Page 94 - World Airnews Magazine January 2020 Edition

HANGAR
TALK

CRIME-FIGHTING DRONES

NEED A LITTLE HELP

he City of Cape Town recently pub-
Tlicly announced its intenti on to pilot

a fleet of drones for crime prevention. This
would make it the first municipality in South

Africa to embrace drone technology to com-
bat crime. As to be expected, a pioneering

declaration like this divides the crowd.

To the backers this is an exciting time,
where citizens stand to benefit from

advances in drone technology and the

potential to leverage artificial intelligence

that interprets a live onboard video feed to
improve safety. To the sceptics, concerns of

privacy for citizens and references to a lack

of policy and regulation are top-of-mind.

Each municipality, province or nation
should determine its level of readiness
across the range of use cases it perceives
drones could add the most value.
But what happens once the green light
has been granted?

Drone flight in South Africa is still reg- Soon the industrial grade drones that tured could be leased out at a fee for the

ulated by the SA Civil Aviation Authority, cost tens of thousands of Rand – sporting period needed during a trial. It’s exciting -

which means there are restrictions in terms onboard cameras that cost as much - will but also a little scary.

of where drones can be flown or operated. be far more accessible to middle class CROWDSOURCED MODEL TAKES
There are also licenses that are required residents. With the surge in the number FLIGHT
for individuals and companies wishing to of drones in residence, gaining visibility of

operate drones. These regulatory wrinkles them will become a priority. The possibilities we open through a
will need to be ironed out if public and The Swiss government is already promot- connected ecosystem are shrouded by the

private sector entities wish to deploy drone ing a central flight management system anxiety caused by an invasion of personal

technology to solve key challenges. that allows visibility of drone service pro- privacy and lack of control over private
viders across a network. property. Perhaps, then, if the model
AFFORDABILITY, TECH ADVANCES changed from residents buying drones to
To the individual drone owner, a govern-
DRIVING ADOPTION ment adopting this framework would spark leasing them from the government it would

What we can expect to see is that, as with concerns around institutional control over calm the nerves, knowing that the device

other technologies exhibiting Moore’s law, private drones, or the potential for this net- was not actually theirs in the first place.

the performance of drone technology will work to be hacked. On the positive side, it Where else could crowdsourcing add value

continue to double year on year, while the presents an opportunity for private drones in the drone economy? How would we be re-

cost reduces accordingly. The onboard to be hired by the minute for specific jobs imbursed for the time that people, companies

artificial intelligence technology, however, that allow government and corporate enti- and government departments are using our

is improving at an exponential rate and ties to extend their fleet. drones? As payment, would a credit towards

the use cases for deploying drones in a Imagine, in the crime reaction context, utility accounts be favoured, or perhaps it’s as

municipal or corporate context will grow that the police services would be able to simple as earning credits to use the same gov-

rapidly as pattern recognition, streaming enlist your drone to support a pursuit in ernment-owned drone for leisure purposes.

analytics and other intelligent solutions progress, that the control of the drone Would we even want to use it for leisure

become readily available. could be handed over to their central purposes, or rather acknowledge that these
For municipalities, as they progress toward control room and that, once suspects have are for intended use only? Perhaps the needs

the realization of a smart, more connected, been apprehended, the onboard video cap- for the fleet would change and we could

future cities strategy, investing in intelligent simply rent out our roof space as a docking

technologies is a critical step. This, as part of station to charge nearby drones in need of a
a broader shift to run cities as Intelligent En- top up.

terprises, will drive greater standards of qual- These are the possibilities in the drone

ity and consistency in service delivery while economy. The kit, the platforms, the intelli-
ensuring peace-of-mind amongst citizens. gent technologies, and the revenue models

The tech drives the increased adoption, are all the easy bits. The difficulty comes in

the adoption drives the lower prices and getting stakeholders to align and to agree

the increased demand drives advances in on purpose, on policy and on protection of

the tech. It’s a magic cycle. the citizens’ interests. Q
World Airnews | January 2020
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