V O L U M E 5 N O. 2 | M AY 2 0 1 5
FLYING WITH FLARE DRONES CUT DOWN ON DANGER IN FLARE STACK INSPECTIONS
Inside This Issue: AnthroTronix Gets Inspired by Human-Machine Interaction A History of Rotary Wing Aircraft 3-D Printing Gets Personal in Medical Field
Mighty Small
Lepto n The r m a l Ca m e ra s (Actua l Size )
See What Lepton Can Do! www.flir.com/unmanned 1.805.690.5097
EDITOR’S MESSAGE
Big, and Powerful, Data What do you do with a market that is all demand but with no ability to supply? Recently media outlets reported that DJI, makers of the Phantom line of drones, is on pace to become the first consumer drone company to hit the $1 billion sales mark by the year’s end. That rate of growth is phenomenal, coming off around $500 million in revenue in 2014, which was already about four times better than its 2013 mark.
Danielle Lucey Editor
‘
Wireless network
companies would love to be able to take surveys of their towers more frequently and without any danger to employees. And this industry currently has power tools for those applications, when to date they’ve been done with hammers and screwdrivers.
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The spike comes as no surprise. We are living in an era where consumers are obsessed with documenting themselves. They count their steps on wearable devices. Their scales tell them not just their weight, but break it down into body fat percentage, hydration level and muscle mass. Not to mention, we are living in the era where it is socially acceptable to walk around with a cellphone on a stick, taking photos of yourself. We want these data not because we are experiencing the vainest chapter in human history, though it may seem that way sometimes. We want these data because they exist. And herein lies the problem for most commercial drone companies that want their systems to have more than hobby status: Doing that, for the most part, is still illegal. Farmers would love to know where there are early signs of a virus in their crops. Wireless network companies would love to be able to take surveys of their towers more frequently and without any danger to employees. And this industry currently has power tools for those applications, when to date they’ve been done with hammers and screwdrivers. The Federal Aviation Administration recently put its Section 333 application approval process in the fast lane. Instead of treating each company as its own unique request, it is grouping together approvals for industries, allowing companies to piggyback off another company’s success. This is still slow going. As of press time, there were about 190 approvals. But the total petition number is around 825. This issue of Mission Critical looks at one application that recently got the green light: flare stack inspections. Companies like VDOS Global and Total Safety are now using the systems to look at the oil and natural gas burn off at rigs and refineries. That story is on Page 22.
And it’s not just drones that can get these data-heavy missions done.
In our End Users department on Page 26, we look at a couple that was able to get a better understanding of what they were dealing with when the wife was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Her husband, who is savvy with 3-D printing, was able to replicate her skull by printing out the data from her MRI scans. With powerful information like this, this application could have a life-saving effect for people with cancers that are in locations where operating proves more difficult.
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V O L U M E 5 N O. 2 | M AY 2 0 1 5
CONTENTS FEATURES
14
Gadgets and Gimmicks? Practicality Awaits Smart Home Market
22 Flying With Flare
UAS Ease Hazards in Flare Stack Inspections
DEPARTMENTS
4 Essential Components
6
Delphi Drives Coast to Coast Clearpath Gains Funding Google Ponders Exterior Airbags
Timeline
A History of Rotorcraft
8
INDEX OF ADVERTISERS
FLIR Systems Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Front Cover RotoDrone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
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CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS Karen Aho, a freelance writer in western Massachusetts, reports and writes on science, business and housing. She can be reached at k.aho@msn.com. Gail Jansen is a freelance writer living in Canada. Marc Selinger is a freelance writer based in the Washington, D.C., area. He can be reached at marc2255@yahoo.com.
Cover Photo: VDOS Global LLC.
MISSION CRITICAL CONTACTS Brett Davis Vice President of Publications and Communications bdavis@auvsi.org Danielle Lucey Editor dlucey@auvsi.org Scott Kesselman Editorial Associate skesselman@auvsi.org
Ken Burris Sales Manager kburris@auvsi.org Dave Donahoe Sales Manager ddonahoe@auvsi.org
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Q&A Jack Vice AnthroTronix
Uncanny Valley Robots Teach Tots PostureRelated Learning Techniques
State of the Art The Landscape of State UAS Bills
Technology Gap Radio Conference Tackles Spectrum Issues
18 Spotlight
Using UAS in Construction Work
20 Testing, Testing
Robots Invade Food and Beverage Industry
26 End Users
3-D Printing Gets Personal for Couple Battling Tumor MISSION CRITICAL
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Google Airbag Patent Packs a Punch for Pedestrians Google’s self-driving car concept is already pretty alternative — no steering wheel necessary. But a new patent application by the company makes it seem the Internet giant has another radical change for future car design — airbags on the outside of a vehicle. These inflatable bumpers would deploy when the car senses an imminent collision with an object or person. And if flying through the air after getting hit with an airbag instead of a car still sounds less than ideal, Google is addressing that with the visco-elastic material the airbags are made of. The patent doesn’t outright define that material, but it would be similar to a memory foam mattress, where it doesn’t bounce against pressure, but absorbs a lot of it instead.
Google is seeking to protect cyclists and pedestrians with an airbag that will go on the outside of its driverless car.
