4.4 The future of UAS in either the military or civilian sectors

In support of my continued graduate studies in Unmanned Systems, this week’s Blog assignment was to comment on a recent article centered on the future of unmanned aerial systems in either the military or civilian sectors.

Ironically, this morning I found an article under the subtitle of Future Technology, on the front page of my locally delivered newspaper, THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE. The article, SoCal’s Changing Urban Landscape-How driverless cars, drones and other tech will change the urban landscape of Southern California, was written by Neil Nisperos June 18^th, 2017.

With the influx of 21^st century technologies, Nisperos offered a future consisting of driverless cars, drones and virtual reality (para. 2).  Big yellow-taxis will be replaced with driverless vehicles, drones will deliver packages to a specific location at your residence and virtual reality applications will be enhanced by faster internet speeds, perpetuating and enhancing a work from home environment, thereby significantly reducing traffic congestion at peak commuter time frames.

This vision of the future is all well and good, but in case you just crawled out from under a rock, the article is already old news.  Internet speeds are already supporting work from home and working hub environments, with real-time video conference applications such as MeetingBurner, Meetin.gs, GoToMeeting, Yugma, WebEx, and 321Meet (Fance, n.d.) to name a few, all of which enable the teleworker to be virtually present in business meetings and all-hands office discussions both globally and internationally.

Hardly considered futuristic, at the pace in which technology is proving these systems out, driverless cars are only 2-3 years away from full scale production and will be capable of providing level 4 autonomy to the market.  A list of these autonomous cars and their manufacturers can be found at this link.

Where the futures of drones or UAS are concerned, one only needs to see how the technology is already proliferating into our daily lives.

Technology/Operations

Nisperos wrote in his article:

The future is now- Much of the changes hinted at are already under way. New apartment projects, including a yet-to-be named 570-unit rental project to be built just north of the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, will incorporate design concepts for people to better work from home and areas to accept packages from Amazon and other online retailers (The future is now section, para. 1).

Amazon, thru its proposed airborne delivery system, Prime Air, is actively working with the FAA thru one of many pathfinder programs to develop the sensory capabilities and show regulatory compliance, where package delivery relates to UAS operations beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS), sense/detect and avoid (SAA/DAA), and operations over people (OOP).

A description of how the service is provided and when it will become a reality can be found on the Prime Air website:

·       Amazon Prime Air is a service that will deliver packages up to five pounds in 30 minutes or less using small drones.

·       Safety is our top priority. Our vehicles will be built with multiple redundancies, as well as sophisticated “sense and avoid” technology. Additionally, through our private trial in the UK, we will gather data to continue improving the safety and reliability of our systems and operations.

·       We will deploy when and where we have the regulatory support needed to safely realize our vision. We’re excited about this technology and one day using it to deliver packages to customers around the world in 30 minutes or less.

·       We are testing many different vehicle designs and delivery mechanisms to discover how best to deliver packages in a variety of operating environments. The look and characteristics of the vehicles will continue to evolve over time.

·       We have Prime Air development centers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Austria, France and Israel. We are testing the vehicles in multiple international locations.

·       We believe the airspace is safest when small drones are separated from most manned aircraft traffic, and where airspace access is determined by capabilities.

·       We are currently permitted to operate during daylight hours when there are low winds and good visibility, but not in rain, snow or icy conditions. Once we’ve gathered data to improve the safety and reliability of our systems and operations, we will expand the envelope. (FAQs, 2017).

·       We are working with regulators and policymakers in various countries in order to make Prime Air a reality for our customers around the world, and expect to continue to do so.

By employing the resources of one of their many geographically located distribution facilities, the likelihood of Amazon Prime Air package delivery is on the horizon and not as far out in the future as one would imagine.

References

Amazon (2017). Prime Air, Frequently asked Questions, Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Prime-Air/b?node=8037720011

Fance, C. (n.d.) Online Meeting and Web Conferencing Tools-Best Of, Retrieved from http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/online-meeting-tools/

Nisperos, N (2017). SoCal’s Changing Urban Landscape, How driverless cars, drones and other tech will alter the look and development of cities, Future Technology, The Press Enterprise, Retrieved from http://www.pe.com/2017/06/18/how-driverless-cars-drones-and-other-tech-will-change-the-urban-landscape-of-southern-california-4-2/

3.4 - Research Blog 2: Unmanned Maritime Systems

  Per this week’s assignment the class was required to comment on an article that centered on the future of Unmanned Marine Systems (UMS) in either the military or civilian sector. The article was required to discuss both the technical and operational uses and must be no more than 12 months old.

