‘I believe drones can find their place in our society’
technology and all other robots. ‘Not necessarily
response from the government when drone tech-
on the visual inspection side of things, there are a
nology emerged was very defensive,’ he says. ‘How
lot of academics doing that already. My research
dangerous are drones for air traffic, for instance?
group specifically focuses on physical interaction:
And soon after, more objections were raised: who
having drones that can touch, measure, inspect
is accountable when a drone runs out of battery
and repair.’ The professor names the inspection of
and falls on someone’s head? And then there’s the
windmills as an example. ‘Nowadays, people have
privacy aspect: can we allow people to peek at their
to climb a windmill to make sure it works properly.
entire neighborhood from the air?’
A drone can do the same task, safer and cheaper.
And so, Heldeweg explains, a consensus started
The same principle applies to inspecting bridges and
to grow. ‘Yes, you are allowed to fly a drone, but
other infrastructure. So it’s not hard to see that the
only up to a certain height and far removed from
technology potentially has a huge economic value.’
civilization. But if you look at YouTube videos of
Principles and practice collide
8
people flying drones, you can say in almost every: this wasn’t actually allowed by law,’ says Heldeweg.
Even though physical laws don’t seem to apply
‘Ironically, in reality principles and practice collide.
to drones, there are laws that are withholding
You can buy advanced drones at electronics stores
them from being part of our street view already.
for a few hundred euros, but the only places where
Michiel Heldeweg, professor of Law, Governance &
you are actually allowed to fly them are usually far
Technology has an explanation for that. ‘The first
away meadows.’