Transversal skills
Responding to physical circumstances
The responding to physical circumstances cluster of physical and manual skills and competences reflects the following concepts customised to specific circumstances and occasions of agricultural drones’ technologies:
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- Adjust to physical demands
- React quickly to physical changes or hazards
Considering the usage of drones’ technologies in the agricultural sector, this cluster of skills is related to the ability of timely reaction to technical and operational risks including malfunctions, failures, errors, or interference that could affect the performance, control, or communication of the drone. These risks may cause drone to crash, lose power, fly away, or damage property or people.
Potential hazards vary according to the mission however, common related hazards include:
- Buildings
- Trees and other plants
- Bodies of water
- Geographical attributes (cliffs, hills, embankments)
- Traffic that could move through the flight plan
- Animals
- People presently in or near the flight plan and people who could potentially enter into the flight space during the flight
- Powerlines and power infrastructure
- Weather and wind
The pre-flight checklist must include a thorough inspection of the drone to ensure it is functioning and airworthy. This includes checks on the airframe, batteries and drive train.
It is also necessary to check that the controller is functioning correctly. Once the pre-flight checklist is completed and the airspace requirements (NOTAM, weather, airspace class etc.) are met, the operator/pilot should thoroughly observe the flight path to identify potential hazards and ways of mitigating them.
The flight plan must then be updated to include the hazards and how it is intended to avoid them. This may often be done implicitly through the flight path and navigation system, however, it is necessary to continuously monitor the environment for changes that present new hazards during the mission.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use that might be made of the information contained therein. 2022-1-EL01-KA220-VET-000088550