Using the Internet to Make Drones Safe

摘要

The Internet is emerging as a safety net for civilian drones. Each new model of microdrone offers additional autonomous navigation features facilitated by geospatial data stored on Internet-linked servers. Reliability of autonomous safety features such as return-to-home or land-immediately when something goes wrong can be assured only by collecting actual flight data, and that can be done most simply through Internet connections. Drones are capable of operating entirely on their own, without Internet connectivity. So the question is: how operators can be encouraged to embed their streaming video in an Internet session. Internet connectivity during flight permits more robust navigation and enhances collision avoidance. Internet connectivity during or after flight permits the drone to upload flight telemetry data necessary for evaluating the reliability of its safety systems, for diagnosing design problems and for enabling vendors to develop fixes.