.
Monday night, foreign dignitaries, business moguls, researchers, and journalists alike gathered at the Italian Embassy in Washington, DC for a night of high-flying drones and lively discussion. Drones are considered one of the fastest growing sectors of the tech industry, with applications in public safety and first response, agriculture, utility and inspections, and surveillance.
Joining moderator David Edelman were avionic and human-machine interface specialist Sergio Barlocchetti, Fly Motion president Ryan English, humanitarian technology expert Dr. Patrick Meier, and civilian airline pilot Tiziano Vercellino.
Drone technology first saw use in the Vietnam War, but development has only recently begun to accelerate. In the last five years, drones have seen innovation equivalent to the development that the aviation industry saw between 1945 and 1965. While this bodes well for tech moguls like English, a big concern is whether rules and regulations will be able to keep pace. Vercellino, in particular, emphasized the differences between hobbyist drone fliers and those who worked in a professional capacity. Although hobby drones are unlikely to develop a wide variety of capabilities, professional drones are seeing new innovations every day. Vercellino emphasized that, although no longer in the cockpit, drone fliers are still pilots and are required to respect professional airspace and aerodynamics in order to become properly integrated into the field of aviation.
Legislators are also working with aviation licensing organizations to develop the correct regulations for the burgeoning industry. As of 2015, hobby drones are not required to have licensing, but their pilots must register the drones with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). With more than a million drones in the air, security is an increasing concern. Currently, Europe has a common law regarding drones, but Meier believes that these regulations will spread out beyond the continent to adapt to increasing numbers of drones.
While mainly relevant in the surveillance and tech sectors, drones also have increasing relevance in humanitarian uses and developing countries. Dozens of humanitarian organizations are now looking to drones for establishing situational weather awareness and acquiring real-time assessments of disaster zones. Additionally, hobbyist drones are seen as a very useful tool for students to increase their understanding of physics and aviation while also teaching them the rules and responsibilities that come with flying drones.
Although some are worried that the use of drones will displace traditional human workers, panelists were insistent that drones are a complement to existing jobs and technology. Because of how far-reaching drones are, customers range from hobbyists to governments to private sector organizations.
The goal in emerging economies is to create partnerships with governments focused on safety and security, and to create drones geared to specific country needs. The panelists also expressed their hope that instead of contracting foreign pilots to complete jobs, emerging economies would be able to hire local pilots trained by specialists. This combination of innovation as well as job creation will then create a potential jumpstart in traditionally poor economies.
In the next decade, panel members were optimistic that drones will have moved beyond manually controlled technology into intelligent, autonomous systems. Although there are concerns that this “Fourth Industrial Revolution” will create an even larger digital divide, experts such as Meier are working tirelessly to increase access by simultaneously managing and spreading the technology.
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
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The Sky’s the Limit
View across a futuristic sci-fi city, 3d digitally rendered illustration
July 16, 2016
Monday night, foreign dignitaries, business moguls, researchers, and journalists alike gathered at the Italian Embassy in Washington, DC for a night of high-flying drones and lively discussion. Drones are considered one of the fastest growing sectors of the tech industry, with applications in public safety and first response, agriculture, utility and inspections, and surveillance.
Joining moderator David Edelman were avionic and human-machine interface specialist Sergio Barlocchetti, Fly Motion president Ryan English, humanitarian technology expert Dr. Patrick Meier, and civilian airline pilot Tiziano Vercellino.
Drone technology first saw use in the Vietnam War, but development has only recently begun to accelerate. In the last five years, drones have seen innovation equivalent to the development that the aviation industry saw between 1945 and 1965. While this bodes well for tech moguls like English, a big concern is whether rules and regulations will be able to keep pace. Vercellino, in particular, emphasized the differences between hobbyist drone fliers and those who worked in a professional capacity. Although hobby drones are unlikely to develop a wide variety of capabilities, professional drones are seeing new innovations every day. Vercellino emphasized that, although no longer in the cockpit, drone fliers are still pilots and are required to respect professional airspace and aerodynamics in order to become properly integrated into the field of aviation.
Legislators are also working with aviation licensing organizations to develop the correct regulations for the burgeoning industry. As of 2015, hobby drones are not required to have licensing, but their pilots must register the drones with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). With more than a million drones in the air, security is an increasing concern. Currently, Europe has a common law regarding drones, but Meier believes that these regulations will spread out beyond the continent to adapt to increasing numbers of drones.
While mainly relevant in the surveillance and tech sectors, drones also have increasing relevance in humanitarian uses and developing countries. Dozens of humanitarian organizations are now looking to drones for establishing situational weather awareness and acquiring real-time assessments of disaster zones. Additionally, hobbyist drones are seen as a very useful tool for students to increase their understanding of physics and aviation while also teaching them the rules and responsibilities that come with flying drones.
Although some are worried that the use of drones will displace traditional human workers, panelists were insistent that drones are a complement to existing jobs and technology. Because of how far-reaching drones are, customers range from hobbyists to governments to private sector organizations.
The goal in emerging economies is to create partnerships with governments focused on safety and security, and to create drones geared to specific country needs. The panelists also expressed their hope that instead of contracting foreign pilots to complete jobs, emerging economies would be able to hire local pilots trained by specialists. This combination of innovation as well as job creation will then create a potential jumpstart in traditionally poor economies.
In the next decade, panel members were optimistic that drones will have moved beyond manually controlled technology into intelligent, autonomous systems. Although there are concerns that this “Fourth Industrial Revolution” will create an even larger digital divide, experts such as Meier are working tirelessly to increase access by simultaneously managing and spreading the technology.
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
