9.4 - Blog: The Future of the UAS

Human inspires to have the wings to fly like a bird. With current aircraft and helicopter technologies, we are able to travel from point A to point B at high speed. Expensive infrastructures like airport, airfield and runways are needed to allow the taking-off and landing of such vehicles. The development of autonomous UAV offers alternative option.

The Sky News (2016) reported that the world's first flying drone taxi has been unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, 2016. The company ‘EHang’ was founded in 2014 and has raised around $50m (£34m) in venture funding so far, the executives of the company predict that the EHang could be the future of personal transport if type certification can be approved by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and air safety authorities elsewhere.

The EHang vehicle (above picture) is held aloft by eight propellers and can travel autonomously with GPS and way-points entry. Other than entering the destination, the passenger will have no other input into how the drone operates. The intention is to make the vehicle safer by eliminating the most dangerous part of standard modes of transportation, which is human error.

The vehicle is equipped with on-board sense and avoidance systems to stop it from colliding with other aircraft and buildings, an emergency system allows vehicle to temporarily hover in one spot mid-air in case of an emergency on the ground. Currently, the vehicle is able to carry single passenger for 23 minutes at a speed of 60 mph after vehicle is fully charged within 2-hours. The doors and windows are integrated as gull-wing that can be folded up. The passenger seated in the cabin is isolated from the wind gust and noise generated by the propeller blades.

I believe this technology will revolutionize our future in 4 ways:

1.      It reduces carbon foot prints and emission, in turn, reduces greenhouse effect and stop global warming as the power is supplied through cleaner energy like hydrogen fuelled batteries (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, 2016).

2.      Cleaning of forest to build more roads in the city can be prevented in order to preserve greenery for future generations. It also helps to reduce traffic jams during peak hours.

3.     The transportation system can be customized according to the population demands in the city and the flying altitude of the UAV can be regulated by authority just like current national airspace to prevent collision.

4.   The distance between vehicles can be programmed into sense and avoidance algorithm such that minimum gap is kept to prevent unforeseen accidents. The occurrence of car accidents might be the thing of the past.

References:

Sky News. (2016, May 21st). World's First Flying Taxi Drone Unveiled. Retrieved from http://news.sky.com/story/1618454/worlds-first-flying-taxi-drone-unveiled

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. (2016, May 21st). The Greenhouse Effect. Retrieved from https://www.ucar.edu/learn/1_3_1.htm