Design Brief: Drones

Introduction

On December 21, 2015, tech magazine Mashable wrote that 2016 would be the year of the drone. Indeed, drones have permeated our entire society, moving from military usage to our everyday lives. In fact, over two dozen universities now offer education and courses about these Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). Here we will address some of the information that it is important to know as these devices become more and more commonplace.

Usage

The key uses of drones are for imagery and delivery. On the imagery side, film production companies are looking into using more drones to film scenes, which cuts down on production costs. The scenes that drones can capture with their cameras are expanding the media world, creating more realistic and more impressive imagery as time goes by, which is espcially useful to advertising. Researchers are using drones to monitor things like traffic patterns, animal behavior, and topology. And of course, drones are used recreationally among regular people who just like the fun of drone imagery. On the delivery side, agricultural use of drones is currently on the rise, as companies develop more powerful drones that can spray more farmland. Drones are also starting to be seen as replacements for helicopters, doing all the things helicopters can do but for a much cheaper price. This is especially relevant to companies such as Amazon and Domino's, who are interested in using drones to deliver their products. The Canadian Royal Mail service has even expressed interest in using drones to deliver the mail. Of course, there are some usages of drones that don't fall into either category, like Shell's usage of drones in hard-to-reach places to maximize safety and efficiency, usage of drones for natural disaster relief, and usage of drones in search and rescue missions.

Technology

Current Technology

The most important piece of drone equipment is the controller. The controller enables the drones to lift-off, land, and fly at the user's command. Drones typically operate on 2.4 GHz radio waves, and controllers may use WiFi to communicate with the drone. Built into the drone are multiple sensors that are used during flight. An altimeter measures the drone's altitude, and allows the drone to hover in place by maintaining the same altitude. A GPS chip in the drone lets the user track the drone's aerial location. Moreover, the chip tracks the drone's launch spot to make sure the drone can land safely where it started without assistance. The GPS chip helps the drone resist wind and stay in one place. In case of no GPS signal, a drone can land safely with the help of an onboard camera (if one is present). Drone's are also programmed to descend at a constant slow speed, so as to avoid creating a vacuum that would quickly suck the drone down.

Future Technology

As previously mentioned, many companies and organizations are hoping that they can start to use drones as delivery vehicles in the near future; Amazon Prime Air is a prime example. Drones are quickly gaining more and more functionality. DJI's Phantom X, which is still in the concept phase, promises features like tossing the vehicle into the air to activate it and smart sensors that will cause the drone to follow its operator around (and even avoid obstacles in the process). The Guardian writes that Imperial College and Southampton University are working on technology that will help drone's wings better mimic those of flying animals such as birds and bats. This will make the drones more aerodynamic, so they can fly greater distances at more economical costs. As time goes on, drone developers are trying to make their drones smarter, faster, cheaper, and in general, more efficient.

Concerns

One of the biggest issues surrounding drone usage is the potential invasion to privacy it brings. Drones are cheap to obtain and can be equipped with many recording and surveillance technologies like cameras and microphones. They provide an easy way to maintain constant surveillance at low risk of detection. Thus, there could be an increase of criminal behavior such as stalking and harrassing. The imaging and tracking technology in UAS has become very advanced, so that they are currently capable of detection tasks such as facial recognition and heat sensing. Individuals fear that with increased government surveillance through this technology, their First Amendment rights could be put at risk because it would be harder for political dissidents to remain anonymous.

Another concern of drone usage is safety; drones operate in the same airspaces as commercial and private aircraft, increasing the risk of collisions and accidents. Small drones, too, could cause damage if they were sucked into an engine. Also, because it's currently possible for anyone to operate a drone without any sort of special license, there is concern that an inexperienced user might crash the drone in a public area such as a sports stadium (which has already happened before) and cause injuries to the public.