Why is it that the future of drones is not "castles in the Air"?

According to foreign media reports, the UAV in the air observation and rapid delivery of goods and other areas have great potential, but may bring air security and privacy issues, so supporters and opponents of their development prospects have a different view. Some proponents argue that, like other emerging technologies, UAV technology will eventually be regulated and widely used.

The main contents of the article are as follows:

A stroke-like incident in 2002 made Henry Evans Henry Evans A paralyzed limb, almost completely claiming his mobility. 11 years later, a remote control plane gave the former Silicon Valley treasurer a new life.

"I distinctly remember lying in bed and wanting to go outside," Evans recalls. For me, I do not expect my body to go out, but to see the outside world. He posted a post on the Internet asking for help and eventually got an unmanned drone. "I commanded my drone to circle around my vineyard and let it land on a basketball stand, and later won second place in a game about drones," he says. This is the ultimate movement of free will. ”

While most of us will not be in a situation like Evans, the drones will benefit many: this lightweight, remotely controlled or autonomous aircraft gives people a cheap "sky eye". Real estate brokers can take aerial photographs of houses for sale, and oil companies can easily check their long pipelines, where farmers and ranchers can quickly check the conditions of fields and livestock.

For filmmakers and extreme sports photographers, drones can provide a new perspective. For ordinary people, unmanned aircraft can let us look like a bird overlooking the earth. Thanks to the drones, fans have seen the footage they've never seen in this year's World Cup football match.

These possibilities and development potentials explain why consumers and businesses are snapping up unmanned aircraft, despite restrictions on their commercial use by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Ready to soar

Peter George, vice president of sales and marketing at Parrot, a French consumer-level drone manufacturer, predicts that "drones will explode in the consumer sector." Peter George "Since the launch of the first small four-wing drone in 2010, Parrot has sold 750,000 of these drones," he said. George said the company would not be surprised if its sales doubled every year for the next five years. The company expects the drone sales to be around 200,000 units this year.

The flight of an unmanned aircraft usually follows a predetermined flight path or is operated by a person through a remote control. They range in size from large military drones that can load missiles to four-axis drones, the size of the palm, which rely on four propellers to fly. Enthusiasts favor the size of the pizza box UAV, the cost of only hundreds of dollars.

The electronic equipment on the drone controls the propeller's speed carefully, allowing drones to rise, fall, and even perform flip stunts. Parrot is about to launch a new generation of four-axis unmanned aerial vehicles (bebop), which has a built-in camera, and other such as DJI, an unmanned aircraft manufacturer, Phantom or 3D robotics iris, which can be equipped with small cameras. Larger drones can carry SLR cameras or three-dimensional laser scanners.

Since the age of the film camera, SkyPan Analysys founder Mark Sigel (Mark Segal) has used a self-made drone to shoot the site that will be used to build high-rise buildings. Using the photos, he showed potential investors and buyers how to look down from the 30 floor. "It's my life's work," says Siegel. "He has just taken a panoramic view of a parking lot in Honolulu using drones, which will be developed by Howard Hughes Corp. as a number of towers," he said.

"There is a big demand for" aerial photos that can cover millions of acres or thousands of of construction projects, "said Rich Levandov, a Avalon ventures of the venture capital fund. For this reason, he invested 10 million of dollars in start-up Skycatch, which uses drones to collect data. Skycatch Some of the biggest customers are from the construction, oil and gas industries, Ravandorf says they want to see "The truth of the scene" at any time.

Amazon's drone project

However, the most popular use for drones is not remote observation. E-commerce giant Amazon envisions using drones to deliver goods of not more than 5 pounds--a cargo that accounts for about the bulk of the Amazon's goods--with a maximum delivery range of 10 miles from its logistics center.

"I know it sounds like science fiction," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, when he announced the plan last year. Bezos But it's not. ”

While it will take several years for Amazon to actually launch its Prime Air service, many people are thrilled that the service could reduce the number of delivery vehicles on the road and provide more direct online shopping satisfaction. However, the challenges facing this project are enormous.

