The future of drone technology
future society and, if used sensibly and correctly, will vastly improve human life on earth. One area in which we are looking to implement the technology is in assistance for the emergency services. There is vast strain on the emergency services in the UK and the number of calls to the 999 are increasing rapidly every year, with over 23,000 calls per day in January 2018. 13 In May of 2016, the proportion of category A (immediately life-threatening situation) calls responded to within the target 8 minutes was 70.5%. 14 Although this percentage may seem high, for life-threatening situations such as cardiac arrest, the target 8 minutes is even too long and so the proportion and response times need drastic improvement. Many people are beginning to turn to drones to assist with this. A fleet of ambulance drones may be deployed in cities to help ease the strain on emergency support teams and would drastically improve survival rates. Drones would be able to deliver lifesaving technologies such as automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) aids. In the European union, roughly 800,000 people suffer from a cardiac arrest each year and only 8% survive. This is a direct result of the slow response time of support as brain death will start to occur in just 6 minutes. 15 A student at the Technical University in Delft, the Netherlands, has designed a prototype for such an ambulance drone and has considered the technologies to be involved. The incorporation of a two-way video supported communication channel between 999 operators and first responders through the drone will massively improve first care. Successful AED usage by the public is currently at 20% but Alec Momont of the TU Delft claims that this can be increased to 90% through personalized instructions and communication through the drone. 16 GNSS with the utmost precision (±20cm) may be used in order for the drones to navigate their surroundings safely and efficiently and a combination of cellular and satellite telecommunications (5G ubiquitous communications) may be employed to provide continuous, reliable, bidirectional voice and data communications. Advanced AI and machine learning algorithms will provide autonomous drone operations and activation of appropriate emergency procedures. The plans for future drone use are truly limitless and so this essay only picks out a handful of these ideas to discuss. A very hot topic at the moment is the use of drones in delivery systems. Indeed, Amazon has been working substantially on its Prime Air delivery drone, a hybrid aircraft capable of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) as well as sustained forward flight. 17 This will massively increase the efficiency of current delivery systems, but as withmost of these drone applications, there is great worry as to privacy issues. Both the ambulance drones and these delivery drones will need to carry onboard cameras and data gathering components and as they will work in urban environments, will fly over people ’ s properties. There are a huge amount of regulations prohibiting such use of drones, especially in larger cities where there are total flight restriction zones as well as countless rules to follow. To give a sense of just how revolutionary delivery drones will be, Amazon has stated that their fully electric drone can fly up to 15 miles and deliver packages under 2.3 kilograms (75-90% of purchases) in under 30 minutes. 18 This service is likely to be deb uted in the USA and the company claims that it’ll be in use in a matter of 13 Statistical Note: Ambulance Quality Indicators (AQI) - https://www.england.nhs.uk/. 14 Statistical Note: Ambulance Quality Indicators (AQI) - https://www.england.nhs.uk/. 15 https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/brain-death1.htm. 16 https://www.tudelft.nl/en/ide/research/research-labs/applied-labs/ambulance-drone/. 17 https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/5/18654044/amazon-prime-air-delivery-drone-new-design-safety- transforming-flight-video. 18 https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/5/18654044/amazon-prime-air-delivery-drone-new-design-safety- transforming-flight-video.
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