Drones are coming!

To what the next decade will belong too? Some may think of several alternatives such as internet, smartphones, twitter and facebook. But I think that all these belong to the past. The next decade will surely belong to drones, small airplanes that can be remotely controlled from a remote source like someone standing on ground below or sitting in front of a computer console, hundreds of miles away.

Drones came into lime light for a totally different reason during Afghanistan imbroglio, when US secret service CIA used them in targeted killings. Realising the tremendous potential of drones, many commercial undertakings have been experimenting with drones to find out if they could be used for delivery of products and materials. Amazon Inc, a US company, unveiled in 2013 a project aimed at delivering packages to customer's doorstep by using "octocopter" mini-drones with a mere 30-minute delivery time. Coming nearer home, a Mumbai based pizza outlet, Francesco's Pizzeria, known for its thin-crust pizzas made with fresh herbs and a "secret" BBQ lime sauce, used for the first time in India an unmanned drone to execute a delivery by taking the aerial route on May 11, 2014.

A famous Chinese actress internationally acclaimed for her role in the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Zhang Ziyi, was celebrating her upcoming 36^th birthday on the weekend with her boyfriend Wang Feng and other friends. During this party, a white drone flew toward her. Wang feng quickly retrieved an engagement ring from inside the drone and then got down on one knee and popped the question to Zhang, whether she would marry him? Mighty excited, Zhang said “yes” before welling up, and the newly engaged couple kissed and embraced. To complete the show the night sky lit up with pre-arranged fireworks.

Can we make use of drones to spread unique properties of some foul smells to do some unpleasant jobs? The police force in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state, India, think so. They think that a pepper spray can effectively control unruly mobs by showering them with it. They feel that the method will be "less harsh" than a baton charge. Police hope that it will also be more effective.

However, some people hate drones simply because they threaten the privacy of an individual. 'Deer Trail', a small farming and ranching town of just 600 people, located on high plains, about 55 miles east of Denver in Colorado state, USA, is considering a motion that the town pays bounties to anyone who shoots down a drone.

Phillip Steel, the man, who has put forward this whimsical proposal, is a resident of this town. He is a 48-year-old army veteran with a master's degree in business administration. He feels that there is a past precedent for similar actions. Governments once paid bounties to hunters who killed animals that preyed on livestock, but only after they produced the ears of the killed predators.

It is not that Deer Trail citizens have seen swarms of drones flying above them. Even Philip Steel, the proposer, has not seen any of them. He however says that some local ranchers outside the town limits have seen them. Why has he then come out with this proposal in that case? would be the natural question in everyone's mind. He explains that his idea is symbolic but the expansion of drones for commercial and government use is becoming alarming. He adds: "We don't want to become a surveillance society." According to him, if the town trustees do not vote to adopt the ordinance, it would go before voters in a special election. He hopes that his proposed motion will curtail the use of drones over the area as people flying the drones would be afraid that it would be shot down.

Frankly, I think Phillip Steel is just trying to swim against the tide. Whenever major changes in lifestyle force themselves upon us, there are always people who take great pride in resisting them. I have couple of friends, who proudly say that they are internet illiterate. What can we say to them? Perhaps Phillip Steel is just one of their tribe.

"Drones are coming!" is the writing on the wall and no one can stop them. We should be more positive in our approach and look towards the benefits instead of opposing them. Delivering an engagement ring might have been an idyllic use for a romantic occasion but there could be practical uses like delivering documents, medicines, food at a very low cost and utmost speed. The future for drones seems exceptionally bright.

1st May 2015

  

A drone affair

Drones or small airplanes, remotely controlled from a source that could be someone standing on ground below or sitting in front of a computer console, hundreds of miles away, first came into lime light during Afghanistan imbroglio, when US secret service CIA used an unmanned Predator drone in a targeted killing. The strike was in Paktia province in Afghanistan, near the city of Khost. The intended target was Osama bin Laden, or at least someone in the CIA had thought that target to be him. It was a terrible goof up as within days of the strike, journalists on the ground found out from local Afghans that the dead men were civilians gathering scrap metal. The media started asking questions and yet it was clear that a new means of warfare; using armed drones to attack enemy positions deep inside their territory had began.

