Lt. Gov. Brent Sanford joins us for a bonus episode of "Work Worth Doing" to discuss the plan for a new statewide traffic control network for unmanned aircraft systems. Find out why North Dakota is America's proving grounds for UAS.
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| Welcome to a bonus episode of Work Worth Doing. | |
| I'm Mark Staples. | |
| Today is a special episode of the podcast so we can tell you about some exciting new developments in the unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, industry, and because we are joined for the first time on this podcast by Lieutenant Governor Brent Sanford. | |
| He chairs the Northern Plains Unmanned Systems Authority and has been leading the charge in our office to support and expand North Dakota's UAS industry. | |
| Lieutenant Governor, thanks for joining us. | |
| Absolutely. | |
| Excited to be here talking about UAS. Let's start at the beginning. | |
| Can you explain what's so exciting about UAS and why the industry is flourishing in our state? | |
| Absolutely. | |
| North Dakota is attracting global UAS companies to come here and develop their technology. | |
| There are a lot of reasons for this, but there are a few key components. | |
| North Dakota has a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship that is very beneficial for UAS commercialization and research. | |
| And our higher education institutions are fostering that culture of innovation by providing students with great opportunities to get involved with emerging technologies. | |
| UND has been a global leader in aviation education for 50 years, and they were quick to support the emergence of unmanned aircraft. | |
| They started offering a UAS operations degree back in 2009, and it can be catered to students who want to specialize in larger commercial UAS or the small UAS market. | |
| A little further to the south, you have North Dakota State University with a great engineering program that is instrumental in making innovative unmanned aircraft and students involved in computing technologies that help us analyze the data gathered by these drones. | |
| Wow, so not only is the state a great place to fly the drones, but we've been a leader in teaching students how to succeed in the industry. | |
| Exactly, and this early adopter attitude was reflected back at the Capitol, too. | |
| There have been many years of leadership at the state level that understood UAS as a rapidly growing industry and that North Dakota would benefit greatly from jumping in early on. | |
| This is what led to the creation of a unique public-private partnership at the Northern Plains UAS test site. | |
| This is a state-supported initiative that's working with private business and the federal government to develop the strongest UAS climate that we can. | |
| This is all happening in a first-of-its-kind commercial UAS research and development park known as Grand Sky, located at the Grand Forks Air Force Base. | |
| That seems like that would be a great place to test out a drone. | |
| It is. | |
| That placement was definitely an important factor with Grand Sky. | |
| That's actually just one way the federal government has been involved in supporting our UAS industry in recent years. | |
| And about a year ago, the FAA selected the North Dakota Department of Transportation as one of just 10 participants in the UAS Integration Pilot Program. | |
| Our test site was chosen to conduct research on how to safely integrate UAS into the national airspace. | |
| But let's get to the latest developments. | |
| What's the big news about UAS in North Dakota? | |
| Well, one of the limitations of UAS has always been that you are not able to fly the aircraft beyond visual line of sight. | |
| When pilots at Grand Sky have wanted to test long-distance flights, they've needed to have a chase plane following the drone. | |
| So you would have this piece of technology that's intended to be flown by someone on the ground from any location, but it's being trailed by a manned aircraft, never leaving the line of sight. | |
| It limits what our operators can do, and it's not exactly cost-effective. | |
| So back in November, our office announced a proposal for the development of a statewide air traffic control network for unmanned aircraft. | |
| We gave further detail on the budget address in December, and when the legislature convened in January, we saw support for this idea from the very beginning. | |
| As the legislature considered our proposal and the funding associated with it, there were industry representatives that came to the Capitol to provide testimony on the potential impact of this network, not only representing the UAS industry, but offering support from the ag and energy industries as well. | |
| The funding was included in the Commerce Department's Budget Bill, House Bill 1018, as part of a $33 million UAS package. | |
| $28 million for a statewide network, $3 million to upgrade infrastructure at Grand Sky, and $2 million for operations at the Northern Plains test site. | |
| And that was the package that passed through the legislature with broad support. | |
| The final vote was 72 to 20 in the House and 44 to 2 in the Senate. | |
