The Future of Drones: Uncertain, Promising and Pretty Awesome

http://middleeastvideo.com/video.php?video=B7UW4xin53



When filmmaker George Lucas popularized droids — worker robots designed to tend to humanity's every need — in the 1977 movie "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope," he seemed like a sci-fi visionary. But fast-forward nearly 40 years, and the idea of flying surveillance cameras, robotic companions and even unmanned aircraft carrying supplies around the planet is swiftly becoming mainstream.
The first drone delivery in the United States took place this past summer, marking an important milestone in the development of the new technology. But even though Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made headlines in 2013 when he unveiled the company's vision for using delivery drones, the online retail giant was not the one to carry out the first-ever delivery flight.
Instead, Australian startup Flirtey, in partnership with Virginia Tech and NASA, used a drone to carry 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) of medical supplies from an airfield in Virginia to a remote clinic about a mile away over three 3-minute flights. While the demonstration was a landmark moment for drone technology and policy, it was a far cry from Amazon's vision of a fleet of drones delivering online purchases to customers' doorsteps within 30 minutes.
Still, Amazon is committed to making its drone delivery program, dubbed Prime Air, a reality. In April, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted the company permission to begin testing its drones. But Amazon isn't the only tech giant doubling down on drone technology.
In July, Facebook revealed that it had completed a full-size version of its solar-powered Aquila drone, which is now ready for testing in the United Kingdom. The huge robotic flier, which has the same wingspan as a Boeing 737 jetliner, is designed to circle around in the stratosphere (the layer of Earth's atmosphere located between 6 and 30 miles, or 10 to 48 kilometers, above the planet's surface)and use lasers to beam Internet access to the most remote corners of the world.
A similar drone developed by Google crashed during a test run in New Mexico in May, but the company is also developing a delivery service, known as Project Wing, to compete with Amazon's Prime Air.

While these developments grab headlines, they tend to overshadow the real progress being made in the drone industry, experts say. Many companies are leveraging drones' ability to capture high-resolution imagery using tech ranging from regular cameras to laser scanners, leading the FAA to predict that drones will spawn a $90 billion industry within a decade.
Drones could help farmers prioritize where to apply fertilizer. They also could help energy companies monitor their infrastructure. Drones could even enable emergency response teams to quickly map the extent of damage after natural disasters. [Photos from Above: 8 Cool Camera-Carrying Drones]
"There's been even more explosive growth than I expected," said Dan Kara, practice director for robotics at the technology consulting firm ABI Research in Oyster Bay, New York. And because the technology is still in its infancy, Kara said, the potential is limitless. "There will be applications that will just come over the wall," he told Live Science. "If you think of these things as basically just airborne mobile sensors, all kinds of uses open up."


But not everyone is satisfied with these incremental steps. Michael Drobac, executive director of the industry-backed Small UAV Coalition, said the proposals are less restrictive than anticipated, but only because expectations for how the FAA would handle the emerging tech were so low. He said he credits Congress with "putting the fire under" the FAA. However, without allowances for flying these UAS beyond visual line of sight, and without separate rules for safer micro-UAS that weigh less than 4.4 lbs. (2 kg), the industry will remain hamstrung, he noted.
"Personally, I am very disheartened, because it doesn't make any sense that the biggest problem companies face are arbitrary and capricious rules," Drobac told Live Science.
A spokesman for the FAA denied that pressure from Congress had any impact on the agency, and pointed out that promoting commercial drone use is not its mandate. "Our primary goal in integrating UAS into the airspace is to maintain today's ultra-high level of safety," he said. He added that separate micro-UAS rules could eventually make it into the final regulations, as the agency asked for input on the proposed framework announced in February.
The FAA's detractors point out that some other countries, such as Canada and Switzerland, have more relaxed regulatory environments. But with more than 19,000 airports; 600 air traffic control facilities; and far more general aviation concerns to oversee, U.S. airspace is arguably the most complex in the world. "The FAA has been in the business of integrating new technology into U.S. airspace for 50 years," the spokesman said. "I have no doubt we will be able to do the same with UAS, but it has to be done in a safe and incremental way."