The decade of drones: this is how they will 'land' massively in our cities before 2030

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In 1865, the spectacular advance of the first steam vehicles aroused amazement in the streets of the United Kingdom.

Amazement and fear.

So afraid that

a law that forced the first cars to comply with two curious rules when traveling: they could not exceed 3 km/h in cities and their crew must be made up of three people,

T he

, but it served to gradually integrate its first creatures into the urban landscape, to make citizens assume that its advantages far outweighed its risks, and to develop models and rules of use that were minimizing the danger.

More than half a century after the

, the unmanned aerial vehicle industry, better known as drones, faces a similar dilemma.

The technology has reached a certain maturity and some of its first applications have already begun to demonstrate, near and far from the ground, that

Attack drones in Ukraine

Yes, autonomous aircraft are also used in Russian suicide attacks on the Ukrainian civilian population and Ukraine adapts small commercial drones to carry out guerrilla actions against the invading army.

It's no wonder, therefore, that these aerial wonders are still scary.

, that they invade our privacy or cause accidents...

Hence, some of

.

Not because technology is not capable of developing them, but because it is essential that legislators make sure that they will not pose a danger to the integrity of people and countries.

«We are going to continue to see them in applications where they are already present, such as logistics, emergencies, infrastructure inspection and maintenance, work at height (which is the leading cause of accidental deaths in the world);

, because they imply greater security requirements for them to be approved...”, confirms Aníbal Ollero, Professor of Systems and Automation at the University of Seville and head of its Aerial Robotics Laboratory.

Ollero is considered by Scopus to be the most prolific researcher in the world in the field of unmanned vehicles and is responsible for international reference projects related to bio-

(which move by flapping their wings, like birds) and aerial manipulation robotics, an area in which highlights the great Spanish scientific relevance.

“

and we are leaders in the development of intelligent ornithopters,” he emphasizes.

The social perception of drones, another key

In his opinion,

, a field in which there have been many advances in recent years thanks to the first cases of civil use. .

"When drones are used in bombing like Russia is doing, it puts the focus back on military uses, which may slow down the deployment of drones, but I don't think it will stop it in its tracks," he says.

In fact, all the signs point to the opposite: before the end of this decade we will see a

Air taxis will work before 2030

The consulting firm Mckinsey has been carrying out various studies that perfectly reflect the evolution that the sector has experienced.

In 2012, the drone industry moved 40 million dollars in the US.

In 2017, the figure had risen to 1,000 million and

, as well as the creation of hundreds of thousands of specific jobs.

And the same goes for social perception.

.

In March 2021, the same consultancy surveyed 4,800 people from six countries (Brazil, China, Germany, India, Poland and the US) and between 15 and 20% of them were in favor and willing to get on an air taxi.

In fact, the figure reached 38% in the case of India.

"Technology is improving at an incredible speed," says Balkiz Sarihan, Head of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Execution Strategy and Sponsorships at Airbus.

"We believe that

small-scale urban air mobility in some selected cities," he predicts.

In fact, the European multinational already has its own unmanned aerial vehicle prototype: the CityAirbus Nextgen.

describes Sarihan, who explains how they will carry a pilot on board at the beginning to generate passenger safety.

Of course, over time, progress will be made towards remote piloting and autonomous operation of the aircraft.

Image of the CityAirbus NextGen urban mobility drone, developed by Airbus.

The Airbus spokeswoman explains two other rules that these air taxis must comply with: in addition to

, "predefined routes will be established and as soon as a vehicle reaches a city will only be able to fly from point A to point B,” argues Sharihan.

"

, etc.," she explains.

All these details are challenges that the drone industry will have to face if it wants to take off definitively in that decade.

Another has to do with infrastructure.

To begin with, the physical ones: «

[airports where ships take off and land vertically]

, among others, will be necessary.

We developed some prototypes and tested them successfully”, explains Manuel Ruiz, CTO of Aeorum.

This company from Malaga was created in 2009 as a spin-off from the University of Malaga and has specialized in the development of

, another of the great future challenges for aviation.

«

"Having the drone connected to the network, to a control platform and to servers allows us to

...", says Jesús García, CEO of Aeorum.

Image of the Aeorum control center in Malaga, with a drone pilot in the foreground.

The company

and what anti-drone devices could be connected to platforms like theirs “to ensure detection, identification, tracking and neutralization of those threats," Garcia explains.

In fact, its platform was the one used in the first trans-European flight to carry out an experimental rescue mission in the forests of Lapland.

(2017), "The mission took place in Finland, the control center and the pilot were in Madrid and the servers were in Malaga," says García.

The Uspace and the UTM

Because

and the legislation will tend to be more lax.

Currently, in Spain you cannot operate drones weighing more than 250 grams without a pilot's license and you cannot fly above 120 meters in altitude.

Among other regulations that will be softened if control systems and security guarantees improve.

“At a European level

.

It is the so-called U-space”, they explain from Aeorum, who also mention another key element in this regard: the unmanned aircraft management systems (UTM, for its acronym in English) that will centralize the connection and intercommunication of drones.

Will it be enough to ensure safety and reduce errors and accidents to zero, especially from armed drones?

"In the parameters and the flight plan defined before each operation,

" explains Fernando Ciriza, Marketing Manager at the Defense Drones Division. of Airbus.

"We can determine predefined areas and landing strips, instructions to return to base autonomously, fly over unpopulated areas or determine holding patterns over safe areas until the resolution of the fault in question," he specifies.

Because the truth is that disruptions and new cases of use of drones in defense will continue to occur.

Ciriza points out some, such as

, such as fighter planes, drones, tanker planes or helicopters flying at the same time, interconnected with each other, coordinated for the performance of a single mission.

In fact, the new combat formations would fly the drones in front to reduce the risks for the pilots as much as possible.

A final trend will be the progress in the civil use of drones initially created for military missions.

This is the case of the Airbus Zephir model, "

Ciriza suggests.

Initially created for defense missions, Zephir is going to start being used, as a satellite, "to provide communications and connectivity services in a specific area in a persistent way".

For example, after a natural disaster.

Examples, all of them, that

.

And also signs of technological maturity and safety guarantees that should allow the sector to take off and avoid solutions like those corridors with a red flag that slowed down the advance of the automobile industry for decades.

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