Can a drone do your job?
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Can a drone do your job?
As an Old F*** in the rotary world and a relative newbie in the drone world I'm struggling to find a rotary task that won't be done by drones before a decade has passed. Any ideas?
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JerryG
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JerryG
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Hmmm....
Helitack
AAS
Full offshore SAR (long range including visual search)
Rooftop construction load lifting
Police ASTRO
Scenic flights (seriously, would you carry newbie pax and give a sightseeing commentary?)
ENG including journo & cammo to and from the news site in the middle the GAFA
Probably a few more, and no doubt in ten years these tasks will become redundant due to changing times
Helitack
AAS
Full offshore SAR (long range including visual search)
Rooftop construction load lifting
Police ASTRO
Scenic flights (seriously, would you carry newbie pax and give a sightseeing commentary?)
ENG including journo & cammo to and from the news site in the middle the GAFA
Probably a few more, and no doubt in ten years these tasks will become redundant due to changing times
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Drones will have the ability to do all the jobs but the only work they will be allowed do in the commercial world will be the patrol, inspection and aerial photography style work. Nothing with any direct human interaction I imagine.
JerryG - I guess it depends on whether you mean unmanned, or fully autonomous.
Visual search could be achieved now with drones in swarms
The US military had got KMax drones to the stage of having them approved for cargo lifting to pin-pointed locations in Afghanistan over 7 years ago - see AIN article
Gordy See above re US military and apply to firefighting
Summary
Technology is advancing much faster than aviation authorities can develop airspace law to cope
Full offshore SAR (long range including visual search)
Rooftop construction load lifting
Helitack
Summary
Technology is advancing much faster than aviation authorities can develop airspace law to cope
Gordy See above re US military and apply to firefighting
Summary
Technology is advancing much faster than aviation authorities can develop airspace law to cope
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Helihub - I mean unmanned. So your job may not entirely disappear but it does change significantly.
Shy Torque - Fly the Royal Family - Yes with you on that one for the moment. So we'll count that as one so far.
John Eacott and Gordy - Helitack - Why not? Yes it's dynamic but why can't John fly his spotter drone that "designates" the target drop point, right up until the moment of drop, while Gordy monitors his automated water-carrying drone?
Helihub - "Long range swarms for SAR visual search" - Yes, plus thermal IR of course.
Hookes_Joint - "Nothing with any direct human interaction" - Just about every major manufacturer has a human carrying and fully autonomous flying machine that's already left the drawing board.
So let's widen the question to what job and why?
I'm not advocating for all or any of this, I'm just highlighting the fact that the freight train is coming down the tracks SO much quicker than we dare imagine. And BTW it's sometimes a secondary effect. I chaired the Commercial UAV conference in London in November and shared the stage with a senior guy from BP who publicly announced that their declared aim is to make some of their rigs virtually unmanned within two years. That means no helicopters required to carry people backwards and forwards. You can't ignore economics like that.
Shy Torque - Fly the Royal Family - Yes with you on that one for the moment. So we'll count that as one so far.
John Eacott and Gordy - Helitack - Why not? Yes it's dynamic but why can't John fly his spotter drone that "designates" the target drop point, right up until the moment of drop, while Gordy monitors his automated water-carrying drone?
Helihub - "Long range swarms for SAR visual search" - Yes, plus thermal IR of course.
Hookes_Joint - "Nothing with any direct human interaction" - Just about every major manufacturer has a human carrying and fully autonomous flying machine that's already left the drawing board.
So let's widen the question to what job and why?
I'm not advocating for all or any of this, I'm just highlighting the fact that the freight train is coming down the tracks SO much quicker than we dare imagine. And BTW it's sometimes a secondary effect. I chaired the Commercial UAV conference in London in November and shared the stage with a senior guy from BP who publicly announced that their declared aim is to make some of their rigs virtually unmanned within two years. That means no helicopters required to carry people backwards and forwards. You can't ignore economics like that.