Flying drones or unmanned remotely controlled aerial craft is not exactly a new idea and is probably a century old one. An English consulting engineer, Archibald Montgomery Low ( 1888- 1956) was, the first person, who thought of remotely controlling a pilotless aircraft. Using his ideas, the first pilotless, remote controlled aircraft were built during and shortly after World War I. The development continued and eventually during world war II, a company known as “Radioplane Company" manufactured and delivered nearly fifteen thousand drones, known as Radioplane OQ-2, to the US army during World War II.

Even with these developments, the pilotless airplanes, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), were still considered as unreliable and expensive toys. This view changed dramatically after developments by Israel in this field. Israeli Air Force used UAV as electronic decoys, electronic jammers and for real time video reconnaissance. In 1982 war with Syrian Air Force Israel managed to quickly destroy dozens of Syrian aircraft with minimal losses. US today, is the largest user of UAVs, having used them besides battlefields to domestic surveillance, as a search and rescue tool, disaster relief, border surveillance and wildfire fighting.

Realising the tremendous potential of drones, many commercial undertakings have been experimenting with drones to find out if they could be used for delivery of products and materials. Amazon Inc, a US company, unveiled in 2013 a project aimed at delivering packages to customer's doorstep by using "octocopter" mini-drones with a mere 30-minute delivery time. Coming nearer home, a Mumbai based pizza outlet, Francesco's Pizzeria, known for its thin-crust pizzas made with fresh herbs and a "secret" BBQ lime sauce, used for the first time in India an unmanned drone to execute a delivery by taking the aerial route on May 11, 2014.

No one perhaps would doubt the potential of use of drones in military and commercial matters, but can you believe that a drone could be used even in case of affairs that are closer to our hearts? Well! A Chinese rock singer and composer, Wang Feng recently showed how it can be used even in such delicate matters.

A famous Chinese actress internationally acclaimed for her role in the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Zhang Ziyi, was celebrating her upcoming 36^th on the weekend with her boyfriend Wang Feng and other friends. During this party, a white drone flew toward her. Wang feng quickly retrieved an engagement ring from inside the drone and then got down on one knee and popped the question to Zhang, whether she would marry him? Mighty excited, Zhang said “yes” before welling up, and the newly engaged couple kissed and embraced. To complete the show the night sky lit up with pre-arranged fireworks.

This probably is just a glimpse of what future holds as far as drones are concerned. Delivering an engagement ring might have been an idyllic use for a romantic occasion but there could be practical uses like delivering documents, medicines, food at a very low cost and utmost speed. The future for drones seems exceptionally bright.

13^th February 2015

Drone has delivered the sugar, Dear!

Imagine that you have invited few of your friends along with their spouses for a little get together in the evening. At 5 PM your wife suddenly tells you that she has run out of sugar or something else. This means that you need to get dressed up, take the car out of the garage and head for the nearest super market for a Kilogram of Sugar. Pick up sugar, stand in the line next to a cashier and finally return home after spending at least an hour, depending how far away you stay from the super market. While going through this unavoidable exercise, I am sure that many of us might daydream or imagine, how great would it be to have an angel appear in the sky above and deliver that Kilogram of sugar to us, while we are leisurely standing in our yard or on the house terrace, sipping beer from a can.

Rest assured that your imaginary daydream has just now come into the realm of possibility, but with a small correction, if Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon Corp. in USA , has his way. He wants to use drones instead of Angels from our daydreams.

Drones have now become a dread or particularly ill famous, for the terror minded individuals from certain countries like Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, because they appear suddenly in the sky and unleash deadly Hellfire missile attacks , bringing about complete destruction. For the Americans, it is a wonderful way off totally destroying their enemy with no possibility of any loss on their side. This fact was empatheticaly proved last month when a drone killed the Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, who was sitting in his SUV parked opposite his own residential compound gate.

American news channel CBS recently broadcast a prime time interview of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who recently acquired the newspaper 'Washington Post' for a song. During this interview Mr. Bezos came up with an unexpected announcement that his company was working on getting products to customers in 30 minutes or less using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Wow! If Mr. Bezos's dream comes true, how would the scenario, I described above change? Suppose again, that your wife tells you about running out of sugar at 5 PM, just few hours before the party. All you need to do is to punch your order to Amazon on your smart phone, go to yard with that can of beer and relax. Within 30 minutes, a drone holding a yellow coloured plastic box underneath, would appear in the sky and straight way head for you. It would land on your lawn or the terrace as the case may be. It would just release the yellow plastic box on the floor and buzz off to complete the next order. You just pick up the box and give it to your wife. Bingo! As simple as that. All you need to do is to give a shout to your wire: “Drone has delivered the sugar, Dear!”

