Ohio will test $40,000 drone to monitor its highways with special FAA permission

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- An Ohio agency has added a nearly $40,000 drone and special permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to its arsenal, and will begin testing the aircraft in monitoring the state's highways.

The Ohio Department of Transportation acquired a Censys Sentaero 5 drone for $39,689, spokeswoman Breanna Badanes confirmed to NBC4. The agency has chosen a four-mile stretch of U.S. 33 between U.S. 42 and Watkins Road as the testing grounds for its drone pilots. There, paired with spotters on the ground, they'll practice using the Sentaero for incident management and traffic monitoring.

ODOT already has an extensive, publicly-available network of ground cameras on the state's highways. But there are still areas where they're missing, and Badanes said the Sentaero can benefit emergency responders with sensors for radiation and chemical toxins, which the ground cameras don't have.

"Expanding operations across the state will allow us to cover gaps in our fixed camera system and gain valuable information about the movement of traffic across our transportation system," Badanes said.

Rich Fox, ODOT's Unmanned Aircraft System Center Director, said the drone offers another way for the agency to quickly get real-time data beyond what the stationary ground cameras offer, such as finding crashes, congestion or hazards on the roads.

"Depending on the aircraft, they can be equipped with object detection and analytics, which form a critical piece in improving safety on the roadway,” Fox said. "This is just the beginning."

ODOT's plan for the drone falls outside the norm for the majority of commercial and recreational drone pilots. The FAA requires most pilots to only fly their drones in a way that lets them constantly keep a visual line-of-sight on the unmanned aircraft systems. In order to fly a drone where a pilot can't directly see it, they have to apply to receive a waiver from the FAA that grants special permission to do so.

Badanes confirmed on Feb. 28 that ODOT's pilots obtained a beyond visual line-of-sight waiver from the FAA. Censys, the company behind the Sentaero 5, advertises it as specifically intended for flights beyond visual line-of-sight. It touted on its website that the drone can stay up in the air for an hour, and can fly up to 40 miles away from its pilot.

Badanes did not respond to a question on if ODOT would be purchasing more drones, or just planned to operate with the single Sentaero. She did say that no test date for the drone had been set as of Thursday, since the crew is still training on how to use it.