This week’s blog is focused on an article written by Abhijit Singh Unmanned and Autonomous Vehicles and future Maritime Operations in Littoral Asia (July 2016).

As Unmanned Aircraft Systems were significantly enhanced to support wartime efforts in the Asia Pacific theater, so too are efforts to enhance the technological and operational capabilities of Unmanned Marine Systems to provide additional support for the Indian Navy.

Supporting this transition, Singh wrote:

While the more substantive developments in unmanned technology have involved aerial drones, the more interesting possibilities are in the field of underwater vehicles. Indeed, despite the institutional and policy attention enjoyed by aerial platforms, it is unmanned and autonomous undersea vehicles that have been the subject of strategic debate and discussion in Indian maritime circles (para. 15).

Singh presented the significant operational roles this technology plays in supporting the world’s leading navies as; high-tech submersibles for mine countermeasure (MCM) operations, naval intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) roles, and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missions (para. 16).

He further categorized Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) as those that are autonomous undersea vehicles (AUVs) and remotely operated undersea vehicles (ROVs). By clarifying, “an AUV differs from an ROV by maintaining a degree of autonomy from human control. The AUV’s chief attribute is that it can undertake ASW tasks typically carried out by nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs), freeing the latter to perform more critical functions” (Singh, para. 16).

Singh also presented two distinguishing operational characteristics of AUVs in that they;
• Possess onboard intelligence and an inherent ability to self-program and execute missions. Unlike ships and submarines that are commanded solely by humans, autonomous undersea vessels exercise their innate judgment in performing operational tasks, and adversely
• They are inherently risky due to their inability to avoid risky maneuvers, leading to untoward incidents or collateral damage in combat situations (para. 18).

Aside from untimely incidents AUVs are also plagued with a moral dilemma as to whether the engagement of an enemy is deemed a legitimate act, minus due authorization from a human in the loop command.

The Indian navy, in consideration of these and other ethical considerations has taken a pro-active approach in the development of numerous UUV platforms from hand-held slow-speed ones, to military-class platforms, with the capability to assist in the entire gamut of maritime security (Singh, para. 19).

Current attention is given to that of the Defense Research and Development Organizations (DRPO) prototype capable of speeds up to seven km per hour at depths of up to 300 meters.  The system is reportedly being reworked to include passive sonar and electro-optical sensors for anti-mining missions (Singh, para. 20).

Where these prototype systems are designed and tested to meet the operational requirements of the user, they still must overcome three major technical constraints inherent to UUVs, 1) energy storage 2) communication link and 3) autonomous control.

Essentially all state-of-the-art UUVs today are battery-powered, and battery capacity remains the most fundamental limitation on range and endurance (Whitman, n.d.).  Despite improvements to electrochemical and conventional fuel cell technology no significant breakthroughs in energy technology have been made to permit relatively small UUVs to perform theater-scale missions or long-duration trailing tasks (Whitman, n.d.).

R. Turner noted in his article, The Unmanned Underwater Future (2014) that;

UUVs come with a disclaimer; the technology is in its infancy and lags behind unmanned land and air equivalents.  Communication with submerged platforms is highly challenging and that problem is compounded when you remove the human from the platform. Additional issues with propulsion, energy use and payload capacity add to the complexity of developing UUVs for naval operations (para. 8).

Ultimately, as technical improvements to AUVs continue and operational capabilities are realized, the world’s navies will struggle with the ethical challenges and decisions associated with operations played out forward of the manned fleet.

References

Singh, A. (2016). Unmanned and Autonomous Vehicles and Future Maritime Operations in Littoral Asia Retrieved from http://www.orfonline.org/research/unmanned-and-autonomous-vehicles-and-future-maritime-operations-in-littoral-asia/

Turner, R. (2014) The Unmanned Underwater Future, the Strategist Retrieved from   https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-unmanned-underwater-future/

Whitman, E. C. (n.d.). Beneath the Wave of the Future Retrieved from   http://www.public.navy.mil/subfor/underseawarfaremagazine/Issues/Archives/issue_15/wave.html