How will autonomous drones impact you?

[David Benowitz]

I've seen increasingly heated debates between Skydio, DroneXL and DJI on the value and impact of autonomous drones, and shared some of my thoughts on a recent post at DroneAnalyst here. There isn't one answer as the industry has many different types of adopters, but I wanted to share a few excerpts and start a conversation here on MavicPilots.

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Breaking Down Common Statements About Autonomous Drones
Claim #1 Autonomous drones reduce training costs for larger drone programs
The argument for this claim is pretty simple – if my organization uses autonomous drones, we won’t have to train pilots, right?

There is truth to this in the long term, but it’s a bit more complicated today. To currently operate a drone – regardless of its capabilities – you need to carry a Remote Pilot’s license and have the ability to take control of the drone. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to cut down on pilot training.

More importantly, drones today performing at Level 4 are relatively immature in the larger sphere of enterprise/government solutions. Organizations will wait to adjust their operations to account for them, and operate as normal until these products have a track record of safety across their own sites, with trained pilots on the sticks.

Claim #2 Autonomous drones are going to make Part 107 pilots redundant
Not so fast, previous DroneAnalyst research has shown Part 107 operators are primarily concentrated in the photography / videography sectors. Autonomous drones are able to track an object and take photos, which can help replace piloting skills for routine data capture missions. However, more creative and expressive applications will be better off with a highly skilled Part 107 (or equivalent) pilot.

In fact, we may likely see pilots prefer more automated drones over less automated ones, so they can safely capture from risky angles and streamline their work. These benefits are already unlocked with Level 3 drones that accurately and safely record waypoints and “play back” flights.

The Part 107 pilots should see this as both a challenge and an opportunity. Drone pilots can’t expect to earn their wages by going to a site and pressing go – and that isn’t what is happening today. Pilots need to continuously upskill, whether that be going further into creative applications, building complimentary skills in drone engineering/maintenance/repairs or moving into drone program management/training/SOP development.

Claim #3 Autonomous drones will help ease regulatory concerns and more quickly attain advanced operation waivers
This one has logic and a track record to boot. Recently, through the deployment of Skydio drones, the FAA has allowed the North Carolina Department of Transportation to conduct Below Bridge BVLOS operations throughout their state.

And it makes sense. With autonomous drones, regulatory bodies like the FAA can more easily assess the risks associated with advanced operations by making the common denominator – behaviour of the flying aircraft – predictable. That means any operation with enough data and a standard approach, can be proven to be safe (or unsafe).


Claim #4 The Drone Industry is waiting for autonomous drones
While the promise of automated flights is exciting, I don’t see many applications waiting for autonomous drones. The barrier to entry for drone flight today – from a cost perspective – is already low. If it requires a business to have near 0 marginal costs of operation to adopt a technology, then it isn’t a valuable enough operation to spend the man-hours to automate it.

When reflecting on this claim, it’s interesting to take a look at the intelligent features DJI – the market leader and largest employer of drone engineers – has invested in with its new M300 platform. Nearly all of these features focus on streamlining the process of data capture and making missions more replicable or easier to execute by augmenting the pilot’s capabilities. These have the same benefits to users as improving flight autonomy, but more directly work within their current operating infrastructure and methods.

In summary, drones are becoming more efficient, and increased competition in the hardware space should hasten their development. Despite this, drone technology is sufficiently powerful that lack of full autonomy isn’t holding the industry back, but will make scaling faster.

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What do you think? DJI's Mavic series already packs in a lot of automated features, do you use them or do they mostly get in the way? Autonomy would be great to help enterprise applications scale, but would you ever see yourself investing in a product like the Skydio S2 for its automated flight capabilities?

 

[THE CYBORG]

I did use the point of interest feature on my first drone an Xiaomi 4k once.
I don’t use the automated features on my M2P as I prefer to fly it myself.
Not saying I will never use them but I haven't had a use for them yet.
If you count taking 360 spherical panoramas as an automated feature then yes I have used that.

 

[Rchawks]

I prefer to do the flying as well. For me that's the fun of it, although I do think I'll try out the features sometime in the future.

Excellent information BTW.

 

[Electromen]

I'm an Electrician and install security cameras and video surveillance. The security industry is developing indoor and outdoor autonomous drones with docking stations. When a camera or motion sensor detects movement, it will send out a drone to that area to record video. They are also working on vehicle license plate recognition, where the drone would fly out and record vehicles in the area.
Ring is going to release an indoor autonomous drone in 2021.
HERE is the Ring

 

[Vic Moss]

First, welcome David!

For those who don't know David, he will become quite the asset to this group.

