Ramblings from an Automation Mad Man ( A Blog Series)
By Jerry Maldonado - VP Business Unit Strategy, Customer Lifecycle Solutions
Ahhh the old days where the blue skies went on forever, the wind blew gently across a sun soaked beach , the sand swirling ever so gently. A day like this might conjure up thoughts and sounds from days gone past, maybe a tune about flying machines. How did that go again ... hmmm
Those magnificent men in their flying machines,
They go up up, Tiddley up, up,
They go down, Tiddley down, down
Sounds familiar? For those who don’t know, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines; Or, How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes is a 1965 British comedy film starring Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles, Robert Morley, Terry-Thomas and James Fox, directed and co-written by Ken Annakin.
The song depicted the birth of flight, well in this case man flight, and the ability to soar into the air like a bird. So when did manned flight turn into fancies of unmanned flight?
Well, unmanned flight has been a reality since the launch of the first rocket (as in fireworks), and has been a part of our life for years from our first forays into space, to drones of all shapes and sizes with all kinds of possibilities. Here are two very common uses for drones today-
Military Surveillance
Military rely on drones to perform recon and surveillance of enemy combatants. The pilot is normally stationed miles away and flies the drone as he would fly a real plane. The commands are processed and automatically transmitted to the drone typically via satellite communication allowing the pilot to maneuver the aircraft into position and perform the mission of record. The success rate of such missions is extremely high and more importantly so is the survival rate of the pilot. Drones of today are as large as a small car or as small as a child’s toy airplane.
Military Delivery
Believe it or not, drones are already in use in our military for delivery, granted they are delivery bombs or ordinance to the battlefield, but the premise is the same. These drones are both piloted and non-piloted. The piloted versions are typically deployment platform’s where the pilot flies the drone in and then when it successfully locks on a target it will deploy the mission package to the ground. In most cases with pin point accuracy. The non-piloted one is more like a cruise missile where the target is pre-locked on and then they are deployed. The onboard computer system helps to navigate, avoids detection, and maneuver the entire drone into the strike location.
But let’s look at some cool non-military ways a drone could be used-
Rescue - Life guard
Currently on the market there is a drone delivery system for ocean life rescues. The drone is equipped with an automatically inflatable raft that includes beacon and other survival gear. The drone can be launched from land and guided to the rescue spot where it can deploy the raft and survival gear. It can also be launched for a ship to do the same maneuver. While new to the market, this could save hundreds of lives and with advances in battery and flight stabilization technology to automatically compensate and help fly the drone through rough weather, this platform could be common place on all ships and ocean communities.
Coupling this with drones already in service to aide in search and rescue will increase the likelihood of survivors after a sinking or crashing at sea.
Mad Man Rescue Drone (don’t forget me when this comes out)
Ok so here is my idea of a new drone platform, the auto-drone. I get my inspiration from the old cartoon series Speed Racer the go homing robot. But in this case it can do more than send pictures and video back to the car; it can act as a 911 homing beacon, sending GPS coordinates to 911 operators. Cellular connected and outfitted to act as a tower booster, this drone can keep the car in contact when in bad reception areas (maybe in the future the drone could be sat phone enabled and be used to relay cellular signal via the sat phone). Couple that with blinking flare strobe led lights to indicate emergency to anyone who passes by and you will have a tool that can save lives.
While the usage would be focused in non-urban areas, the mad man rescue drone can also serve as a data carrier for accident information that will help speed claims after an accident. Small and lightweight, it could deploy from a pouch or door in the car body and dropped to the floor be fitted with stabilization technology. Prior to launch the sensors can clear the obstructions and climb to high altitude to notify search and rescue almost like a beacon in the night.
Other practical usages would be for hunting parties, hiking enthusiast, outdoors man, boaters and others.
Commercial Delivery
Now this one scares and delights me all at the same time. Amazon, Google and others are trying to find ways to make this happen. But imagine using drones to deliver packages to an urban area. Just think, you ordered something and a couple of hours later you hear a buzzing at your door and look there’s your package! I think this is still some time away, but of course I have a few ideas to add. What if in an urban area certain consumables were centrally located in a truck. Let’s for argument sake say milk, bread, eggs, and butter. This truck could have drones mounted on its roof with parcel attachments. Coordinates could be uploaded into a drone with high resolution GPS information. A special delivery box would be placed at the front door of the customer (done before the order) that sends out encrypted homing information. The drone’s package is loaded with the ordered contents and with a press of the button, motors whirl and off it goes into the wild blue yonder. Video is captured during flight in case of any issues and the drone could hone in on the delivery box, ping for clearance and then descend, deposit the package, and away it goes back to the truck for re-charge and deploy. Now this I can see happening in some large cities in a very short time.
In future posts, I will address other areas where drones could be used safely and add my two cents on how they might be deployed. For now it’s time to take my quad rotor drone on a buzz of the bus stop as I wait for my kids to come home.
Ahh yes these flying machines.
Follow the Ramblings from an Automation Mad Man every other Wednesday. Did you miss last week’s post? Read it here: Connected Car Catch-up (A Mini Series): Dashboard