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“Drone” is a term with broad implications. In layman’s terms, drones are often thought of as remote-controlled flying devices used by the military for surveillance and offensive strategy, or by the civilian public for recreational and commercial purposes. Merriam-webster defines a drone as “an unmanned aircraft or vessel guided by a remote control or on-board computer.” Essentially, though, the term can refer to any machine that can be controlled without direct contact with humans.
While remote-controlled drones are just a tool — for example, to inspect rooftops on commercial property to improve workplace safety — autonomous drones partly require ARTIFICIAL intelligence to guide their actions.
In fact, some Japanese companies are using a drone called the T-Frend, which “aims to reduce overtime by flying around the office after work, playing loud music, taking pictures of employees still working and reporting back to management”.
Currently, most drones are operated by humans. Examples include military machines like the Predator, drones that inspect buildings, and Marine biologists who use them to look for hard-to-catch life a mile below the Surface of the Pacific. In fact, a competition called the XPrize is underway to encourage the development of deep-sea exploration drones.
However, the scale involved in the current use of drones is small. For remote-controlled drones, a pilot is usually required for each machine. In some cases more may be needed, but it all depends on how many trained pilots there are.
In 2016, Russia completed the development of the “fire support vehicle” of the Uranus-9 uav and deployed it to Syria for combat testing. According to the Defense Blog, the unmanned ground vehicle performed very poorly. It lost contact with remote operators at a distance of more than 300 meters, could not move quickly, exhibited poor optics, and lacked solid defensive armor to last long without the help of maintenance personnel.
All this can be blamed on rushed development and short production cycles, which in turn can be blamed on the fact that several of the world’s richest countries are trying to take the lead in drone technology, rapidly creating a new kind of cold war.
However, drones are versatile and can save a lot of money:
• Oil companies use drones to monitor pipelines for damage.
• Drones can be used to shoot video of movies, television and sporting events that no other method can take.
• Drones can deliver food, medicine and other supplies to remote areas and disaster victims.
• Wildlife officials use drones to count birds, deer and other animals.
• Police are replacing helicopters with drones to search and track suspects and criminals.
• Surveyors and engineers use drones for mapping and elevations.
• Transportation authorities began using drones to monitor traffic conditions.
• Drones are patrolling our borders.
However, commercial drones are currently illegal under FAA regulations. In the future, once public and private business entities can legally operate drones, we can look forward to:
• Drone delivery of packages (via Amazon or USPS)
• Unmanned cargo transport via large drones or ocean-going vessels
• Drones spray fertilizer and pesticides on crops for commercial farmers
• Drone delivery of pizza (low priority as an example)
For many of these applications, drones are (or will be) remotely operated. Again, this makes the number of trained pilots a limiting factor. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. The International Association for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (AUVSI) states:
“… In the first three years of integration, the U.S. will create more than 70,000 jobs and have an economic impact of more than $13.6 billion. By 2025, we expect to create more than 100,000 jobs and have an economic impact of $82 billion, and that benefit will continue to grow.”
Each year this consolidation is delayed costs billions of dollars in lost growth. Dozens of Fortune 500 companies and hundreds of startups and peripheral businesses are lined up to roll out drone technology. Most of the applications originally planned would require remote pilots.
But the full potential of drones will only be realized through mass production, and the goal of training a billion people to become full-time drone pilots won’t be realized anytime soon. Machines controlled by ARTIFICIAL intelligence will need:
• Drive robot taxis/share self-driving cars
• Operate a factory entirely controlled and operated by robots, from product assembly to transportation by air and road
• Operate a large number of small space probes to explore galaxies where Earth cannot communicate in time
Many of these uses will disrupt entire industries, such as self-driving cars and the commuting and trucking sectors. Between now and 2050, the world will shift at a fairly rapid rate into an earth similar to that depicted in many late 20th century science fiction novels.
There will be some unintended consequences. Consider the widespread use of other revolutionary technologies such as smartphones, nuclear power plants and automobiles.
The “level one” effect is clear: about 1.25 million people die each year from car-related deaths. The use of smartphones has irreversibly changed the psychology of the post-2000 generation. For decades, nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl and Fukushima have leaked deadly and mutated radiation into local biomes. In addition, there are some side effects that may not show up for many years, including fewer large family clusters because cars make it easy for people to move far from their hometowns.
We can already feel the negative effects of widespread use of drones, from facilitating espionage to criminal and terrorist use. But the hope is that the positive changes brought about by drones will outweigh these negative effects. While some of the new technologies of the past have proved horribly dark, on the whole technologies such as the automobile, the jet plane, genetic modification and nuclear power have made human life more prosperous than they have harmed us. However, the environmental damage caused by some of these technologies, including the burning of fossil fuels, has undoubtedly had a detrimental effect on the planet as a whole.
But drones could be one of the better new technologies. It can combine electricity with the efficient use of transport capacity, ultimately helping to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and improve many services.
Artificial intelligence drones will give many of us the future we dream of.
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