FedEx feeder plane takes flight without pilot in test for Reliable Robotics
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FedEx feeder plane takes flight without pilot in test for Reliable Robotics
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Re: FedEx feeder plane takes flight without pilot in test for Reliable Robotics
#2It's only a matter of time.
However, how will the robotic plances integrate with existing voice-based air traffic control? Would there be a new digital channel, or the planes would it use an on-board voice recognition and synthesizer?
Re: FedEx feeder plane takes flight without pilot in test for Reliable Robotics
#3It's only a matter of time. However, how will the robotic plances integrate with existing voice-based air traffic control? Would there be a new digital channel, or the planes would it use an on-board voice recognition and synthesizer?
If I was doing this I would start with remotely "piloting" (sending instructions to) them and having the remote pilot communicate with ATC via the traditional radio channel.
Re: FedEx feeder plane takes flight without pilot in test for Reliable Robotics
#4It's only a matter of time. However, how will the robotic plances integrate with existing voice-based air traffic control? Would there be a new digital channel, or the planes would it use an on-board voice recognition and synthesizer?
That would be quite a feat without updating the quality of the voice transmissions. When you listen to some recordings of ATC, it becomes clear pretty quickly that context clues is paramount to being able to communicate with ATC. Some of the transmissions are so difficult to hear it amazes me that humans can even communicate through it.
Perhaps a lot of that is cabin noise, and without it, the transmissions would become a lot clearer.
Re: FedEx feeder plane takes flight without pilot in test for Reliable Robotics
#5Frankly the tech for autonomous aviation has been around for a while now. I expect even strong crosswind landings will soon be better handled by a computer than a pilot. But then here’s the problem...
Autonomous systems are great when things are going well, but at the end of the day they fare very poorly in edge cases sometimes with catastrophic results. When you’re driving a car you usually follow traffic rules and stop lights to get to your destination safely. In an airplane there’s constant communication and things change frequently based on weather, traffic, emergencies, etc. I can’t count the number of times ATC has repeated back an incorrect call sign. As a human we know it was probably meant for us and call back to confirm. Would a computer do that? Even if we used datalink communications then ATC would now have a much higher burden. Also human pilots would lose the situational awareness of hearing instructions for other aircraft on frequency.
Then there’s the question of— in an emergency situation is the computer going to be able to make the right judgement calls? What if its sensors are iced over/inop?
All in all, while technologically I feel this could have been pulled off yesterday, I doubt we will see fully autonomous aircraft operating long routes in controlled airspace anytime soon.
Re: FedEx feeder plane takes flight without pilot in test for Reliable Robotics
#6Who do people think will have their jobs replaced first, cargo pilots or truck drivers?
One big factor is it often comes down to which worker group has a stronger union and likewise entrenched political interests at local levels, as we've seen in technological progress elsewhere.
Second to that is probably the safety regulatory process. 'AI' or computer automation has also been used heavily in airplanes for a long time so that regulatory process is probably going to happen much more advanced than cars.
Finally, driving regulations often happen at a much more local level (cities can ban AI drivers in their borders for ex) but flights are divided over much wider geographical lines. And there are far fewer airline companies than truck companies to deal with.
Re: FedEx feeder plane takes flight without pilot in test for Reliable Robotics
#7It's only a matter of time. However, how will the robotic plances integrate with existing voice-based air traffic control? Would there be a new digital channel, or the planes would it use an on-board voice recognition and synthesizer?
If I was doing this I would start with remotely "piloting" (sending instructions to) them and having the remote pilot communicate with ATC via the traditional radio channel.
What if radio communications are lost? This is not a super infrequent occurrence
Re: FedEx feeder plane takes flight without pilot in test for Reliable Robotics
#8It's only a matter of time. However, how will the robotic plances integrate with existing voice-based air traffic control? Would there be a new digital channel, or the planes would it use an on-board voice recognition and synthesizer?
If I was doing this I would start with remotely "piloting" (sending instructions to) them and having the remote pilot communicate with ATC via the traditional radio channel.
Right, but that requires a fairly reliable radio link (that we don't have, e.g. MH370).
Or perhaps a set of dedicated routes, with ATC actively routing other traffic around the robots?
Re: FedEx feeder plane takes flight without pilot in test for Reliable Robotics
#9It's only a matter of time. However, how will the robotic plances integrate with existing voice-based air traffic control? Would there be a new digital channel, or the planes would it use an on-board voice recognition and synthesizer?
That would be quite a feat without updating the quality of the voice transmissions. When you listen to some recordings of ATC, it becomes clear pretty quickly that context clues is paramount to being able to communicate with ATC. Some of the transmissions are so difficult to hear it amazes me that humans can even communicate through it. Perhaps a lot of that is cabin noise, and without it, the transmissions would bec…
For what it’s worth the radio transmissions sound quite a bit more clear (usually) in the plane. LiveATC uses ground stations which don’t always have great reception and they compress the audio like crazy. I can barely make out what they say on LiveATC sometimes but in the air it’s rarely a problem.
Re: FedEx feeder plane takes flight without pilot in test for Reliable Robotics
#10There needs to be a pollution (including noise) tax collected to counterweight the inevitable of potentially non-stop swarm of buzzing that will be making 10,000s to 100,000s of deliveries in cities everyday.