Victor Allis, chief executive of Quintiq (Quintiq), said: "If this service is universal, it will be similar to the widespread use of private helicopters to work." So I don't think it's possible for drones to commercialize in the near future, which will take at least 20 years. "Quintiq is the leader in global supply chain Planning and optimization (Scp&o).

Even if homeowners set up a delivery slot with a digital barcode to facilitate Amazon's unmanned aircraft to find delivery sites, they also need to avoid trees, humans, birds and other unmanned aircraft. Amazon's distribution centers are generally built on cheap land, far from the city center and the affluent areas of the suburbs. Drones can scare car drivers, whose propellers can hurt children.

Phil Rooke, chief executive of Spreadshirt, an E-commerce company, predicts that "customers want to deliver certain goods quickly, which in some cases may be achieved by using motorcycles." ”

Start-up Matternet is even more ambitious than Amazon on drone projects. Matternet plans to build a huge drone express network, initially focused on delivering much-needed, less than 5 pounds of goods to the rural and congested urban areas. The company will establish interconnected charging base stations for drones to exchange batteries and adjust their load. Matternet claims that the 6-mile delivery fee will only cost 24 cents. This August, Google launched its UAV Express service project Wing. Google's unmanned aircraft will hover in the air, using a rope to put the goods to the destination, and they do not need to land.

Even so, there is a big obstacle to the commercialization of drones: This is illegal in America. The FAA allows individual drones to be used, but is generally not used for commercial purposes. The agency issued licences only to two pipeline monitoring projects and 6 film production companies in the Arctic.

Changing regulatory environment

Mark Dombroff, Partner of McKenna Long & Aldridge Law Firm, said: "If the FAA approves the use of 55-pound drones in agriculture, film production and pipe and wire inspections today, Thousands of drones are working in the sky the day before the sun goes down. , Dombrov worked for the FAA and the U.S. Department of Justice.

The FAA plans to issue draft regulations on how drones will be used in airspace later this year. Formal regulations are due to be launched in September 2015, but most drone watchers do not expect the FAA to release the rules on time.

SkyPan Analysys's Siegel said: "The FAA's legislative process is very slow, it faces shortages, and people are moving too fast and they are inexperienced." SkyPan said FAA staff needed to be "continuously educated".

The FAA acknowledges that there are greater difficulties in drafting regulations on drones, which have not taken into account the diametrically opposed views of supporters and advocates. "The context in which we develop this regulation is the rapid development of technology, and we are struggling to maintain the highest level of security in the world's most complex and busiest airspace," FAA spokesman Les Doll Les Dorr said. ”

This gives the impression that the FAA is incapable of enforcing the regulations it has made. "They can't deploy a policeman in every corner," Rade Sanger Ladd Sanger, a lawyer at Slack & Davis, who represents dozens of family crashes. ”

Speeding up the legislative process

The FAA is speeding up the process of drone legislation. First, the agency has issued a license for the drone aircraft to film studios, which provides a reference for other industries to seek licences, which the FAA can extend to other industries. Second, the broader law on drones expires in 2015.

But some fear that drone legislation could lead to problems in areas such as law enforcement, military, student and privacy protection. This year, Texas State, a senior high school student in the United States, posted a revelation on his neighbour's door, looking for a drone that he crashed in a student film project, Chris Cheix. After seeing the revelation, his neighbour, Karen Meister, was Karen Mester that her backyard would be spied on. She says if she finds Shepherd's drone, she'll smash it. Although the incident was resolved peacefully, it would not be the case in the future. Even if the drone accidentally captures images, it can also violate the privacy of others.

Because of the privacy and security concerns, we should give up drones. The paralysis of the extremities Evans ' answer was in the negative. Not only did he use the drone to enjoy the scenery outside the house, but he traveled all over the United States with it.

"Each new technology has pros and cons at first, but in the end they can be well regulated and allowed to use," says Evans. The same is true of drones, which greatly enriched life. ”

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)