Some unkind folk might suggest drone's have been on the scene for quite some time.
drone
[drohn]
NOUN
1. the male of the honeybee and other bees, stingless and making no honey.
2. a person who lives on the labor of others; parasitic loafer.
3. a drudge.
Now, power line construction where everything from foundation work up to finishing stringing works with people, not robots on the ground/in the towers, I'd say none will be accepting to work under heavy lift drones for a very long time if ever due to the same reasons.
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Agricultural work, around stock. Good luck getting a drone to do that, faster and cheaper than a human.
fire fighting, actual bucketing, not going to happen, simply because the drones/kmax costs so much more than a human doing the work.
Maybe you will will tell me it’s not all about money, but for farmers, price and reliability of service, along with not hurting their hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock are all important.
on firefighting, as Gordy said, they cannot hit a target on a flat paddock on a calm day, not sure how they will handle picking the target, which changes every time, then hitting it in swirling winds on a hillside. Often the best view of what to hit is by the guy closest, so that means the computer has to find the target, then decide which is the best to hit then actually hit it. Good luck
fire fighting, actual bucketing, not going to happen, simply because the drones/kmax costs so much more than a human doing the work.
Maybe you will will tell me it’s not all about money, but for farmers, price and reliability of service, along with not hurting their hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock are all important.
on firefighting, as Gordy said, they cannot hit a target on a flat paddock on a calm day, not sure how they will handle picking the target, which changes every time, then hitting it in swirling winds on a hillside. Often the best view of what to hit is by the guy closest, so that means the computer has to find the target, then decide which is the best to hit then actually hit it. Good luck
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Just thought of another one.
Trains, they only deal in one dimension forward and reverse. Do they still have drivers??
cars, forward reverse, left and right, driverless yet?
aeroplanes, runway to runway, programmed routes in the sky, surely they can that without pilots,
and you you think that the first thing to go driverless will be helicopters, which take off and land at in planned, unsurveyed places, doing often unplanned operations onto moving targets is what we should worry about.
i will start thinking about it when my car can drive me to the pub, wait for me while I have a few, then safely deliver me home again.
Trains, they only deal in one dimension forward and reverse. Do they still have drivers??
cars, forward reverse, left and right, driverless yet?
aeroplanes, runway to runway, programmed routes in the sky, surely they can that without pilots,
and you you think that the first thing to go driverless will be helicopters, which take off and land at in planned, unsurveyed places, doing often unplanned operations onto moving targets is what we should worry about.
i will start thinking about it when my car can drive me to the pub, wait for me while I have a few, then safely deliver me home again.
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The future has a tendency to be less ground-breaking than initially perceived. Has always been the case.
Also, most fire fighting aircraft are old gear, so who's going to front up with the capital to buy shiny new machines with all this tech to save nothing more than a pilots wage, but likely add a technicians wage in the process? Still flying 50+ year old airframes on fire grounds with excellent results.
Passengers on board? Not likely. How will you ever place fault on anyone if lives are lost?
Some jobs will disappear if the price point is right, but hardly worth getting worked up about. The boom and bust nature of the industry as a whole is enough to deter an operator from investing in the technology in the first place.
Also, most fire fighting aircraft are old gear, so who's going to front up with the capital to buy shiny new machines with all this tech to save nothing more than a pilots wage, but likely add a technicians wage in the process? Still flying 50+ year old airframes on fire grounds with excellent results.
Passengers on board? Not likely. How will you ever place fault on anyone if lives are lost?
Some jobs will disappear if the price point is right, but hardly worth getting worked up about. The boom and bust nature of the industry as a whole is enough to deter an operator from investing in the technology in the first place.
his is the demo I was talking about. It was conducted on the Boise National Forest about 2 years ago I believe. They had the press about a mile away---that is the video you see. The Boise Helitack personnel were the 2 people up closer to the flames---friends of mine. So yeah, dropping water on a moving fire in the mountains not going to happen anytime soon.