SHENZHEN will work out a plan to designate off-limits and control areas for flying drones to eliminate the threats they pose to flights.

A meeting of related government agencies will be held this month to work out the measures, according to Shenzhen transport commission.

The city’s information technology commission issued a notice recently, suggesting civilian drone makers add flight-control chips and set up electronic fences to ban drones from entering restricted areas.

According to related aviation rules, the area, which is within 20 kilometers of both ends of a runway and within 10 kilometers of the central line of a runway, comprises the aerial clearance area to protect flights. Within this area, the height of buildings is controlled and flying objects, such as balloons and drones, are banned.

The city will set up a joint conference mechanism to coordinate the production, sale, use and supervision of drones and set up a data platform to supervise drones. The information technology commission required that relevant companies use technologies to improve an ID-based sale mechanism to ensure drones could be identified, monitored, controlled and traced.

According to Shao Jianhuo, senior vice president of DJI, a regular drone has a flight-control system that can set the flying height. An electronic fence can restrict drones from entering restricted areas.

DJI sets a height limit of 500 meters for its drones. A new user can adjust the drone according to their needs by setting it at 30 meters in height and 50 meters in distance.

However, some drones produced by unlicensed makers still pose threats as they can fly higher and are uncontrollable. Some even modify the apps to disable electronic fences.

The city now has more than 300 drone makers and business turnover has reached 20 billion yuan (US$2.94 billion) a year. Yet there aren’t any unified standards for performance tests, communication protocol, navigation and quality control, leading to discrepancies and irregularities in drone products. The Shenzhen Drone Association recently unveiled eight standards for drones, hoping the market supervision authority, the Shenzhen Institute of Standards and Technology and drone makers including DJI will promote the standardization of drones.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China recently required owners of civilian drones weighing more than 250 grams to register with their IDs this month.

Several incidents related to drones were reported in the past few months.

In one incident, a drone was spotted above a runway at the Mianyang airport in Sichuan Province on Feb. 2, leading to flight delays.

(Richard Han)