By A pizza descends from the heavens in the clutches of an insect-like robot, giving a whole new meaning to the term “pie in the sky.”
A future where this is the norm is not far off, according to experts who spoke at “The Age of Drones and New Societal Concerns,” a lecture hosted by the College of Engineering at the Pointe Conference Center Thursday evening.
Before flying robots can be unleashed unto the sky, certain ethical and legal questions must be addressed, said Mike Petrime, the panel moderator and group vice president at Applied Medical.
“These technological advances are creating unforeseen challenges in terms of privacy, security, safety and regulation,” Petrime said.
The technology itself is not new and has been around for almost 75 years, said Chris Hernandez, the vice president of Advanced Systems for Business and Advanced Systems Development at Northrop Grumman. Unmanned targets were first built during World War II to help antiaircraft gunners practice.
The military’s appetite for the technology has only grown since then. A 2012 congressional report stated that 31 percent of all U.S. military aircrafts are unmanned aerial vehicles.
According to President Obama’s 2016 fiscal year budget, nearly $3 billion is set aside for drone research, development and procurement.
There are over a million UAVs in circulation within the U.S., said Small UAV Coalition Executive Director Michael Drobac.
Most are used for recreational purposes because commercial use of UAVs is largely prohibited. The Federal Aviation Administration does grant some commercial usage of drones on a case-by-case basis under a Section 333 exemption, though a backlog of petitions has slowed down the process.
In April, the FAA gave Internet retailer Amazon clearance to test UAVs for their new service Prime Air, which aims to use UAVs as mechanical delivery storks for small packages.
Nevertheless, the current rules have left a lot of grey area.
“It’s the Wild, Wild West in terms of what the regulations should be,” Drobac said.
As an example of the fractured legality of drone operation, Drobac displayed a picture of a vineyard with a drone flying overhead.
“If you’re a hobbyist and you use that UAV at that vineyard, you’re not breaking the law,” Drobac said. “If you are an actual vender out there looking at your crop, and you’re using [a UAV] to further your business, that’s illegal. It doesn’t make any sense.”
The FAA is working on new regulations that would govern commercial drone use. Congress has mandated that the laws be completed by September 30.
New regulations will look to mitigate the human risks associated with drone flight, said Kevin Hull, the manager of the FAA’s Los Angeles Aircraft Certification Office in Long Beach.
“We’re in the safety business, and that’s the only business we’re in,” Hull said.
Precision agriculture, crime scene investigation, search and rescue and infrastructure inspection are a few of the proposed commercial uses for drones that have been stifled by prohibitive laws, said Drobac.
Even educators have run into trouble with the FAA over drone use.
During the Q&A portion of the lecture, Bob Ward, a computer science and computer engineering instructor at CSULB, said that the FAA had grounded his class’ idea to use drones as part of their senior project.
Drone use also brings up concerns with privacy.
Paul Fraidenburgh, an attorney at Buchalter Nemer’s Aviation and Aerospace Practice Group, said that people have already had the unnerving experience of looking out into their backyard and coming face-to-face with a drone peering back at them.
Privacy issues typically fall under the jurisdiction of local and state laws and not the FAA, Fraidenburgh said. He said that privacy laws that are already in place protect people from intrusive UAVs.
“What we’re going to see are these really interesting divisions carved out in the next few years where privacy is hands off for the federal regulators but hands on for the local regulators,” Fraidenburgh said.
Although this topsy-turvy world of drone legality has created uncertainty about the technology’s future role in society, one thing remains clear for Drobac:
“We have a lot that we can accomplish, but we have to be mindful.”