Another possibility would combine two different airbags. The first would be a soft outer layer of air sacs for very low-speed crashes, and the second would add out the visco-elastic layer. This proposed method would “provide protection to a pedestrian and a vehicle traveling up to 25 miles per hour,” according to the patent. The application is not the first time a company has imagined having exterior airbags. Automaker Volvo currently has them on its V40, though not on its U.S. models, and the Dutch Cycling Federation estimates that placing airbags on the hoods of cars could decrease fatality incidents.
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Delphi’s driverless vehicle in the home stretch, nearing New York on a cross-country journey that started in San Francisco.
Delphi’s Car Drives Itself Coast to Coast A car equipped with a suite of Delphi Automotive’s technology completed the first ever cross-country drive from San Francisco to New York. The outfitted Audi drove nearly 3,400 miles, about 99 percent of which was done autonomously, crossing through 15 states and the District of Columbia and spanning nine days. The drive allowed engineers from the company to collect data — about three terabytes’ worth — that will enable them to hone the technology. “Our vehicle performed remarkably well during this drive, exceeding our expectations,” says Jeff Owens, Delphi chief technology officer. “The
knowledge obtained from this trip will help optimize our existing active safety products and accelerate our future product development, which will allow us to deliver unsurpassed automotive grade technologies to our customers.” Like any road trip, the vehicle came across a few tricky situations, like traffic circles, construction zones, aggressive drivers and many weather patterns. The vehicle was equipped with six long-range radars, four short-range radars, three vision-based cameras, six lidars, a localization system, intelligent software algorithms and an advanced drive assistance system suite.
Google, Johnson & Johnson Team for Robotic Surgery In late March, Johnson & Johnson announced its medical device company Ethicon entered into an agreement with Google Inc.’s life sciences team to advance surgical robotics. “For more than 60 years, Ethicon has developed products and technologies that have transformed the way surgery is done,” says Gary Pruden, Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide chairman of its Global Surgery Group. “This collaboration with Google is another important step in our commitment to advancing surgical care, and together we aim to put the best science, technology and surgical know-how in the hands of medical teams around the world.” Ethicon aims to develop new robotic tools that will be used by surgeons and operating room medical staff that will integrate robotic systems, imaging and data analytics, according to a company press release. The companies expect the agreement to be finalized in the second quarter of 2015.
ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS Clearpath Gets More Robots for Good Funding
Festo’s BionicANTs are programmed to work together to tackle tasks.
Photo: Google, Delphi Automotive PLC, Festo.
Worker Ant Robots Could Shape Production Lines in the Future Factory workers’ days could be numbered, but their potential replacements are a lot more futuristic than they might have imagined. The German company Festo has introduced the concept of its BionicANTs, robots that look remarkably similar to the real-life insects that could work in a swarm, communicating production needs to each other. The five-inch-long, six-inch-wide, 1.5inch tall robots are 3-D printed. They have all the typical parts of an ant — six jointed legs, antennas, pincers, head, abdomen and thorax — but internally they are outfitted with a complex control algorithm that allows them to behave cooperatively on a project. “Yet not only the cooperative behavior of the artificial ants is amazing. Even their production method is unique,” says the company website. “The laser-sintered components are embellished with
visible conductor structures in the 3-D MID [molded interconnect device] process. They thereby take on design and electrical functions at the same time.” BionicANTs stands for Bionic Autonomous Networking Technologies. And though the robo-insects are not yet for sale, the product is part of an overall mission by Festo to transform the production process holistically. “The trend is moving more and more towards individualized products,” according to the company. “The small batch quantities and the large number of variants associated with this trend necessitate technologies which adapt themselves continuously to changing conditions. In the future, components in industrial systems will therefore have to be capable of adjusting to each other.” Festo debuted the product in April at the Hannover Messe 2015 conference.
Canada’s Clearpath Robotics announced that it has raised $14 million (USD $11.2 million) to fund its robotics portfolio, which is framed inside the philosophy of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. The company’s funding, which primarily came from RRE Ventures with participation from iNovia Capital, will support the company’s mission of building robots that improve the lives of people, according to a company press release. “Throughout history, people have turned to technology to improve our quality of life, and that has always been Clearpath’s goal. We believe in using service robots to make the world a better place,” says Matt Rendall, Clearpath CEO and cofounder. “With this funding, we will produce intelligent industrial robots to do the jobs that humans shouldn’t do.” The company was the first to join the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, which is an alliance of organizations that pledge to never make a robot that can autonomously decide when and where to fire weapons. Clearpath’s product line currently includes its Husky unmanned ground vehicle, Kingfisher unmanned surface vehicle and the Grizzly robotic utility vehicle. However, the company is seeking to move into applications where it can automate robots in situations where humans are normally prone to error and are asked to handle unsafe materials. “Manufacturing facilities are organized chaos,” Rendall says. “Our autonomous robots remove some chaos to optimize throughput, making it possible for manufacturers to significantly reduce costs while taking their workers out of harm’s way.” “Robots are changing the way industrial work gets done,” says Stuart Ellman, managing partner at RRE Ventures and Clearpath board member. “Organizations are realizing that automating dull and dangerous work is not only the right choice for workers, it’s also more efficient and saves money.”
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B.C.
