Why Drones Will Invade Us
Published in Le Nouvel Observateur
(France) on 14 April 2013
by Paul Laubacher (link to original)
(France) on 14 April 2013
by Paul Laubacher (link to original)
Translated from
by Gillian Wright.
Edited by Bora Mici.
Ten thousand! According to the Federal Aviation Administration, that is the number of civilian drones that will be zooming above the U.S. between now and 2020. From 2015 onward, U.S. airspace should be open to drones for good.
The drone is no longer reserved solely for use by the U.S. Armed Forces, which have used and abused the Predator’s possibilities. From health care to the environment and even journalism, engineers are planning the unexpected future uses of drones.
1. Safety: drones equipped with teargas and rubber bullets?
Across the Atlantic, police are looking into the utilization of drones. Seventeen police departments and U.S. sheriffs' offices have placed demands for authorization from the FAA for the utilization of drones, according to a February 8 document.
Police contend: The drones will serve to maintain respect for law and order. Their main purpose will be to monitor and control crowds. They will become complementary to surveillance cameras. Sometimes, the police force goes further and thinks more like a Texan sheriff, imagining drones equipped with Tasers, tear gas and rubber bullets.
The forces of order are also motivated financially. For example, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn believes that the drone could be a slightly less costly alternative to the helicopter.
Drones could be used for the surveillance of borders. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security already has drones that patrol the borders. According to The Verge, a website specializing in technology news, they will be equipped with captors capable of intercepting communication signals and distinguishing between those who are armed and those who are not.
2. Environment: drones to monitor whalers
Organizations that protect the environment are not lacking in imagination: inspecting oil pipelines, flying over ice caps, watching over whalers — for ecologists, drones will be a new weapon at their service.
On February 8, the World Wildlife Fund announced its intention to deploy surveillance drones. Its aim? To help the organization protect wild species threatened by poachers and the black market.
The environmental organization indicated that, between now and the end of 2013, it will have deployed “eyes in the sky” to at least one African or Asian country. It foresees a second implementation in another country by 2014, thanks to 5 million euros in financing.
3. Humanitarian: drones to transport medicine … and chocolates
Carrying foodstuffs, material and drinking water, inspecting zones affected by natural disaster or even securing Fukushima — drones are going into the humanitarian service.
For example, Matternet, a California startup founded by a former Dominican lawyer, assures that drones will revolutionize transport and therefore improve the daily lives of thousands of people. Matternet even tested its drones in Haiti after the earthquake.
“We delivered medicines and chocolate for kids,” recalls Paola Santana, founder of Matternet.
Stefen Riegebauer assures that drones can save lives. After reading a study published in the U.S. daily USA Today, showing that victims of heart attack more often died in the ambulance than in the hospital, the Austrian national decided to act. Riegebauer is in the process of coming up with the first network of first-aid drones. His aim? To dispatch first-aid equipment and teams as quickly as possible.
His idea works like this: An application groups together all the people trained in first-aid within a community. A drone station equipped with defibrillators is installed on top of all town buildings. As soon as a community member sends an alert via the application, a drone brings the defibrillator directly to the scene, and emergency services are alerted.
In France, the firefighters of Landes are testing the efficiency of drones. The company Fly-n-Sense has developed a drone for the operational struggle against fires. Winemakers also use them to oversee the health of their vines.
4. Agriculture: drones for farmers
The drone is becoming the farmer’s best ally. From far away, the Airinov, the drone of a young French startup, resembles a remote control toy. This drone is capable of delivering a sharp agronomic diagnostic and guiding farmers toward an optimal utilization of their land. It acts as a point of surveillance, allowing farmers to draw up an accurate portrait of agricultural plots and their good health.
“Eighty percent of the utilization, once we are allowed to have unmanned aircraft systems in the national airspace, in the first 10 years is going to be in precision agriculture,” predicts Michael Toscano, CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
“You will have a situation where you can spray crops by an unmanned aircraft system that flies two or three feet above the plants,” he explains. “You can control the downwash because you can put the pesticides on the plants and not in the ground where it gets to the groundwater.”
5. Journalism: drones in war zones
Drone madness has reached the media. With these unmanned aircraft, journalists have seized on a new tool. American universities did not wait long before offering courses on how to use them.
