Keeping an eye on Antarctic moss (Image: TerraLuma/UTAS)
Law changes mean uncrewed aerial vehicles aren't just for the military any more – civilian uses are taking off, too
THE
hobbyist was testing the camera on board his small uncrewed aerial
vehicle (UAV), when he spotted it: a creek in Dallas, Texas, running
red with blood.
He'd
captured a picture of a stream of animal blood flowing north away from
the Columbia Packing Company's meat-processing facility. Acting on the
visual evidence, investigators monitored the plant before raiding it
last month. The company may now face criminal charges from local, state
and federal authorities for polluting city waterways with a gory mix of
pig's blood and toxic chemicals.
Such
a story may crop up more often as UAVs fall in price and become simpler
to use. What is traditionally thought of as a military technology is
about to change the lives of private citizens as well as big businesses.
For
the moment, the law stands in the way. The US Federal Aviation
Administration allows for recreational use of remote-controlled air
vehicles, but the Columbia Packing case blurs the line because the UAV
became a surveillance tool. Commercial use is also illegal - last week
real estate agents in Los Angeles, California, were ordered to stop
using helicopter drones to shoot aerial movies of properties they are
selling. "Although the FAA allows hobbyists to fly model airplanes for
recreational purposes, that authority does not extend to operators
flying unmanned aircraft for business purposes," the Air Division of
the Los Angeles police department reminded the California Association
of Realtors.
That
could soon change. The FAA plans to unveil a new set of rules this year
that will cover the burgeoning interest in flying commercial and
private UAVs.
And
on 9 February, the European Commission's Unmanned Aircraft Systems
Panel will meet in Brussels, Belgium, to agree on the key flight rules
and technologies essential for commercial UAVs to operate safely in
civilian airspace. This will include discussing technologies such as
collision avoidance systems, says Mike Lissone of Eurocontrol, the
pan-European air traffic control organisation.
The
moves, which are expected to go into effect between 2013 and 2015, will
likely mean hundreds of people apply for permission to fly UAVs,
predicts Peter van Blyenburgh of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International
(UVS), a global trade association based in the Netherlands.
What
van Blyenburgh wants is for aircraft weighing up to 25 kilograms to
take to the air without the owner needing permission to fly it. The
craft will probably have to remain in line-of-sight of the controller,
but that shouldn't be a problem, he says. It's only when the drones get
much heavier, and present a greater safety risk, that he expects
they'll need expensive sensors so they can automatically avoid other
air traffic.
Meanwhile,
UVS members are investigating how drones could become vital tools in
many fields, from helping police track stolen cars to assisting
emergency services in crisis situations such as fires, floods and
earthquakes, to more prosaic tasks like advertising or dispensing
fertiliser from the air.
This
is already happening in some out-of-the way places, where air traffic
problems are unlikely. In Brazil, for instance, small helicopter UAVs
carrying 12-megapixel cameras are surveying soybean and sugar cane.
"They
fly grid patterns, using algorithms to stitch the photos together to
identify tracts where they have to resow, optimising growth on the
fields," says van Blyenburgh.
In
Antarctica, meanwhile, a team from the Australian universities of
Tasmania and Wollongong, New South Wales, have been using two types of
UAV helicopters, one remotely steered and another that can fly between
GPS waypoints on autopilot. The drones are helping the team create 3D
maps of moss beds, whose health may be an indicator of climate change.
In
the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a fixed-wing UAV made by Gatewing of
Ghent, Belgium, (pictured right) has been taking aerial photographs of
Easter Island, with a resolution down to just 5 centimetres - Google
Earth can only manage several metres in most places. Archaeologists are
using the images to produce the highest resolution survey of the World
Heritage Site ever made.
Germany's
renewable energy industry has turned to drones to solve a skills
shortfall, says Lissone. With nearly 22,000 wind turbines in the
country, he says energy firms do not have enough skilled people who can
climb them to perform close visual inspections of the turbine blades,
which can become delaminated after lightning strikes, for instance. So
small UAVs, such as those made by Microdrones of Siegen, east of
Cologne, are doing the job instead.
Across
the border, France's TGV trains travel from Paris to Lyon at 320
kilometres per hour - a super-high speed that can upset the pebble bed
supporting the rails. To find the dents that need to be flattened out,
a helicopter drone travels alongside the track and films it with 3D
stereoscopic cameras. It is easy to spot serious undulations that need
attention by watching the footage.
With
UAVs already proving their worth, the future looks bright for uncrewed
aviation as the upcoming regulatory changes enable still more uses to
be dreamed up. But operators should not expect a free-for-all, says
Lissone. "The key here is safety. Unmanned aircraft, regardless of
their size, can only fly in civil airspace if they are as safe, or
safer, than piloted aircraft are now."
Cattle rustlers no match for Predators
Military drones are finding a role in civilian life, with armed cattle - rustlers their first target.
When
police in Nelson County, North Dakota, lost track of some suspects last
June, they called in the US Customs and Border Patrol's drone: a
Predator-B UAV normally used to hunt illegal immigrants and drug
runners with its swathe of cameras and heat sensors. It worked and the
rustlers were caught. Police have used the drone many times, much to
the dismay of privacy advocate, the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It
sees the move as an escalation of invasive airborne surveillance
technology. The group has filed a lawsuit demanding the US government reveal how often military drones are being used by police in the US - and on what basis
http://www.newscientist.com/
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