Second, as someone who is involved in this debate (I've had some regulatory calls the week with Haye about Skydio's claims), your post sums things up well.

I like Skydio, their OA is phenomenal. However, their sensors are at least two generations behind both DJI and Autel. And their claims about not needing pilot training are way off the mark in their latest campaign. Their marketing department is making claims their legal department can't fill. And they're borderline false claims. But it's highly unlikely anyone will challenge their legality.

Part 107 pilots do not have to worry about being taken out of the loop when flights will be autonomous. And as David says, it's an opportunity to learn more about the future of autonomy, but under current tech, they're not going to lose their jobs to an autonomous drone.

As a matter of fact, no autonomous drone operation can take place without a 107 Pilot on site (putting aside the Part 61 requirements for some BVLOS missions, etc.). So don't freak out about that.

And in my opinion (for what it's worth), I seriously doubt autonomy will take over the creative fields in my lifetime. Although I'm 57, so that may not be the best bench mark for time... ?

So, keep the new tech and autonomy advances in the back of your mind and learn everything you can about them. That way you'll be prepared if an opportunity arrises for you that requires them. But in the meantime, stay sharp on the sticks, keep track of new regulations, and stay safe.

Until the FAA changes the rules about drone fights in the U.S., there will always be need for Part 107 pilots. And as most of us know, the FAA moves at a glacial speed. So those new rules won't be coming about any time soon.

Fly safe all!

 

[old man mavic]

my enjoyment from my drones, comes from being able to control them myself ,and develop the skills needed to be able to get smooth flight control
i have never really used the automated functions ,i very rarely use RTH i prefer to fly back to the home point manually,i think the auto RTH features are very good at preserving the drone if an issue happens such as loss of signal or battery level versus distance from home etc and i have tested the system myself by turning off the RC and seeing what the outcome was ,personally having a drone that does the flying for me ,is not my cup of tea ,at my age riding around on a bike ,even an electric one and having a drone follow me ,does not appeal ,i have no beef with those for whom such things would be great ,and maybe if i were 50 years younger then having a self flying drone would be appealing, at the end of the day it all comes down to what the drone is going to be used for ,the auto flying modes for mapping, agriculture ,surveying ,and other repetitive flying are fine ,but there still needs to be a pilot who can oversee the flight and override the auto functions and take control if the need arises, technology no matter how advanced it is ,can still malfunction, and needs loads of redundancy built in, to try and overcome such an event

 

[Johnmcl7]

I think we're scratching the surface with drone automation at the moment but I don't think automation in the drone industry is going to replace 107 pilots but replace other jobs Automating security seems a good one and there's been quite a few discussions about using drones for delivery.

For consumers I think there's a large market for much heavier automation particularly when you look at the failed Zano or Lily drones which promised small, heavily automated drones which while they couldn't deliver they showed it was something many people wanted.

The only automation I use on my Mavic 2 pro is the panorama mode, I don't use the RTH mode and don't use the tracking features as the sensors aren't good enough to rely on to avoid a crash and the Mavic 2 is unlikely to survive a crash without a reasonable amount of damage. I would definitely be interested in an action type drone that was small, great obstacle avoidance and automation with a durable body but with perhaps reduced batterylife and image quality that I could take out mountain biking and film the bike as it goes along the trails while I'd use a separate drone like the mavic 2 for standard use as I do now.

 

[MtnFlyer]

My thought for a neat drone video via an autonomous drone would be recording while wading up the center of a small creek - fly fishing for trout. Need both hands for that and as you move up the stream, the drone moves with you at some prescribed distance all the while avoiding limbs and not taking a drink...

I think that would make a great video!

 

[Pstik]

I believe it was South Korea that had drones that kept watch of the business section of town during Covid since there was not a lot of people out and about. They had drones that would patrol the area and before battery dies it would park itself and another drone would take off to patrol.

 

[Romulus Archibald]

I like Skydio, their OA is phenomenal. However, their sensors are at least two generations behind both DJI and Autel. And their claims about not needing pilot training are way off the mark in their latest campaign. Their marketing department is making claims their legal department can't fill. And they're borderline false claims. But it's highly unlikely anyone will challenge their legality.

Part 107 pilots do not have to worry about being taken out of the loop when flights will be autonomous. And as David says, it's an opportunity to learn more about the future of autonomy, but under current tech, they're not going to lose their jobs to an autonomous drone.

As a matter of fact, no autonomous drone operation can take place without a 107 Pilot on site (putting aside the Part 61 requirements for some BVLOS missions, etc.). So don't freak out about that.

Im glad this response was not too far along. Remote ID and the Blue sUAS List seems more of a political response than a data-driven one.