Mr. Bezos, who prefers to call his drones as “Octocopters” says that they would pick up customers’ boxed orders from a “fulfilment centre” of Amazon and then use GPS coordinates to carry it to the customer’s address and drop it in the front yard of the house. No doubt that this “Prime Air” drone project is still in the research and development phase and it may take years to advance the needed technology and needed federal Aviation Administration rules and regulations to be created. The present Octocopters the company is working on currently, are capable of carrying packages weighing up to 10 kg, and according to Mr. Bezos, this accounts for about 86 per cent of the items Amazon delivers. The company is testing Octocopters with a range of about 10 miles and they could cover a significant portion of the population in urban areas in USA.

Though Mr. Bezos's idea is quite revolutionary and sounds like wonderful music to the ears of the consumer, there appear to be many a logistical and legal difficulties before any such concept comes in practice. How the drone would find a package’s intended recipient after flying to a particular GPS address, How the transfer of the package would be effected? Or How theft or other disruptions, including the possibility that the drone may be shot down, would be avoided.

Use of drones of such large-scale commercial purposes is currently not possible under U.S. Law. The regulator in this field, the Federal Aviation Administration is working for a solution according to some reports. If these rules materialise, commercial drones might become legally viable and workable.

Amazon's new concept may or may not materialise, but it's stock rose by 1% last week in pre-market trading after thanksgiving weekend.

5^th December 2013

The great deception

This bit of news really floored me. I do not know whether to call it a bloomer or a case of ignorant vigilance. Perhaps it is like the proverbial glass that is half empty to the host and half full to the guest. Skeptics may think it to be a case of utter foolishness, but let us first see what happened and then give judgment.

Lance Naik Sheminderpal Singh of Indian army was posted at point 4715 near Thakung in Eastern Ladakh as a sentry/observer, overlooking the Line of Control between India and China at a height of about 4,715 metres above sea level (more than 13000 feet), near Pangong Tso, a high-altitude lake shared by India and Tibet.

In August 2012, lance Naik Singh sighted a strange and bright object crossing over the Line of control from the east around 6PM and remained visible throughout the night up to 5AM. He saw another object crossing the LAC around 4AM and remained visible till 11AM. There are simmering concerns within India army about cross-border transgressions and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles by the Chinese to look into Indian territory and all the soldiers have been asked to watch carefully for any cross border transgression by the Chinese. The soldier promptly reported the sighting to his senior holding a rank of Subedar major, a junior commissioned officer, who must have asked him to continue his observation.

In all, army personnel documented 329 sightings of the unidentified objects, until February 2013, seen over Thakung. Eventually, Lance Naik Singh's prompt observation reports, slowly reached the upper echelons of Indian army winding its way through a series of officers of various ranks. The army headquarters, already gripped with issues concerning Chinese incursions in sensitive Eastern Ladakh, took note of the reports and decided to call the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, who promptly deputed two astronomers to Ladakh earlier this year to resolve the mystery of the two objects that the army had been observing in the sensitive border zone since August 2012.

One of the two astronomers, Tushar Prabhu says: "Our task was to determine whether these unidentified objects were celestial or terrestrial." The two astronomers interviewed army Lance Naik Singh. Who told them that he had noticed a delay of four minutes in the appearance of one of the objects each consecutive day. He also told them that the object seemed to be the brightest light in the sky and always appeared to move with respect to the stars. Astronomers then asked the army to use a theodolite to record the horizontal angle and vertical elevation of the two objects. Army personnel performed these observations between February 17 and 22, 2013 and submitted the data to the astronomers.

After analysis, the astronomers came to the conclusion that the first object observed from Point 4715 has to be planet Jupiter as observations exactly matched with the planet’s diurnal motion and the apparent motion of the object due to the rotation of the Earth. The second unidentified object that appeared early in the morning is planet Venus, which is currently moving behind the Sun and will in the coming months appear as an evening object. The army observers were erroneously considering these two celestial objects as unmanned aerial vehicles.

