DroneWaves: Exception management a ‘game-changer’ for drone operations, NASA official says Kopardekar says shift from `management by permission’ to `management by exception’ will balance commercial and safety imperatives 0 135 1 minute read The ability of regulators to safely and efficiently integrate millions of commercial and pleasure drones into low-altitude airspace will depend on the success of a strategy familiar to virtually everyone in the freight industry: exception management. That is the view of Parimal H. Kopardekar, the director of NASA’s Aeronautics Research Institute. Keynoting FreightWaves’ DroneWaves Summit on Friday, Kopardekar said that NASA, in refining its Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (UTM) air traffic system, is shifting from what he called a “management by permission” to a “management by exception” approach The latter term identifies potential airspace issues and directs users to steer clear of them.