Future Unmanned Systems

Assignment 9.3 - Research Blog 6: Future Unmanned Systems Impact

Don Moore

UNSY 501 Applications of Unmanned Systems

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University 

Unmanned systems as a whole will indeed impact society for decades to come. The reason for the huge impact is due to the commercial use of unmanned systems.

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)

Due to the amount of aircraft that are in the air at once, the NAS could be one of the most complex Systems ever devised (FAA, 2015). UAS will impact how the National Airspace System is controlled, increase the amount of regulations and or change current relations, and gives more commercial businesses the ability to take part in the world of aviation.

Unmanned Maritime Systems (UMS)

The oceans cover about 71 percent of the Earth's surface and contain 97 percent of the Earth's water (Aqua Facts). The fact that the majority of the ocean has not been exported and the recent influx in UMS basically guarantees that UMS will impact the future of society. Despite the relatively late start in the development of UMSs, the DoD is conducting significant research on UMSs for a variety of missions, to include ISR, oceanographic surveillance, countermine, and small boat security missions (Gonzales & Harting, 2014).

           

Unmanned Ground Systems (UGS)

Although UGV hasn’t been perfected many businesses are starting to use UGS for commercial purposes, which will have a huge impact on society.  Most of the impact of UGS will come from the vehicles operating in close proximity to humans.  For example in September 2016 Anheuser-Busch became the first corporation to accomplish the delivery of goods using an autonomous/Driverless vehicle (McFarland, 2016). Using UGS in this matter directly impacts Society due to the change that would need to be made in traffic patterns, the quality of all roads and the bad habits of human drivers.

My Opinion

Domino's Robotic Unit

Uber self-driving car

Although many may differ, I believe that UGS will have the greatest impact on society over the next two decades.  The reason for my choice is that after looking at the different types of unmanned systems it seems as though ground vehicles operating around humans would have the greatest impact.  Air systems also have an impact however there more people on the ground than in the air. More people have licenses to drive versus licenses to fly. There are most likely more owners of ground vehicles then aerial and maritime vehicles. In my humble opinion the main reason UGS we’ll have the greatest impact on society is because most likely we us humans would have to Drive correctly.   Most accidents with UGV have come from humans that are not following traffic laws i.e. not coming to a complete stop at the stop sign and not proceeding until the time to do so. This change will absolutely have a great impact on society because many humans are not inclined to change and or follow the rules of the road at all times.

Anheuser-Busch self-driving truck

 

References

Aqua Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.oceanicinstitute.org/aboutoceans/aquafacts.html

Federal Aviation Administration. (2015). Air Traffic. Retrieved from https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/

Gonzales, D., & Harting, S. (2014). Designing unmanned systems with greater autonomy: Using a federated, partially open systems architecture approach.Santa Monica: RAND Corporation.

McFarland, M. (2016, October 25). A self-driving truck just hauled 51,744 cans of Budweiser on a Colorado highway. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/25/technology/otto-budweiser-self-driving-truck/index.html