Airports have inspected runways for foreign object debris largely the same way for decades: ground crews in vehicles, walking or driving line-abreast formations across the pavement, scanning by eye. That process typically takes 15 to 30 minutes per full-width pass, depending on runway length and crew size. Drone FOD detection is emerging as a faster alternative, part of a broader shift in the market toward camera- and AI-driven systems that supplement or replace fixed radar installations.
A growing number of vendors are pitching drone-based systems that use onboard cameras and computer-vision software to scan runway surfaces in a fraction of the time a manual sweep requires.
How Manual Sweeps and Existing Automated Systems Work
The Federal Aviation Administration has published minimum performance specifications for automated FOD detection equipment since 2009, in Advisory Circular 150/5220-24. The AC covers four system types: stationary radar, stationary electro-optical, stationary hybrid radar/electro-optical, and mobile radar mounted on a vehicle. Under the FAA’s specifications, these systems must detect a metal cylinder as small as 1.2 inches (3.0 cm) and locate it within 16 feet (5 meters) of its actual position.
Several vendors already sell FAA-evaluated systems built around that framework. QinetiQ’s Tarsier uses millimeter-wave radar paired with a zoom camera and operates at airports including Vancouver and London Heathrow. Xsight’s FODetect mounts radar and optical sensors on existing runway-edge light fixtures at Boston Logan International Airport. Trex Enterprises’ FOD Finder pairs a vehicle-mounted radar and camera pallet used at bases including Yuma. Stratech’s iFerret relies on electro-optical cameras rather than radar. A published National Institutes of Health study found FODetect’s average detection time during trials was 35 seconds, with location accuracy averaging about 5 feet from the true position; Tarsier’s average location accuracy in testing was about 3 feet.
These fixed and mobile systems provide continuous or near-continuous surveillance but represent significant capital investment — the FAA’s guidance notes that a stationary electro-optical installation can require five to eight sensors per runway.
The Case for Drone-Based Surveys
A 2025 peer-reviewed review of FOD detection technologies published in the journal Remote Sensing notes that drone-based systems equipped with optical, thermal, or radar sensors offer “a highly flexible and scalable alternative” to fixed infrastructure, reducing dependence on permanently installed sensors while enabling more adaptive coverage patterns. The review’s authors also flagged persistent industry-wide challenges for AI-driven detection methods, including limited training datasets and high computational demands for small-object detection.
Fadron, a vendor offering a drone-based system called HALO AI, says its platform surveys a runway’s full width — including far edges that a walking or driving inspection covers less consistently — and detects debris down to 5 millimeters, tagging each find with GPS coordinates, a timestamp, and an image crop. According to the company, a full survey takes 3 to 8 minutes, versus the 15 to 30 minutes it says a traditional line-abreast sweep requires. Fadron also offers an offline variant, HALO Edge, which the company says processes imagery at the airfield without transmitting data over an outside network — a feature aimed at security-sensitive military or government sites. These figures are manufacturer-stated and have not been independently verified in published testing comparable to the FAA’s evaluations of Tarsier, FODetect, FOD Finder, and iFerret.
The stakes for faster, more thorough sweeps are illustrated by real-world incidents. In early August, a Kenya Airways 737 shed a tire on landing at Cape Town International Airport, triggering a mandatory FOD sweep that kept the airport’s single commercial runway closed for hours and diverted 21 inbound flights.
Open Questions
Drone-based FOD detection still faces practical constraints that fixed and mobile radar systems have already worked through in FAA evaluations: airspace coordination with air traffic control, weather sensitivity, battery endurance, and the need for repeatable flight paths to produce comparable pass-to-pass data. Unlike Tarsier, FODetect, FOD Finder, and iFerret — all four formally assessed by the FAA under AC 150/5220-24 — no published, independent FAA or equivalent international performance assessment of a drone-based FOD survey system exists as of this writing. Airports evaluating any vendor’s detection-range or survey-time claims can request proof-of-concept trials using calibrated test objects, matching the methodology the FAA has already applied to existing radar- and camera-based systems.
Sources
- FAA Advisory Circular 150/5220-24, Airport Foreign Object Debris (FOD) Detection Equipment
- FAA Foreign Object Debris Program
- “A Review of Foreign Object Debris Detection on Airport Runways: Sensors and Algorithms,” Remote Sensing (MDPI), 2025
- “Integrative Use of Computer Vision and Unmanned Aircraft Systems,” National Institutes of Health / PMC
- QinetiQ Tarsier product page
- Fadron HALO AI product page
- FODNews: Kenya Airways 737 Tire Burst Shuts Cape Town’s Only Runway
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