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Is the future bright for civilian drones?

9cfafe17cbee9865c53732b3a3144f94-huge-amazonprimeair.jpgFollowing on from Jonathan Webber’s presentation entitled “Looking from a Safe Distance” were you convinced by the use cases for civilian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)? Like Jonathon I’m still rather sceptical about mass delivery from the likes of Amazon, but that was certainly headline grabbing and generated some highly amusing cartoon images. However, the use UAVs for industrial inspection, emergency services and remote monitoring already appear well developed. It’s also going to be interesting to see how things pan out with regards to the use of drones to provide internet to the unconnected. Will they make satellites redundant for communication? Can you think of additional use cases?
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  • Paul, you raise some very good points - as you say, it was a pity you weren't able to join us and raise those directly with the presenter. It does appear the CAA provide some regulations (http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=1995&pagetype=90), but also acknowledge themselves the guidelines are limited. I found another more general link, which is reasonably helpful http://www.unmannedtech.co.uk/regulations.html. Jonathan highlighted that in the UK line-of-sight (LOS) must be maintained between a UAV and the controller and also that the maximum LOS distance is limited, therefore even today it appears there would be regulatory restrictions on a full delivery service. Your idea of a debate sound very reasonable and maybe one that the IET ought to be involved with.
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  • Paul, you raise some very good points - as you say, it was a pity you weren't able to join us and raise those directly with the presenter. It does appear the CAA provide some regulations (http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=1995&pagetype=90), but also acknowledge themselves the guidelines are limited. I found another more general link, which is reasonably helpful http://www.unmannedtech.co.uk/regulations.html. Jonathan highlighted that in the UK line-of-sight (LOS) must be maintained between a UAV and the controller and also that the maximum LOS distance is limited, therefore even today it appears there would be regulatory restrictions on a full delivery service. Your idea of a debate sound very reasonable and maybe one that the IET ought to be involved with.
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