“They definitely see it as an economic opportunity and as
something that they want to participate in. This is real magic”
President of the
Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, Brian Wynne commenting
on a NASA-led plan to develop an ATC (Air Traffic Control) system for
Commercial drones
Flying Drones is going to be a problem in the US of A, given
the amount of aerial traffic. What is need right now are traffic lanes in the
skies to makes sure that drones don’t fly into each other and don't collide
with commercial aircraft.
That seems to be the thinking behind the alliance between
NASA (National Aeronautical Space Administration) and some ten (10) or more Tech
giants to create an ATC (Air Traffic Control) and Guidance System for UAS
(Unmanned Aerial Systems) or Drones as reported in the article “Google
joins NASA to work on drone traffic control system”, published July 25, 2015 By Trevor Mogg, Digitaltrends.
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Those other companies including the likes of Google,
Amazon.com Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Harris Corp. who are a part of
NASA initiative also happen to have an interest in building commercial drones
themselves as noted in the article “Google
Wants a Piece of Air-Traffic Control for Drones”, published July 24, 2015
by Alan Levin, Bloomberg News.
In addition to an intelligent collision and ATC (Air Traffic
Control) System to guided drones along specific corridors in the key, as in the
case of aeroplanes, they also want a collision avoidance system to be common
among all drone manufactures as reported in the article “Google,
Amazon, NASA working on air traffic control for drones”, published
25.07.2015 by David Nield, Techradar.
With the FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) coming out with
new guidelines for drones by July 2016 as reported in the article “FAA
expects to clear U.S. commercial drones within a year”, published Wed Jun
17, 2015, Reuters, why is NASA and pals
taking it upon themselves to effectively do a study to make suggestions to a US
Federal agency responsible for airplane safety within US Airspace?
@NASA Air Traffic
Control System – Why @Google, @Amazon and @Verizon want an ATC
It's main because of the more rigid guidelines set by the
FAA, one of which stipulates that the UAS cannot be flow outside of the visible
range of the Drone operator.
Also, the drone operator must always have control over the
drone as noted in the article “Amazon
drone delivery plan given hope as NASA progresses with air traffic control
system”, published March 13, 2015 By Trevor Mogg, Digitaltrends.
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NASA thinks that by pooling their collective resources
together, they can not only develope a common air traffic Control and guidance
system for UAS but also collision detection systems among all drone developers.
With an ATC system and common collision-avoidance System in
place as an organized group of Corporate and Enterprise Interests, it could
help push that timeline forward. Even
more interestingly, this alliance could also push the case for autonomous
drones that can fly on their own.
As with autonomous cars like Google’s little un-named
autonomous buggy as explained in my blog article
entitled “@Google’s
Self-Driving All-Electric Vehicles in June 2015 – Autonomous Vehicles reduce
Road Accidents, Parking and make Ride Sharing the Norm” it would reduce
accidents in the air by slowly taking out the humans out of the loop by fly
using this ATC and Guidance System, which would have to be automated to allow
it to function 24/7/365.
There is huge money to be made by Drone pilots flying such
drones using FPV (First Person Viewing) as explained in my blog article
entitled “FAA
to allow Commercial Drones in 2015 - US$100,000 per year for 100,000 Drone
Pilot jobs for the next five years”.
Hence, no surprise many are looking at this coming together
of tech heavyweights under the scientific aegis of NASA as a step towards a
more unified, professional and organized Drone Industry!
Many of these commercial interests are in interested in
using fleets of drones to do delivery as in the case of Amazon as explained in
my blog article
entitled “Amazon’s
Prime Air Patent – How Swarm Intelligence pilots @Amazon Autonomous Drones via
White Spaces Network with Call Center Agent Personal Touch” there is also
an interest in selling Drone Services to Corporate and Enterprise clients.
Early Drone
Companies get the worm –Tech companies jostling for Drone Heaven
A few companies are starting to announce Drone based
Services aside from Drone Developer companies who develop and design drones for
Retail.
They realize the potential in drones is not in sales of the
drones themselves, but in reselling their services to various sectors of the
economy that need low-cost aerial services:
1. Agriculture
2. Construction
3. Mining
4. Oil
Exploration
5. Telecoms
6. Town
Planning
Already Sony has partnered with Japanese robotics and automation company, ZMP
to rent drone services for purposes such as photography and mapping services
for such clients as explained in my blog article
entitled “Sony
and ZMP to sell Drone Services - Why Aerosense makes sense if Sony Smartphone
are Drone Processor Boards”.
Most interestingly, NASA has plans to use pairs of drones
they designed to survey the surface of Mars for future manned landings as
explained in my blog
article entitled “@NASA’s
Armstrong Flight Research Center Prandtl-m Drone – Surveying the Red Planet for
Human Colony as the More the Merrier with Two Drones”.
So not only is there commercial interest, but huge scientific
interest as well for now and the forseable future!
The future will be ruled by robots, but not just in the
kitchen or fast food restaurants taking away menial Fast food jobs as predicted
in my blog
article entitled “US$15,000
Moley Robotics Cooking Robot – Cooking Robot seeking Taste for Human Food to
take over in 2017”.
Rather, they'll initially displace the Parcel Delivery man
and the Postal Delivery Service with literally same-day shipping anywhere in
the US of A at the press of a button.
Here’s
the link:
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