1907 1956
DA VINCI’S AERIAL SCREW Leonardo Da Vinci’s designs for an aerial screw represent the earliest known plans for a rotary-wing aircraft. According to his notes, he constructed small models; however, his designs illustrate a craft that rotates along with the rotors.
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BAMBOO FLYING TOYS The first musings of rotorcraft were developed nearly 2,500 years ago in China with bamboo flying toys. These toys used a single rotor spun in between a user’s hands to start the rotation necessary for lift.
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BLADES OF GLORY 6
Helicopters, cyclocopters, autogyros, quadcopters, hexacopters, octocopters, gyrodynes — rotary-wing aircraft or rotorcraft are aircraft supported in flight by the predominantly vertical reaction of air against its rotors. This timeline shows the evolution of using rotors for flight, from the earliest concepts to fully automated unmanned systems.
CORNU HELICOPTER Paul Cornu is often credited with the first ever helicopter flight. His helicopter used two 20-foot counterrotating rotors and a 24-horsepower engine. The aircraft is reported to have lifted five feet off the ground and remained aloft for one minute.
CONVERTAWINGS MODEL A This model was the first quadrotor helicopter to achieve forward flight. It was designed to be a prototype for a line of much larger civil and military quadratures, but the project was terminated due to a lack of orders. The four rotors were driven by two motors, and varying thrust was responsible for control.
AERYON SCOUT The Aeryon Scout is a prototypical modern quadcopter that can be used in a plethora of industries. It weighs three pounds without a payload and can carry a variety of high-definition and multispectral cameras. It is designed to fly below 500 feet, has an endurance of about 25 minutes and is controlled through a tablet-PC interface.
2007
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND EXPERIMENTAL CYCLOCOPTER With the emergence of UAS for humanitarian and commercial use, many university programs around the country have dedicated programs to designing, building and learning about UAS. The University of Maryland created a functional unmanned cyclocopter in 2014 and demonstrated it at a vertical-takeoff-and-landing symposium in November 2014.
Photos: Haragayato, Luc Viatour / www.Lucnix.be, Convertawings Company press photograph from Thomas F. Hanson (1956), Northrop Grumman, Aeryon Labs, AUVSI.
MQ-8 FIRE SCOUT The Fire Scout unmanned helicopter is designed to operate in support of air, ground and maritime forces, including at sea in coordination with the Littoral Combat Ships to provide troops with situational awareness and aid in mine countermeasure missions. The original version was modeled after the Schweizer 330.
2014
BELL 206B JETRANGER III This Bell 206 model is the most successful commercial helicopter ever built. It has been flown by everyone from public safety agencies to news outlets and in climates from arctic to desert.
2002
1967
TIMELINE
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JACK VICE F O UN D ER AN D P RES ID EN T O F A n t h r o T r o n i x How did you first get interested in robotics and human-machine interaction?
When a little-known movie called “Star Wars” came out in, I think, 1977 I saw R2-D2 on the screen, and that was it from there. I think I was in love with robotics ever since I saw that movie. After high school I went into the Marine Corps and did special operations for a few years. ... And then got out and went to the University of Maryland where I studied computer science and physics and worked at their Space Systems Lab doing space robotics to develop highly dexterous manipulator arms that would do satellite servicing in orbit. And we were pretty darn close to a shuttle launch for our ranger robot from Space Systems Lab, and then we got pushed back due to issues with the Russians and their payloads.
At Space Systems Lab … I met Dr. Cori Lathan and founded AnthroTronix. One of our first contracts was with DARPA to do human-robot interaction for special operations type missions, and so that is how the company got started. The human-machine interaction started with AnthroTronix controlling tactical unmanned ground vehicles for DARPA. What did you look forward to growing up and accomplishing in robotics?
When I saw R2-D2 and C-3PO and later, when I started to look at what actual real-world robotics were doing and what they weren’t able to do, I quickly realized that it was not a mechanical engineering issue that was holding robotics back. It was mostly intelligence and sensor issues, even to this day. So I decided to study computer science to address the artificial intelligence and minored in physics in order to understand sensing the world and sensor technologies, because those were the two weaknesses — and still are — for robotics, preventing them from being real teammates — domestic, commercial, battlefield. 8
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Q&A
Why is human-machine interaction important?
Human-machine interactions are extremely important, because rarely are these robotic assets, aside from factories, rarely are they working alone, isolated from human involvement. So the human-robot interaction component, which is often overlooked by roboticists as they design functional robotics — the user interface — the human interaction component usually comes last, so it’s given the least amount of planning and thought. Since full autonomy for behaviors has not yet come to fruition, the requirements that the humans stay in the loop on the robotic behaviors is still there. Even when the complex behaviors start to really perform well, the robots are still going to be working in a human world, and so human-robot interaction on a social level will still be required even if it’s not us driving their individual joint angles or individual motors anymore. What can robotics add to our lives? How do they improve the way we perform daily tasks?
Just as the first hammer [and] the first tool was an extension of the human hand’s capability, robotics are an extension of our own capability. With our cellphones, we no longer have to remember phone numbers. The memory of our cellphones stores phone numbers, addresses and gigabytes more. And so, similar to that, when the robot revolution, which we’re
AnthroTronix is a research and development firm that specializes in the development of human-machine interface technology; wearable computing and robotic control systems; and design, development and testing of training simulation tools.
in the early stages of, truly happens, robotics will extend our capabilities physically and cognitively, both in them being the ultimate tool in the sense of a machine that can do nearly anything that a human can when that day comes, but also the sensor technologies going into robotics, that [then are] feeding back into kind of the medical aspect of adding sensors to humans and augmenting human capabilities with a lot of the technology that comes from the field of robotics. How about you personally — what things are you most looking forward to robots bringing to your life in the future?
