The Drones Are Coming! The Drones Are Coming!
by: Northeastern University – Seattle Dean, Tayloe Washburn
Earlier this year Amazon disclosed its exploration of drone delivery for its retail business. FedEx is even exploring rooftop deliveries and package delivery in remote areas using drones. Every week there are more and more stories about drones it seems. In recent years, most references to drones are military ones, as the US has employed drones in the battle against terrorism, especially in regions in the Middle East. Happily, we are now learning about peaceful use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, the technical term for drones. I attended a Drone Demonstration recently and learned more about the future of drones.
Did you know:
· Drones have real potential to revolutionize agriculture in several ways, dubbed “precision agriculture”. First, they can detect which specific crops or trees are diseased (in some cases before it is even visible) and target recuperative sprays to those plants. Second, in many situations drones can replace the role tractors have played for many decades, and in so doing allow higher rate of planting and higher yield of crops.
· Drones can also revolutionize the geosurvey field.
· Drones require a lot of IT technology, including data storage and transfer, data security, and processing. This plays to the expertise of many companies in the Seattle region.
· While drones as consumer toys are allowed and becoming increasingly popular, the US Government places very strict limits on the testing and commercial use of drones in this country. This could inhibit US leadership in the area; currently Australia and Latvia are becoming global leaders. We need to work on this regulatory issue here in America, if we hope to create solid manufacturing jobs in this emerging industry. Here is a link to a related article: http://www.pobonline.com/articles/97338-rules-for-use-of-drones-are-needed-soon.
As the commercial airplane field, once dominated by Boeing and Airbus, becomes much more competitive with entrants from Canada, China and Brazil, we need to try and build up manufacturing in the drone area to create jobs. There are many specialized areas required in a successful drone business, including sensors, payloads, cameras, and IT data.
People have all kinds of different views on drones – what do you think?