| And now that brings the total support from the state of North Dakota for the UAS industry up to approximately $77 million over the years. | |
| But, as Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Ray Holmberg, said recently, this is a race we cannot win with money alone. | |
| To be number one, you have to think and act like you're number one. | |
| He's absolutely right. | |
| And now our UAS industry will have a network to support our frontrunner mindset. | |
| So when we talk about an air traffic control system for UAS, it's not what you see at a What exactly does this statewide UAS network look like? | |
| Correct. | |
| It's not a tower next to a runway watching drones fly in and out. | |
| Instead, it's a network of points around the state that will act as an aircraft surveillance system to make sure a drone won't interfere with manned aircraft. | |
| There's also a radio system component of the network to allow for remote command and control of the drone. | |
| And when you say statewide, will this really be available statewide? | |
| Yes, it's been explained to me as a massive Wi-Fi network that will cover every corner of the state. | |
| That operator will just need to get enrolled as a user of the network and access the information they need. | |
| Now, you mentioned just a minute or two ago that this project has received support from people who aren't directly tied to the UAS industry. | |
| Who will this project benefit, and why? | |
| It's going to be great for the whole state. | |
| We already have 40 companies in North Dakota that are either a UAS company or using drones as a key part of their business. | |
| And the Commerce Department is fielding calls every single week from UAS companies around the world that want to do business in North Dakota. | |
| But we know that unmanned aircraft are becoming more and more popular with industries beyond aviation. | |
| Drones are a highly efficient way to gather data. | |
| For example, a drone can fly over a field of soybeans and gather data on how the crop is performing, where there might be wet spots or dry spots, a map where weeds are getting out of control and the farmer needs to apply herbicide. | |
| UAS technology can also help with remote inspection of critical infrastructure. | |
| Imagine there's an oil pipeline running out of the Bakken that developed a small leak in an older section of the pipeline. | |
| Without a drone or some other data collecting device, that leak may go undetected until somebody happens to walk by a dark spot on the ground. | |
| Now, if you had a drone regularly flying autonomously over the pipeline to monitor this infrastructure, the UAS technology would pick up this issue much sooner, and the pipeline operator would be able to greatly limit the environmental impact of a leak. | |
| There's also a public safety benefit. | |
| Law enforcement agencies will be able to use this technology to assist in missing persons investigations and crash reconstructions. | |
| Maintenance crews can inspect roadways and bridges. | |
| And to envision a day-to-day consumer application, shoppers in rural areas may one day get their packages delivered straight from the internet to their home, courtesy of a drone. | |
| With a statewide network, this technology won't be limited to a small corridor of activity. | |
| This will be available everywhere, which will provide a huge opportunity for economic diversification in our small communities. | |
| So, Lieutenant Governor Stanford, what happens now? | |
| What's in store for UAS and North Dakota? | |
| The Commerce Department will be going through the process of actually constructing this network. | |
| They can start laying the foundation now. | |
| North Dakota is America's top proving grounds for UAS. This is a huge step forward to stay in front of the pack. | |
| The industry here is accelerating very quickly. | |
| The Northern Plains UAS test site had their first flight in May of 2014, which lasted 15 minutes with a five-pound drone that flew for three-quarters of a mile. | |
| Fast forward to August of 2018, where a 2,200-pound UAS flew for three hours, 30 miles away from the pilot. | |
| All signs point to even greater growth in the future, and this network is key to making that happen. | |
| This network isn't the goal line. | |
| This is the start of a challenge. | |
| It's a challenge to companies that come to North Dakota and grow, but it's also a challenge to the rest of the world. | |
| Major investments like this tell the rest of the world that cutting-edge UAS research, testing, and commercialization is ready for takeoff in North Dakota. | |
| Thanks, Lieutenant Governor Sanford, for joining us today. | |
| We'll be sharing information with you as this project gets underway, so make sure to follow along with us at governor.nd.gov. | |
| I'd also like to take a moment to thank our audio producer, Alicia Jollip. | |
| She's been doing this podcast with us since we started, and we couldn't do it without her help. | |
| Finally, thank you for tuning in to a special episode of Work Worth Doing. | |
| We just couldn't wait to share this news with you. | |
| We'll be back with more stories of the incredible work being done all around the state of North Dakota by the members of Team ND. That's all for today's episode. |