I’m currently, actually right before you called, working on my robot that I do in my spare time. One of the things it’s going to do is interact with my son and walk him to school on days that I can’t. Which isn’t a far walk, but to have the child be remotely monitored by a semiautonomous vehicle is one example. Picking up dirty socks around the house is another. Those are just the more personal things, obviously. I have a robot that sweeps the floor. I need the one that mops, and then one that would fly to the mailbox and retrieve the mail. And obviously I shouldn’t have to drive my car. It should drive itself when I don’t feel like driving it. And
then also, having Amazon deliver packages even faster through UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles]. Loading and unloading the dishwasher is a popular one.
Yes, so I know how difficult dexterous robotics is, and that’s why picking up socks off the floor is a task that will be achieved much sooner than unloading the dishwasher, though I’d love a robot to be able to unload the dishwasher. But its truly amazing how dexterous the human hand is and how many things we can do and how multifunctional it is. It is absolutely amazing when you try to reproduce some of its functionality. You really gain an appreciation for it. The real key with robots or the hammer, any tool that humans invent, is to understand the materials that we have to use to build these devices, these tools, and understand their strengths and weaknesses. Highly dexterous manipulation is potentially a weakness of robotics. Being self-aware and sentient has been a weakness of robotics for quite a while, but having high mobility and being able to get up and down stairs and being able to vacuum and being able to pick up things around the house or drive around your house in the night and provide security when you’re away, MISSION CRITICAL
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for example, you don’t need full home automation. You just need a fairly smart mobile device that will keep an eye on things — housesitting. And being able to sit in one spot and do something repetitively, you know, dull, dirty or dangerous — the three Ds of robotics — being able to do that is one of the strengths of robotics. And then, being able to go into a burning building and not catch on fire and not run out of oxygen, these are lots of strengths of robotics that we can capitalize on. AnthroTronix works on a variety of technologies that involve human-machine interaction. What specific projects showcase robotic technology improving the human experience?
Our glove technology for the warfighter in the field, the reason being is that it enables the warfighter in the field, the soldier or Marine who is on the ground, on patrol, and close to enemy contact to give command-and-control signals to the robotic assets, whether they’re ground or aerial, using gestures, using hand and arm signals just as the soldier or Marine may do to communicate with fellow warfighters. So this capability allows the warfighter to carry less equipment, because they don’t have to carry a separate controller device, a separate portable joystick, and it allows them to go from holding their weapon directly to giving command-and-control signals to the robot and back to holding the weapon without ever
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taking their eyes off their sector of security. So they’re able to do that with minimal compromise of their own personal security in the field. And that’s worth its weight in gold. The other component of that, we also do receiving messages back from the robot, and what we focus on is a haptic feedback system in which the messaging from the robot or from other teammates can come in through your skin, actually through your combat vest. Now we have a bunch of buzzers around the waist and on the torso that would buzz you with messages, both temporal messages and spatial messages giving you information about your surroundings that the robotic asset has detected, for example. So if one UAV or UGV [unmanned ground vehicle] were to spot an enemy position, that information of that location of the enemy position could be relayed to all the members of the patrol haptically through their skin without obstructing their vision or their hearing, giving them spatial cues as to the direction of the threat, without giving them an azimuth in which they have to use their compass to figure out exactly which direction that is. How do the haptic signals translate into tangible information?
It’s a haptic language of a series of buzzers, so in the vest for example, there could be a message that is a buzzing on the front and then the back and then the front and then
the back, and you would remember that means sniper, and then three buzzes around your waist in a given direction would mean 300 meters in the direction you felt those three buzzes. So now you know sniper, 300 meters, and you know the general direction from your current orientation. Eventually, do you think the distinction between humans and robots will still be there? Or will they become a natural extension of us, something we just accept as a part of us?
The technology will be there to integrate humans with machines to whatever extent humans are willing to psychologically accept, and that’s the variable I’m not entirely clear on — what level of cyborg are people willing to go to, to increase performance. I believe it will happen. I believe we will augment our strength and our cognition with digital technologies in the future. And at the same time with genetic engineering, those two may converge in which we’re genetically engineering and connecting tissues to circuits at the same time, that is we may genetically engineer tissues to implant in ourselves in order to better connect us to circuits.
UNCANNY VALLEY
Photo: Anthony Morse / University of Plymouth.
