from Business Week
Drone enthusiasts believe the day will come when thousands of the flying machines will transport packages, search for missing persons, fight fires, even deliver pizza. Yet to harness the full potential of drones, humans have to figure out how to get them to fly on autopilot without crashing into things—and each other.
That may not be a big issue in places like Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, where the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is allowing a Boeing (BA) drone to survey ice formations for oil producer ConocoPhillips (COP). It does matter in urban areas crowded with people, buildings, trees, planes, and soon, other drones.
Engineers at companies big and small are rushing to pack suitcase-size aircraft with the sophisticated navigational systems found on commercial jets. Most are still pretty rudimentary and not available for sale. “The technology isn’t there yet, but it’s something the industry needs badly,” says Jesse Kallman, head of global business development for San Francisco-based Airware, a drone-equipment maker backed by Google Ventures (GOOG). A breakthrough could swell the drone market well beyond the $11.6 billion the Teal Group, a defense and aerospace research firm, forecasts for 2023.
John Parker, a former private aviation investigator who now runs a company called Integrated Robotics Imaging Systems, has licensed a radar unit that weighs 12 ounces and is trying to make it lighter still. He plans to have a system priced between $7,000 and $10,000 ready for sale in 18 months. Sagetech, based in Hood River, Ore., has been working to miniaturize the transponders used to signal a plane’s location to air traffic controllers and to other aircraft. It’s succeeded in shrinking the 3-pound device down to 3.5 ounces and will tackle a collision-avoidance transponder next. 3D Robotics is trying to endow drones with sight, by equipping them with optical flow sensors similar to those used on some computer mice. The technology is cheap and getting more sophisticated but, like the human eye, doesn’t work well in the dark or thick fog.
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Alan is serial entrepreneur, active angel investor, and a drone enthusiast. He co-founded DRONELIFE.com to address the emerging commercial market for drones and drone technology. Prior to DRONELIFE.com, Alan co-founded Where.com, ThinkingScreen Media, and Nurse.com. Recently, Alan has co-founded Crowditz.com, a leader in Equity Crowdfunding Data, Analytics, and Insights. Alan can be reached at alan(at)dronelife.com