“I think there will be a demand for it, just like any technology in the journalism tool box,” guesses William Allen, professor at the University of Missouri, on ABC News. As of February, the University of Missouri was the first to have offered training on drones.
Pakistani students, while visiting the training center, suggested that the drones be used to cover war zones, instead of risking the lives of journalists.
The drone is no longer reserved solely for use by the U.S. Armed Forces, which have used and abused the Predator’s possibilities. From health care to the environment and even journalism, engineers are planning the unexpected future uses of drones.
1. Safety: drones equipped with teargas and rubber bullets?
Across the Atlantic, police are looking into the utilization of drones. Seventeen police departments and U.S. sheriffs' offices have placed demands for authorization from the FAA for the utilization of drones, according to a February 8 document.
Police contend: The drones will serve to maintain respect for law and order. Their main purpose will be to monitor and control crowds. They will become complementary to surveillance cameras. Sometimes, the police force goes further and thinks more like a Texan sheriff, imagining drones equipped with Tasers, tear gas and rubber bullets.
The forces of order are also motivated financially. For example, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn believes that the drone could be a slightly less costly alternative to the helicopter.
Drones could be used for the surveillance of borders. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security already has drones that patrol the borders. According to The Verge, a website specializing in technology news, they will be equipped with captors capable of intercepting communication signals and distinguishing between those who are armed and those who are not.
2. Environment: drones to monitor whalers
Organizations that protect the environment are not lacking in imagination: inspecting oil pipelines, flying over ice caps, watching over whalers — for ecologists, drones will be a new weapon at their service.
On February 8, the World Wildlife Fund announced its intention to deploy surveillance drones. Its aim? To help the organization protect wild species threatened by poachers and the black market.
The environmental organization indicated that, between now and the end of 2013, it will have deployed “eyes in the sky” to at least one African or Asian country. It foresees a second implementation in another country by 2014, thanks to 5 million euros in financing.
3. Humanitarian: drones to transport medicine … and chocolates
Carrying foodstuffs, material and drinking water, inspecting zones affected by natural disaster or even securing Fukushima — drones are going into the humanitarian service.
For example, Matternet, a California startup founded by a former Dominican lawyer, assures that drones will revolutionize transport and therefore improve the daily lives of thousands of people. Matternet even tested its drones in Haiti after the earthquake.
“We delivered medicines and chocolate for kids,” recalls Paola Santana, founder of Matternet.
Stefen Riegebauer assures that drones can save lives. After reading a study published in the U.S. daily USA Today, showing that victims of heart attack more often died in the ambulance than in the hospital, the Austrian national decided to act. Riegebauer is in the process of coming up with the first network of first-aid drones. His aim? To dispatch first-aid equipment and teams as quickly as possible.
His idea works like this: An application groups together all the people trained in first-aid within a community. A drone station equipped with defibrillators is installed on top of all town buildings. As soon as a community member sends an alert via the application, a drone brings the defibrillator directly to the scene, and emergency services are alerted.
In France, the firefighters of Landes are testing the efficiency of drones. The company Fly-n-Sense has developed a drone for the operational struggle against fires. Winemakers also use them to oversee the health of their vines.
4. Agriculture: drones for farmers
The drone is becoming the farmer’s best ally. From far away, the Airinov, the drone of a young French startup, resembles a remote control toy. This drone is capable of delivering a sharp agronomic diagnostic and guiding farmers toward an optimal utilization of their land. It acts as a point of surveillance, allowing farmers to draw up an accurate portrait of agricultural plots and their good health.
“Eighty percent of the utilization, once we are allowed to have unmanned aircraft systems in the national airspace, in the first 10 years is going to be in precision agriculture,” predicts Michael Toscano, CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
“You will have a situation where you can spray crops by an unmanned aircraft system that flies two or three feet above the plants,” he explains. “You can control the downwash because you can put the pesticides on the plants and not in the ground where it gets to the groundwater.”
5. Journalism: drones in war zones
Drone madness has reached the media. With these unmanned aircraft, journalists have seized on a new tool. American universities did not wait long before offering courses on how to use them.
“I think there will be a demand for it, just like any technology in the journalism tool box,” guesses William Allen, professor at the University of Missouri, on ABC News. As of February, the University of Missouri was the first to have offered training on drones.
Pakistani students, while visiting the training center, suggested that the drones be used to cover war zones, instead of risking the lives of journalists.