Drones are coming to our lives fast. They are used in military or for domestic purposes such as deliveries or camera shooting and more. Soon it is also likely that we will see drone uses such as drones carrying emergency medical equipment to people in need. Of course increasing use of drones must be regulated.
One solution is that drones can follow vehicle roadways, in order to avoid going through private properties, as it raises privacy concerns. As the roadways will be the path for drone deliveries, the collision avoidance algorithms will be a mandatory feature. These algorithms have been in place since at least several years, and can be easily refined to even more precise and faster operations.
Another mandatory feature should be to prevent drones from going near sensitive areas such as near airports or other areas as considered sensitive by authorities.
Camera viewing to surrounding areas in the cities will be disallowed, for delivery drones, due to privacy concerns. As batteries get stronger, the time in air will increase.
Due to advancements in solar energy generation, we will also see partially solar powered drones soon. Add to this the fact of increases in battery efficiency, and we will see increase of the amount of time in the air even further.
Drone returning to its source automatically, when there is not enough battery with respect to the distance to its source, will be mandatory feature. This will prevent sending drones to further than their batteries will suffice to return back and therefore falling.
Drones will be registered similar to a car or motorcycle to its owner person or company.
Drones will automatically follow roadways by using gps. therefore for delivery drones manual operation will not be even allowed. they will find their way automatically, using their collision avoidance and steering algorithms, similar to self driving cars, but with much less sophistication needed, due to not having pedestrians, solid fixed roads and traffic signs.
Another mandatory feature, at least for city delivery drones, might be the automatic deployment of a parachute, in case its starts falling for any reason, in order to eliminate or minimize damage to people or vehicles below.
We may have our own drones, similar to having cars, to pickup any items we need, when we want. For example, an online store may have its own delivery or pickup option. If we choose their delivery, they will send their drone and charge us for it. If we use our own drone, we will do it as a pickup. All we will do is to buy the item online, then, just enter the coordinates of the shop’s pickup point, which will be provided in the shop’s website. Then, using gps and its self flying algorithms, your drone will fly to the pickup point, in a totally autonomous way, pickup the items, and will return back to you, at the same time avoiding collisions. An example of a drone navigation mechanism, which is inspired by insect eyes, can be viewed here.
For now many rules are not clear and FAA says you can fly it as long as you are able to see it.
For example, Amazon is now seriously considering delivery by drones but trying to overcome obstacles about regulations.
Another internet giant, Facebook, is now seriously considering beaming down internet through the use of drones.
Recently FAA, Federal Aviation Administration of US, approved 1000 drone flights, many of which were for filming purposes. FAA also seems to aim to step up its control over drone flights.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login