Attention! A cognitive scientist from Indiana University Bloomington College, along with a roboticist from the University of Plymouth and a developmental psychologist from the University of Madison-Wisconsin, has developed a new approach to studying the way words or memories of physical objects are tied to body position by using robots to model the learning process. “This study shows that the body plays a role in early object name learning and how toddlers use the body’s position in space to connect ideas,” says Linda Smith, lead researcher on the study. “The creation of a robot model for infant learning has far-reaching implications for how the brains of young people work.” The research used robots and infants to examine the role body position played in the brain’s ability to map names to objects. In one experiment, the robot was shown an object to its left and then another to its right while the object’s name was shown and spoken. This process was repeated to form an association between the two objects and the differing postures. Then, with no objects around, the robot was directed to look to where the object on the left was and given a command to elicit the same posture as before. Both objects were then placed in the same locations without being named. After, the objects were placed in different locations and named again, causing the robot to turn and reach for the object associated with the name. The robot successfully identified a connection between an object and its name in 20 repeat trials; however, in a later test where the target object and another object
Epigenetic Robotics Helps Researchers Study Cognition, Ties Posture to Learning
A robot is taught to distinguish between two objects as part of research on the effect of body posture on infant learning.
were placed in both locations to remove an association with a specific posture, the robot failed to recognize the target. The data from experiments with infants aged 12 to 18 months have only slight differences to the robot and also indicated the importance of body position in connecting names to objects, according to an Indiana University news release. These new insights rely on the field of epigenetic robots, in which researchers create robots that learn and develop like children through interaction with their environment. “These experiments may provide a new way to investigate the way cognition is connected to the body, as well as new evidence that mental entities, such as thoughts, words and representations of objects, which seem to have no spatial or bodily components, first take shape through spatial relationships of the body within the surrounding world,” says Smith. Epigenetic or developmental
robots are unique from artificial intelligence, because they do not rely on the ability to understand abstract or symbolic problems. They focus on sensorimotor learning and skill acquisition through interaction with the environment. Environmental factors like posture, orientation, background noise, or order can interfere or amplify the success of robot knowledge acquisition. This branch of robotics that is tied to machine learning, cognitive robotics and computational neuroscience also requires complementary contributions from developmental psychology and biology, evolutionary biology, neuroscience and linguistics. As it aids our understanding of key factors in human development and becomes an invaluable tool for modeling early childhood learning, it, reflexively, advances our robotic companions to further reflect the human race and become the ultimate extensions of human life beyond our natural biological state. MISSION CRITICAL
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MAKING A STATEMENT Industry Battles State-Level UAS Regulations
Once again, AUVSI had a successful campaign in 2014 defending unmanned aircraft systems with the help of the AUVSI chapters and active stakeholders. In 2014, the association was able to defeat 25 bills, while only six bills were passed.
MONTANA
With the start of the 2015 state legislative session, there are several states that are once again aggressively calling for the passage of onerous UAS legislation and a few with proUAS bills in the works. AUVSI has been hard at work fighting against unnecessary restrictions and supporting positive UAS legislation. This map shows the current state of 2015 UAS legislation across the country.
WYOMING
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✖
CALIFORNIA
NEVADA Pro UAS Legislation
Anti-UAS Legislation
PRO ANTI (Senate) (Assembly)
ARIZONA NEW MEXICO
✖
Defeated
✔
Approved
Pending
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COLORADO
STATE OF THE ART
VERMONT
NORTH DAKOTA
NEW YORK MASSACHUSETTS
✖
OHIO
RHODE ISLAND NEW JERSEY
✖ ✔
✖
✖ ANTI (House)
PRO (Senate)
MARYLAND
VIRGINIA
✖
SOUTH CAROLINA
GEORGIA
MISSOURI FLORIDA ARKANSAS
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GADGETS AND GIMMICKS? Technology is Aplenty, but Practicality Awaits Smart-Home Market By Karen Aho
Innovations consultant Ari Popper preps his clients with an exercise: Create a story about the future with your product as a character. “Almost always,” he says, “we spontaneously get these renderings of smart homes. “It’s very much implied that it’s going to be in our future,” adds Popper, founder and CEO of SciFutures, a California-based foresight and innovations agency. “As futurists, we know it is. We see it in the 14
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technology. For lay people, there’s an incredible desire.” And why shouldn’t there be? Fifty years ago, engineers predicted that by the millennium we’d be enjoying maintenance-free homes, equipped with automatic air purifiers, free solar energy, and a central computer eager to pay the bills and track our caloric intake. Yet here it is in 2015, and Americans still spend 12 hours a week on
housework, a meager improvement over the 16-hour average the U.S. labor bureau calculated in 1965. We’re still vacuuming — most of us with the same backbreaking uprights — still buying energy-hog air conditioners, still trucking in expensive heat. When, exactly, are our houses going to step up? The answer is soon, at least when it comes to automated systems. That’s the good news. The drive to market has lunged past a tipping point, with global smart home sales ballooning to $20 billion in 2014 and expected to nearly triple to $59 billion by 2020, according to RNR Market Research. In the last three years, major home retailers in North America have either launched their own affordable smart-home systems — Iris at Lowes, Connect at Staples — or partnered with tech companies — Home Depot with GE’s
Wink — to offer consumers easy entry into whole-home connectivity. Cable and wireless companies are in, too, along with home builders.
that shuts off the lights, lowers the temperature and turns the TV on for the dog when you pull out of the driveway.
“You can’t buy a car without climate control, power windows or power door locks,” Mark Walters, chairman of the Z-Wave Alliance, told Reviewed.com. “Pretty soon you’re going to be seeing the same thing for your house.”
