State Rep. Shannon Roers Jones, chair of the Interim Legislative Workforce Committee, discussed some of the Legislature's options following a two-day listening session hosted Thursday, Nov. 30, and Friday at UND and North Dakota State University in Fargo, respectively.
"We have a much greater ability to test these systems safely in North Dakota without risk of loss of life," Roers Jones said.
At UND's Energy and Environmental Research Center, workforce committee members heard from both industry leaders in the unmanned aircraft industry as well as aerospace and autonomous technology experts at the university, and other autonomous technology experts.
The workforce committee is conducting a study of existing autonomous technology in the state's portion of a bid to address North Dakota's workforce shortage. The state unemployment rate was 1.9% in October, well beneath the national rate of 3.9%, according to the national Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"We have a major challenge, and it's a good challenge to have," said UND Associate Vice President for National Security Research Mark Askelson. "We have very low unemployment, we have a lot of jobs, and we struggle to fill those jobs."
North Dakota is already a national leader in developing unmanned aerial systems, particularly Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight (BVLOS) drones, Askelson said. The state has invested millions in Vantis, a statewide BVLOS system based out of the Northern Plains UAS Test Site.
Roers Jones said she wanted to increase access to the BVLOS system, which is currently overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration. Right now, the FAA approves access to Vantis on an aircraft-by-aircraft basis, she said.
One way the state could do that is by establishing its own state aviation authority and then requesting primary authority from the FAA to enforce aviation regulations, Roers Jones said. She compared it to the establishment of the state Department of Environmental Quality in 2019.
" North Dakota is an ideal test environment for the BVLOS system, if we can get (the FAA) to reduce some of the restrictions on highly dense areas," she said.
Drone technology is already being used to inspect crops and energy infrastructure, Askelson said.
Autonomous systems are expanding in fields well outside aviation as well. Roers Jones singled out two transportation projects — both from a firm called Kratos Defense — to develop self-driving trucks for sugar beet transport and self-driving attenuators for use in highway construction.
Along with addressing the workforce shortage, expanding state investment in autonomous systems is also good for the state's long-term economic health, Askelson said.
"We know we have soil and oil, and that's great, but when the commodities turn down, diversifying can really help our economic outcomes," Askelson said.
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