 

[David Benowitz]

Im glad this response was not too far along. Remote ID and the Blue sUAS List seems more of a political response than a data-driven one.

Agreed there, but I do like the promise of new players, and it is more exciting having Skydio and others in the market. But there's a lot of "fluff" and unnecessary concern going around today. Let's see how these new players mature and diversify in 2021 and how they act outside of their protected military bubble. Worst case, it lights a fire under DJI's you know what...

 

[dnilsen]

The level of technology in Skydio’s drones is fascinating and useful. They can path-find very well through complex 3-D environments, follow subjects, and fly waypoint missions, but that‘s about it. Their autonomy is very narrow.

They can’t make moral decisions or respond to new situations that they aren’t programmed for. No computer can, which is why we don’t yet have self-driving cars, buses, trains, or airplanes. The technology, in various forms, has existed for decades to control vehicles and can often do so better than human operators. However, that is not all that is required to safely operate a vehicle. Someone still has to make decisions, especially in the case of emergency or equipment failure.

Computers and sensors still can’t replace a trained, responsible human pilot.

 

[David Benowitz]

The level of technology in Skydio’s drones is fascinating and useful. They can path-find very well through complex 3-D environments, follow subjects, and fly waypoint missions, but that‘s about it. Their autonomy is very narrow.

They can’t make moral decisions or respond to new situations that they aren’t programmed for. No computer can, which is why we don’t yet have self-driving cars, buses, trains, or airplanes. The technology, in various forms, has existed for decades to control vehicles and can often do so better than human operators. However, that is not all that is required to safely operate a vehicle. Someone still has to make decisions, especially in the case of emergency or equipment failure.

Computers and sensors still can’t replace a trained, responsible human pilot.

Good points, just to add before the moral decisions come they'll need to be able to make "aesthetic" decisions as well for a lot of applications. I'm seeing a lot of that tech in mobile phones (my iPhone now recommends how I should edit my photos), but don't see any drone companies moving into this tech until they figure out the flight component better.

 

[Tentoes]

Ouch! I really hope they don't impact me.

 

[Kyle76]

I don't see the FAA going less restrictive just because some drone functions can be automated. I can't imagine that, perhaps except for large enterprises, a human pilot will not continue to be a requirement for commercial drone operations. Additionally, I really don't see how a robot drone can compose a nice real estate photograph or put together an engaging video. That said, I value smooth video that sometimes combines yaw, elevation and gimbal changes together, and I wouldn't mind putting one or two of those functions an auto-pilot while I concentrate just one thing myself.

 

[KingRat]

Try filming yourself while you are engaged in an activity..... I want my drone for filming my fishing antics. How can I fly the drone while I am also fishing? The auto flight options allow me to do this.

When I am filming boats for manufacturers, sure, someone else is driving the boat and I can fly manually. I only want drone clips and photos to add alternative angles to thse I can get from same level, on the SLR. So for me, the auto modes are very useful - and NO, I am not taking someone else to do the fishing, I want to catch the fish!

 

[eaglesurfing]

Welcome to the forum and thanks for bringing on an interesting subject.

With any new or different brings on a whole new set of problems.

I got into drones to fly them. Like others have said.

This is going to be interesting to see how all of this plays out.

 

[maelstrom]

I don't think that this is going to be an option for hobby-grade drones for the foreseeable future. The onboard AI and the range of sensors will need to be significantly more sophisticated than they are at present to ensure that the drone won't be a potential hazard.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Fails to address the already VERY successful Zipline in African nations, urgent medical supplies.
They obviously have the tech available to deploy drones hundreds of km, drop a payload by parachute accurately, and return to base, land (net), and be readied again for the next job.

Regular deliveries like Google Alphabet (Wing), Amazon, etc are going to take a lot longer to work through the little things that stand in the way of safe, viable operations.

It's going to happen no doubt, sometime . . . more advanced tech from better hardware (batteries) to more adept autonomous systems, payloads capability, TRUST from people.

Viability over what a single vehicle and driver can do in a day is going to be the biggest hurdle.

 

[edfrombama]

Good morning to all-

The technology for autonomous cars is present- Phoenix, Arizona has a great many driverless cars on their public streets and operating full-time every day. Very few accidents involving these vehicles, and most of these are caused by other drivers. this tech is here right now.
As far as pilotless drones, for some applications I think that will be operating soon- if not already in place.
For me and mine, I have never even looked at most of the programmed functions on my Mini2 drones, I get too much pleasure out of sending my drones where I want them and flying them back. Why let the machine have all of the fun?

you all be safe and keep well- Ed