EARLY MARKET PRODUCTS
ABI Research estimates that by 2020 more than 30 billion devices will be wirelessly connected to the Internet of Things. That’s more than four devices per person globally, or a couple dozen for every person with reasonable access. It’s a huge leap in a short time. Just one in five homes have a connected device now, according to Forrester Research estimates, and, of those, 75 percent have just one. Which begs the question: With all these devices ready to talk, what will they say? Most of the so-called smart-home systems in place today are little more than automated systems controlled via a smartphone. Add motion sensors, location detection and geofencing, along with the ability to set up a seemingly infinite pairing of if-then commands, and it’s possible to program a system
Belkin’s WeMo advertises a “family of connected home products that make life easier, simpler and better,” including net cameras and crockpots. Essentially anything that can be plugged in might be turned on and off from afar. Remotely operated automated devices offer a clear appeal to travelers — at least those seeking an upgrade from the old auto timers and thermostats. Paired with sensors programmed to contact you, house sitters may be a thing of the past. The founder of SmartThings, a software hub acquired by Samsung last year for a reported $200 million, got the idea after his vacation home flooded and he couldn’t find a product to warn him immediately of a plumbing leak. The new “smart” carbon dioxide, smoke and leak detectors don’t just beep; they can be programmed to call a neighbor or text you directly. It remains unclear, however, whether the benefit will be enough to offset the cost and setup time for the average consumer. The
Nest learning thermostat, after all, has been marketed on the premise that 90 percent of consumers never bother to program their old thermostats. How many people will invest in $40 lamp sensor and take the time to program their smartphone just to ease the burden of flipping a light switch? In a 45-minute demonstration of SmartThings’ smart-home automation on the website Tested In-Depth, a reviewer demonstrated his own set-up. Motion sensors turned lights on and off when people entered or exited a room. Door sensors linked to family members’ cell phones translated into a detailed listing on his phone of everyone’s comings and goings throughout the day. He knew what time the cleaning lady left, and if someone else knocked on the front door, his cell phone would vibrate. His fellow reviewer, earnest until then, couldn’t help but interject: “I’m already yearning for simpler times,” he said. “It could be a lot of fun to toy around with, but how much of this is actually useful?” After the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show dedicated an entire section to the smart home, Digital Trends polled its team of journalists
Photos: Nest, SmartThings.
SmartThings’ lineup of smart home devices.
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The SmartSense Open/Closed sensor monitors the status of cabinets, safes and jewelry boxes. Users receive alerts through their smartphone.
Other journalists noted the gimmicks. Or in the words of tech writer Janelle Zara, the “lazy luxuries” geared to the “smartphoneobsessed” millennials. Some of the appliances, in particular, do indeed look like a solution in search of a problem. One can imagine the product developers in a meeting: “It’s wireless! Now what?” There’s the stove backsplash that can Skype with mom for a recipe, presumably when a speakerphone or tablet is out of reach; the refrigerators that text when you’re low on beer or offer you a live stream of the contents; and, in a different vein, a washing machine and dryer from Whirlpool 16
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that automatically donates some of your money to Habitat for Humanity with each load of laundry, part of the company’s “Connect to Care” program. Because, reports a company spokesperson, “The best technology should really make us more human.” To be fair, the same Whirlpool machines also track energy usage and auto-sync laundry loads with off-peak energy times. Whirlpool has partnered with Nest — the emerging leader bought by Google last year for $3.2 billion — to learn when people are in the house. It can slow the dryer down to a more cost-effective, yet slower, cycle when you’re gone, for example, or lower the noise-level when you’re there. “What I envision is a home that is truly smart, that almost has a benevolent, caring personality,” says Popper, alluding to biometrics that should someday adjust temperature and TV not just to our presence, but to our very mood and wellbeing. “We think this is the future. When, we’re not sure.” At present, adaptive technology is in its infancy. The Nest thermostat learns your habits based on how you’ve previously turned the dial and advertises projected energy savings of 10 to 12 percent annually. Honeywell’s Lyric uses geofencing
and a proximity sensor to automatically adjust the temperature based on your location. If consumers are ultimately driven by the prospect of real energy savings or healthcare benefits, as opposed to the gee-whiz factor of smarthome devices, then it could be a long wait as utilities, networks and Internet service providers align their ecosystems to ensure that smart homes are both simple and useful to end users. As a commenter on Reviewed. com pointed out, consumers want “helpful” not “smart.” “Merely giving an appliance the ability to monitor and control it remotely doesn’t make it helpful.” The experts would seem to agree. In a 2012 Pew survey of those in the field, nearly half of respondents predicted that consumer mistrust and lack of integration would leave the homes of 2020 looking much the same as they do now. “People desire more simplicity, not complexity,” Mike Leibhold, senior researcher and distinguished fellow at the Institute for the Future, responded in the survey, adding that mistrust of outside monitoring, security and privacy concerns would have to be addressed, as well. “Conservation technologies are promising, but behavior changes will be very slow.”
Photo: SmartThings.
for their favorite new devices. There were four winners: the LilyPad, a thermometer and UV sensor from Vigilant that integrates UV rating with skin tone information of family members to provide data on UV absorption and recommended sunscreen; the Keen Home Smart Vent, which uses sensors and habituated learning to open and close independent heating vents in various parts of the house; the SleepIQ Kids bed from Sleep Number, which tracks heart rate, breathing and movement of a child to provide an analysis of how restful the night really was and let parents adapt schedules accordingly; and the Snap Bulb, from Sengled, an ordinary-enough LED bulb outfitted with a motion sensor, microphone and speakers and that streams video to your smartphone. Digital Trends said Sengled is “trying to focus on innovations that consumers actually want, without overburdening them with tech and too many bells and whistles.”