As I read this story, I instantly remembered that one night in July, which I had spent in a tent just on the shores of the lake “Pangong Tso” near Line of Actual control in eastern Ladakh. After dinner, as I was returning to my tent, in almost freezing conditions, I just happened to look above at the sky. The sky was clear and was just sparkling and dazzling with brilliance of starlight coming from billions of stars above in the heavens. Much more significant from this was the fact that the stars appeared to be hanging so low that I imagined that they could be reached easily by an aircraft. In fact I clearly remember the Big Dipper constellation stars hanging very low and of big size.

After returning from Ladakh, I found out that this deception of seeing the stars big, bright and very low is due to increased atmospheric transparency observed at the high altitudes. So, there was nothing foolish, when Lance Naik Singh, mistook the two planets for UAV's moving in from east, across line of actual control. Both Indian and Chinese armies have been increasingly using pilotless aircraft with sensors and high-resolution cameras to watch each other across the border. In the last three years, the number of such transgressions are reported to be spiraling. Transgressions are not only over land but also in airspace. Against this background, sensitivities of the two sides and their armies/border police are extremely high.

I would therefore consider Lance Naik Singh's watchful observations as something for which he should be commended and not laughed at. I have many a times mistaken a distant aircraft at night to be a planet first, only to realize later that it is moving much faster and must be an aircraft. Therefor there is nothing silly in Lance Naik Singh's sharp observations. It is far better to be being over cautious and over react and be on guard on the line of control in Ladakh, than showing carelessness and casual approach. Lance Naik Singh and his superiors deserve a pat on their backs.

29 July 2013

Shoot down that drone!

This is one bit of news that would gladly warm the hearts of Taliban and other such terrorists, carrying on with their nefarious activities on borders between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ever since US forces started attacking with rockets and bombs the places here, by means of unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, these little pilot-less aircraft flying on their own, have become their top dreaded enemy.

Deer Trail, a small farming and ranching town of just 600 people, located on high plains, about 55 miles east of Denver in Colorado state, USA, is considering a motion that the town pays bounties to anyone who shoots down a drone.

Phillip Steel, the man, who has put forward this whimsical proposal, is a resident of this town. He is a 48-year-old army veteran with a master's degree in business administration. He feels that there is a past precedent for similar actions. Governments once paid bounties to hunters who killed animals that preyed on livestock, but only after they produced the ears of the killed predators.

Similarly, he has proposed that the town would pay $100 to anyone who could produce the fuselage and tail of a downed drone. The bounty would be paid only if one of the two has remained undamaged. Under his proposal, hunters could legally shoot down a drone flying under 1,000 feet with a 12-gauge or smaller shotgun.

It is not that Deer Trail citizens have seen swarms of drones flying above them. Even Philip Steel, the proposer, has not seen any of them. He however says that some local ranchers outside the town limits have seen them. Why has he then come out with this proposal in that case? would be the natural question in everyone's mind.

He explains that his idea is symbolic but the expansion of drones for commercial and government use is becoming alarming. He adds: "We don't want to become a surveillance society." According to him, if the town trustees do not vote to adopt the ordinance, it would go before voters in a special election. He hopes that his proposed motion will curtail the use of drones over the area as people flying the drones would be afraid that it would be shot down.

I thought that on the face of it, the proposal looks outright whimsical. But on second thoughts, I feel that it is a symbolic gesture against increasing use of modern technology to interfere in private lives of other people. As it is, there is very little personal information that can be kept hidden from the social media. Now on top of that, you can be under surveillance of some one, who might use the information gathered by him for his commercial advantage to your disadvantage. Such information also can be used even for some criminal activities.

Imagine a drone flying above you and noting all the finer details of your daily routine. Your hobbies, likings and everything. I would not like to be a subject of such a drone search for myself. Phillip Steel's proposal no longer appears to me silly any longer. Eventually all societies around the world would need to bring in similar laws. Apparently, Deer Trail may not be the only town thinking about such a legislation. Some towns in Texas are also thinking on these lines.

This video clip, embedded here, will make things clear, I think!

On the lighter side, Steel says that the town would require to establish a drone recognition programme that would train the shooters to properly identify the targeted aircraft. His proposal clearly stipulates:"In no case shall a citizen engage an obviously manned aerial vehicle." (HaHa!)

19 July 2013