The Skies “They Are Achangin” – The Age of Drones is Upon Us

Bob Dylan sang “The Times They Are Achangin.” I don’t think he was talking about drones but it seems appropriate to refer to his tune when addressing the subject.

Drones are everywhere these days. They have become a weapon of choice in two current wars, the battle between Russia and Ukraine and the war being fought on the borders of Israel. Weaponized drones are cheap to build, and can carry armaments or be used as kamikaze. They can be directed by using GPS and other navigation tools. They are relatively cheap to build and can be turned out by the thousands.

Drones can be used for domestic, not just military applications. Their onboard navigational systems make them useful to deliver things. Amazon is experimenting with drone deliveries in select markets these days. As drone numbers grow, managing the traffic they will bring to communities will increasingly present an airspace challenge.

Current air traffic management systems are incapable of monitoring and guiding drones. These legacy systems are designed for piloted aircraft with humans behind the controls. That’s why NAV Canada, a 1996-established non-profit organization that operates Canada’s civil air navigation system, has engaged private partners to help build uncrewed capacity into their existing navigational management systems.

Ryan Coates is the Executive Director of the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) Task Force working with Transport Canada and other industry partners to build this traffic management system to incorporate autonomous and remotely controlled drones. Trials are currently underway with NAV Canada which is responsible for air traffic control, aeronautical communication, navigation aids, and aviation weather services covering 12 million aircraft annually flying over 18 million square kilometres (nearly 7 million square miles) of North American and Atlantic airspace.

How do you integrate drones into skies already filled with traffic? Coates, in a December 10, 2024 press release notes that advancements in drone technology are up to the task and changing the definition of aviation. Autonomous and remote-controlled aircraft are being tested for use in real-world applications with an initial focus on healthcare logistics and infrastructure surveillance and maintenance.

Drones can navigate complex airspaces. They can fly at variable altitudes. Their guidance systems can put them right where they need to go. Drones can reach remote communities faster and more effectively than existing fixed-wing and rotor aircraft. They can deliver emergency medical supplies, medications, blood, vaccines, and more during disasters when normal logistics are disrupted. If land routes are blocked, drones can fly over them. If fires limit aircraft visibility, drones with advanced navigation and artificial intelligence (AI) can see through the smoke.

Richard Brown is the COO of Variable Pitch Inc., a Canadian software company developing unmanned aircraft and remotely piloted systems. His company is participating in the NAV Canada trial demonstrating its advanced radar, real-time weather data and AI traffic control systems for navigating in complex aerial environments. The technology offers Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) capability meaning the drones can fly without the need for a remote human pilot in constant visual contact. Extended range is made possible by built-in GPS navigation, high-resolution cameras, LIDAR and infrared sensors, and autonomous AI flight software.

The two immediate non-military applications that NAV Canada is testing are healthcare delivery and infrastructure maintenance and inspection. Brown states, “Drones can bridge the gap between urban healthcare centres and remote communities. The potential to deliver life-saving treatments within minutes can dramatically change outcomes in emergencies.”

Then there is the use of drones for the visual inspection of bridges, power lines, railways and other vital infrastructure. Drones can see difficult-to-reach sites that are costly to get and difficult and dangerous for human observers. Their visual sensing technologies can gather real-time data to spot corrosion, cracks, and other material issues that can be overlooked by more conventional inspections. Drones used this way are cost savers. They allow for more frequent inspections so preventive maintenance can be done before damage leads to costly major repairs. To call them an industry game changer is an understatement.

NAV Canada trials may establish the standard for other countries to manage drones within their civil airspaces. Even before the work NAV Canada is currently doing, commercial drone systems are already operational in 2024.

In the medical realm, I have previously written about drones used in trials for medical deliveries in Costa Rica. Meanwhile, in the U.S. there is Zipline, which presently offers prescription, over-the-counter medicines, and medical device delivery to patients’ homes; laboratory sample transportation between health facilities for faster diagnoses; and immediate inventory management provisioning between lab and hospital locations to ensure facilities are fully supplied. The company’s drones are in use at the University of Michigan, the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic.

For examples of drones already in use to support infrastructure projects, here are four that I discovered.

• Dronegenuity is offering aerial photography, inspection, mapping and data services.
• PLP has bird diverter drones to keep power lines clear.
• VSI Aerial offers drone services for TV and film production, commercial real estate construction and inspection, as well as exterior structure cleaning.
• CalTrans, the California Department of Transportation, is using Skydio X10 smart drones for bridge inspections, landslide assessments, and monitoring of roads, rails, and ports.

Yes indeed, the “times are achangin” and it is the sound of drones, not music, that you are hearing.