TECHNOLOGY GAP
What’s the Frequency? World Radiocommunications Conference to Tackle UAS Spectrum Issues One of the issues slated for consideration at this November’s World Radiocommunications Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, is spectrum for unmanned aircraft systems. A previous conference already set aside spectrum for what is called radio line of sight communications with unmanned aircraft, but this session will look at reserving frequency bands allocated for fixed satellite communications, which would allow for beyond radio line of sight work. “Unless we figure out a way to get everybody to agree to be able to use existing satellite capability to provide beyond radio line of sight command and control … we’ve got a real problem,” said Ted Wierzbanowski, chairman of ASTM International’s F38 UAS Standards Committee, which publishes standards for the development and use of unmanned aircraft. Wierzbanowski worked with others to educate the U.S. ambassador to the radio conference when the UAS spectrum issue first arose in 2012. “The real problem is beyond radio line of sight. If we can’t break that iceberg, we’ve got a real issue,” he says. “Until the privacy issue hit, I think most folks in the industry felt that spectrum was the Achilles’ heel [for unmanned aircraft], and I think we’re back to that again. I think spectrum is going to be a big deal.” Wierzbanowski was part of UNITE (UAV National Industry
Team), which worked on the issue, along with other associations and representatives from UAS manufacturers like General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and Lockheed Martin. At the recommendation of the current UAS Aviation Rulemaking Committee several groups are carrying the spectrum flag into this year’s meeting, including AUVSI, the Aerospace Industries Association and UNITE. Paul McDuffee, vice president of government relations and strategy for UAS maker Insitu, AUVSI board member and cochair of the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics’ Special Committee 228, is working on the issue. McDuffee says the debate revolves around whether the beyond radio line of sight spectrum should be classified as “safety of life” approved, meaning set aside as critical for safety. Those are secure, dedicated links, less susceptible to external interference, known as Aeronautical Mobile Satellite Route Service, or AMS(R)S. “The U.S. position is that they really don’t have to be for UAS. That is shared by a number of countries. Others believe they need to be AMS(R)S before you can fly beyond line of sight in their airspace,” McDuffee says. There are three options on the table this year: add additional satellite spectrum, but don’t have it be AMS(R)S, don’t add any additional
spectrum but just use some existing AMS(R)S frequency allocation, or expand the frequencies but don’t require them to be approved for safety of life. The U.S. position is “it’s not necessary,” McDuffee says. “It’s an economic decision, primarily. There’s really no need to move into that for UAS purposes.” The 2012 WRC did approve spectrum for radio line of sight, which McDuffee says is still an issue in its own right. The FAA still hasn’t released those frequencies for use yet as it prepares an allocation and reuse plan for them. In the meantime, nonmilitary users are flying in unlicensed spectrum. That’s not a big problem in sparsely populated rural areas, says Wierzbanowski, but will be a problem in urban areas where there is a greater potential for interference. That interference could lead to dangerous lost-link incidents and even crashes. As an example, the usually technology-happy South by Southwest festival banned most uses of drones this year, specifically citing frequency congestion as an issue. That was for line of radio sight use — going beyond that will be even more problematic without a frequency solution. “We really do need to get this thing resolved, get that spectrum allocated, figure out how it’s going to be managed,” McDuffee says. “This is an important issue. … This radio conference is a big deal.” MISSION CRITICAL
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Skymatics used its drone to capture images of the new Walterdale Bridge project in Edmonton, Canada.
ZONING IN Drone Companies Set Sights on Construction Industry By Gail Jansen
A new industry is being erected for unmanned aircraft that could renovate the status quo for construction companies around the world. Drone company Skymatics is working on two large-scale construction projects in downtown Edmonton, Alberta, Canada — the Walterdale Bridge, a large-scale bridge construction, and Rogers Place, a $480 million dollar arena that will act as the new home for the Edmonton Oilers NHL franchise. Using a DJI S1000 octocopter, the company filed over 80 pages of paperwork with Transport Canada under the country’s Special Flight 18
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Operations Certificate to gain permission to conduct the two flights that took place in September 2014. “We’re the first commercial aerial operators to gain permission to operate in Edmonton’s downtown core, a privilege that doesn’t come without its challenges both in terms of paperwork and a pilot’s skill level,” says E.J. Burrows, operations manager for the company. The tight quarters of downtown Edmonton are filled with high rises and construction cranes. The project requires skilled piloting, with a lot of weaving maneuvers, to avoid obstructions.
