Trending in the IIoT – Drones / UAV Solutions What has led to the recent increase in industry attention to the use of drones?
Interview
On the technology side, major changes happened around the controllers and the flight systems available for drones. In the past, just the basic task of flying a drone required a trained pilot, but today, you don’t need any real piloting skills. Anyone can go to Costco, buy a cheap drone, and start flying it right out-of-thebox. What has become more important, however, are mission-planning skills: where to take off from, where to land, and how to safely control the drone in between. As you would expect with any operating skill, someone flying a drone needs to know their environment and how to best respond to that environment when something goes wrong.
What is the current regulatory environment around drones in Canada? Amit Varma Founder True Site View
Canadian laws around drones are clearly defined and proactive. If you look at most other countries, regulation around drones has been forced on the industry, but in Canada, regulation came first and industry followed. Even though drones are now very easy to fly, most people don’t know or care how to plan a mission properly. Just like driving a car, there are rules you have to learn and then you have to fly in a certain acceptable way. For example, Transport Canada is allowing people to fly drones beyond visual line-of-sight in a designated area in southern Alberta. Pilots can apply for permission to fly without visual line-ofsight, clock mission hours, then Transport Canada will allow them to fly elsewhere. The future will bring us Unmanned Autonomous Aerial Vehicle, or UAAVs, which will cause the next stage of drone regulation. We will then see flight certification being awarded directly to the technology instead of the pilot since no one will be flying the drone directly. A similar issue is going to arrive with the advent of self-driving cars, and it will be fascinating to see how the general public and government deal with this.
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