uses»

Security

Plan SecuritySurveillance Mission

Conduct SecuritySurveillance Mission

«uses»

«uses»

«uses»

Humans

Monitor Fire

Firefighters

«uses»

Fly P2P Mission(Autonomous)

«extends»

Deliver Tools,Spares, Materials

«uses»

«uses»

«uses»

Deliver FireSuppressant

«uses»

«extends»

«extends»

«extends»

Differential GPS Fixed Station

Drone Position FixEnhancement

GNSS (GPS) Satellites

«uses»

Drone Survey Position Fixing

«uses»

«extends»


Figure 38 - Use case 7 - composite use case - all uses



A.8. 'Day in the life of' (DITLO) generic operational scenarios


Figure 39 - DITLO generic operational scenarios



A.9. P2P passenger service - possible DITLO operational scenario (speculative - refer to 14.20.10)

Air TrafficControl

Air TrafficControl

P2P TripCustomer

(Passenger)

P2P TripCustomer

(Passenger)

P2P Trip Order ServerMobile

Device

Submit trip request

P2P Trip DroneMission Server

Use P2P Passenger

Trip Order App

P2P trip mission Initiate command

Acknowled

ge O

nline t

rip O

rder

Initi

ate

P2P

trip

miss

ion

Upload P2P trip mission

P2P trip Despatcher

Confirm trip request

Fly to passenger pickup point

Land at passenger pickup point

Launch from passenger pickup point

Fly to passenger dropoff point

Land at passenger dropoff point

Register empty passenger drone launch

Track empty passenger drone flight to pickup point

Trac

k pa

ssen

ger d

rone

land

ing

at p

icku

p po

int

Track passenger drone launch fro

m pickup point

Track passenger drone flight to dropoff point

Track passenger drone landing at dropoff point

Launch from dropoff point

Fly to passenger drone stable

Land at passenger drone stable

Track empty passenger drone launch from

dropoff pointTrac

k em

pty

pass

enge

r dro

ne fl

ight

to d

rone

stab

le

Regist

er em

pty pas

senge

r dro

ne lan

ding at s

table

P2P trip mission Complete notification

Confirm drone despatch

Confirm trip complete

Close P2P trip order

Downl

oad

P2P t

rip M

issio

n De

brief

Launch from passenger drone stable

Passenger boardsdrone

Passenger Leaves drone

Select from passenger drone stable


Figure 40 - P2P passenger service - possible DITLO operational scenario



A.10. P2P freight service - possible DITLO operational scenario (speculative - refer to 14.20.11)

Air TrafficControl

Air TrafficControl

P2P FreightCustomer

(Client)

P2P FreightCustomer

(Client)

P2P Freight Order Server

MobileDevice

Submit Freight Order

P2P Freight DroneMission Server

Use P2P Freight

Order App

P2P Freight Mission Initiate Command

Ackn

owled

ge O

nlin

e

P2P

Freig

ht O

rder

Initi

ate

P2P

Frei

ght M

issio

n

Upload freight transport mission details

P2P Freight Despatcher

Confirm Freight Order

Launch from freight drone stable

Fly to freight pickup point

Land at freight pickup point

Load Freight(Supplier)

Launch from freight pickup point

Fly to freight dropoff point

Land at freight dropoff point

Unload Freight(Customer)

Register drone launch

Track drone flight

Trac

k dr

one

land

ing

Track drone launch

Track drone flight

Track drone landing

Launch from freight dropoff point

Fly to freight drone stable

Land at freight drone stable

Track drone launch

Trac

k dr

one

fligh

t

Register d

rone landing

P2P Freight Mission Complete Notification

Confirm Freight Despatch

Confirm Freight Delivery

Close Freight Order

Download fr

eight t

ransp

ort miss

ion details

Select from freight drone stable

Supplier loads freight onto drone

Customer unloads freight from drone


Figure 41 - P2P freight service - possible DITLO operational scenario



A.11. Disaster site management - possible DITLO operational scenario (speculative - refer to 14.20.7)

Fly specific emergency drone missions

Disaster

IncidentReporterIncidentReporter

MobileDevice

Emergency/DisasterControl Centre

Assign Emergency Site Coordinator

Assign Emergency Site Coordinator

Brief specific emergency missions to drone pilots

Emergency SiteCoordinator


Fire ServicesFire ServicesPolicePolice

AmbulanceServices

AmbulanceServices

SES/RescueSES/Rescue

HazardousMaterials

HazardousMaterials

Security

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

Spray FireSuppressant

MonitorDisaster site

DronePilot(s)DronePilot(s) Drone

PilotDronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

Deliver MedicalSupplies

Deliver HazMat Treatment

DronePilot

DronePilot

VictimsVictimsEmergencyPersonnel

EmergencyPersonnel

GeneralPublic

GeneralPublic

Configure specific emergency drone payloads

Load FireSuppressant

Install/setup surveillance

cameras

PolicePolice FireService

FireService

AmbulanceAmbulanceLoad Medical

Supplies

Load HazMatTreatmentChemicals

HazMatHazMat

AmbulanceAmbulanceFire ServiceFire ServiceHazMatHazMat

Security

SESSES

Debrief specific emergency mission drone pilots



Fire ServicesFire Services

PolicePolice

AmbulanceServices

AmbulanceServices


HazardousMaterials

HazardousMaterials

Security

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

DronePilot

Debrief emergency services/Closeout

Coordinate/Brief emergency services




AmbulanceServices

AmbulanceServices


HazardousMaterials

HazardousMaterials

Security




AmbulanceServices

AmbulanceServices


HazardousMaterials

HazardousMaterials

Security


Figure 42 - Disaster site management - possible DITLO operational scenario

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