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Researcher: Future of UAVs includes personal flying droids

Posted by Chris Anderson on May 10, 2010 at 9:00am
Some interesting thinking in this week's Robots Podcast, on the past 50 years and next 50 years of robotics. One of those interviewed is Jean-Christophe Zufferey, who focuses on UAVs. Along with discussing the past two decades' advances in UAVs very well, he speculates on what's next, including the idea of "personal UAVs", like flying assistant droids, which could give you an aerial view of your surroundings or do communications relay.

He also discusses the possibility of "3D elevators" or transportation UAVs, that would allow commuter aircraft without the danger and complexity of having to drive. You'd just get in, give it a destination, and get out when you got there.
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  • Moderator
    Gary Mortimer May 10, 2010 at 2:06pm
    I think I would be tempted to bet on FedEx as well, they will be the reason you will need at least a mode S transponder on your recreational UAS.
  • ken wood May 10, 2010 at 2:01pm
    And, I managed to use an unmanned escalator over the weekend. (I got trapped on one once; it stopped)
    Bit of humor, eh?
  • RaginBajin May 10, 2010 at 1:24pm
    I was thinking this sounded more like the Will Smith movie i-Robot.
  • Lew Payne May 10, 2010 at 1:21pm
    PS - About that "little car" that parked itself in front of you (assuming you're actually talking about a regular passenger vehicle and not some scale model experiment)...

    Consumer Reports studies showed that, under real-world conditions; they are too slow at it to be practical (and take minutes to do so), they are easily confused by certain types of objects (whoops... knocked down that scooter while self-parking), and produce a situation in which other vehicles might not be able to get out of the parking space without making contact with your bumper in the process. Imagine finding your car wedged between two other cars, with only 6" of spacing between your bumpers.

    Okay, enough off-topic... I'm done with this thread.
  • Lew Payne May 10, 2010 at 1:13pm
    @Chris - I'm just a hobbyist pursuing technical truth. As such, I try to stick with facts rather than analogies which serve little purpose other than to distort the technical constraints. I'm not sure how little cars that park themselves are germane to the topic of personal flying droids, except to lead one down a path of assumption.

    Assuming that twenty percent (20%) of today's existing land vehicles are replaced or augmented with UAV's, the result would be massive airspace congestion (study by MITRE Corp). If I were to operate strictly on the basis of analogy and assumption rather than fact, I could easily solve that problem by stating we will have invented a shrinking machine... after all, if they can shrink cancer cells, then they should be able to shrink people (who are just cells, after all). Such an analogy, of course, is without basis and highly unscientific.

    I'd be happy to make that 50 year bet with you. I just won't be able to collect.
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson May 10, 2010 at 12:49pm
    @Lew: Okay, what about the little car that parked itself with a press of the button in front of me today? My point is not this is comparable, but they're all on the same continuum. I'd bet money that you'll have UAVs flying for FedEx in the US within 10-15 years, sharing the skies and airports with manned aircraft. How much further is to extend that to passenger planes, too? Remember, 50 years is a long time.
  • Overwatch May 10, 2010 at 12:48pm
    Are those incidents caused by the elevator being an unmanned system or by gross negligence and lack of mechanical maintenance?

    In other words, would the presence of a human operator alter the 17,000 figure in any significant way?
  • Lew Payne May 10, 2010 at 12:39pm
    @Chris - Apples to oranges. Elevators, escalators and trains travel a fixed path, via guide rails or other means. In addition, their path is dedicated, and not shared with other traffic or obstacles. Trains that share a path with other traffic have conductors on-board, and a means of alerting (and blocking) cross-traffic up ahead. The same cannot be said of aerial vehicles, which is the subject of this thread.

    As to fatalities, "Incidents involving elevators and escalators kill about 30 and seriously injure about 17,100 people each year in the United States, according to data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and
    the Consumer Product Safety Commission." I bet those 17,100 people each year have a bit more respect for the dangers posed by unmanned systems.
  • Overwatch May 10, 2010 at 12:12pm
    Or a battery of high-performance and even-higher-noise Wankel engines, like what that Moller guy has.
  • Developer
    Jani Hirvinen May 10, 2010 at 11:54am
    How this sounds like "The Fift Element" movie where Bruse Willis have hacked taxis and other stuff.. But yes if we would just have good inertia engines it would be possible and even easy :)
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