Still the effort is proving to be worth it, says Burrows. Skymatics’ clients have been happy with the results, to the point that they have now entered into a contract to have return flights conducted every two months on average. This provides the client a chance to gain a new perspective on their progress as well as gather real-time data and marketing footage for the future. The flights are limited to 100 feet away from major roads and a maximum altitude of 400 feet. “It offers the client a way to see their sites in a way that is easier, quicker and more efficient,” says Burrows. “And low-level aerials also ensure a much better scale when it comes to creating 3-D models. Instead of the resolution of feet that typically comes with satellite imagery, UAVs allow us to map down to a resolution of centimeters.” Jakub Karas, UAV manager for Czech Republic company UpVision, agrees that high resolution is one of the biggest benefits of using
SPOTLIGHT
drones for construction projects. “Our UAV mapping services offer high image resolution for digital surface models at a precision of one centimeter per pixel, which offers the client much more accuracy in their data collection,” he says. Both Skymatics and UpVision currently divide their time between both fixed wings and multicopters, depending on the size, scale and scope of the project and the industry they are undertaking. For construction projects in crowded urban settings like Rogers Place, the vertical takeoff systems are by far the product of choice. While larger, more open area sites favor fixedwing aircraft due to the platforms’ endurance, capacity and ability to map larger areas in less time, covering upwards of 200 acres in just under 30 minutes. “We use both systems, because we are doing comprehensive services with UAS, and while we do use fixed wings for mapping larger areas, there are some added benefits of using multicopters, include offering online, live-view monitoring in dangerous areas, variability in sensors, and the ability to takeoff and land from almost anywhere,” says Karas.
Photos: Skymatics, UpVision.
While current uses of drones in construction focus on collecting images and data, Japan is leading the way by looking to UAS as one method of replacing professionals tasked with building a project. A project known as Smart Construction, developed by Tokyobased heavy machinery manufacturer Komatsu Ltd., was started in reaction to a forecasted shortage of construction workers in Japan that could hamper new projects, including the facilities for the 2020
UpVision uses an octocopter to perform construction surveys in the Czech Republic.
Summer Olympics in Toyko. The first of the proposed sixphase process involves using drones to create high-precision surveys of a site to create accurate 3-D models, including the volume of earth that unmanned bulldozers and excavators need to move. Once collected, the data are then uploaded to a cloudbased server that can aid in all aspects of the construction project’s process, including mapping out routes for unmanned vehicles and acting as a resource for future maintenance of infrastructure. One of the biggest hindrances to using UAS in the construction industry is the wide spectrum of legislation that exists for drone usage across borders. In the Czech Republic, UpVision is currently one of only 10 companies who have permission to fly, and it is the only one with the OK to conduct mapping.The company has expanded its services to other countries, including within the European Union, which is preparing for new legislation in an attempt to address UAS usage across all states.
“These laws have an effect on our company, because for some projects we need special exceptions or specific rules for specific construction sites or we find ourselves needing to split our flight plans to conduct thermal mapping to ensure that we always have line of sight,” says Karas. “While the technical possibilities are unlimited, what is limiting is the legislation.” This is a sentiment echoed by Skymatics. While it was the first to get a license to fly UAS in the island nation of Bermuda, when it came time to expand the company, they looked to western Canada. “We saw the potential for Calgary as a good central western location that would give us opportunities in a number of industries,” says Burrows. “And Canada’s regulation systems are far and above everyone else.” Though Burrows admits that, as a result, Canada’s regulatory system is starting to become overwhelmed with the number of applications to their SFOC, and he believes they will soon be heading to a licensing system similar to Bermuda. MISSION CRITICAL
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The Android touchscreen allows Monsieur users to customize drink orders.
A TASTE OF WHAT’S TO COME Robots Invade Food and Beverage Industry A main tenet of French cooking is to be able to make the same dish over and over, with little variation in taste and appearance. For centuries this task of repetition and precision has fallen under the artistic purview of human chefs trained in the culinary arts. But to many in the engineering and robotics community, these tasks sound more like the perfect test for a robot.
Momentum Machines is focus-
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ing its efforts on the low-hanging fruit of the food world: the fast food burger flipper. In his place, the company has created a robot that, in its first variation, can make 360 custom burgers per hour. The machine blends the intelligence of a line cook with the speed of a conveyor belt. Ground meat, buns and toppings are loaded into the machine, and at different points in the system, the patties are formed, the onions and pickles
are chopped, and the whole thing is cooked and assembled into a customized hamburger. And future plans for the machine include higher volume and more options. The company hopes to have it cook up 400 burgers an hour, or one burger every nine seconds. And it could also have a bespoke blend of types of ground meat to accommodate different tastes. The company is also seeking to undercut the cost of employing fast food workers. The average fast food establishment spends $135,000 a year on burger line cooks, estimates Momentum Machines founder Alexandros Vardakostas, approximately $9 billion in spending across the United States. Vardakostas is well aware that this might also mean a downturn in fast food labor. And he’s not shy about pointing that out. “[This] device isn’t meant to make employees more efficient. It’s meant to completely obviate
TESTING, TESTING
A completed pancake, shaped like the Eiffel Tower.
them,” he said in an interview with Xconomy. The cooking establishment, of course, disagrees. During a session at this year’s South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, Momofuku mastermind David Chang spoke out against turning the chef line into an assembly line. “Tech and restaurants are an interesting thing,” he said. “We still make food. It’s still a craft or a blue-collar labor. I don’t see robots replacing that. There probably will be a time where a huge portion of the labor will be marginalized.”
Photos: Monsieur, PankcakeBot.
Not all food and beverage robots aim to displace employees. Some are meant to be at-home gadgets that are a slice above modern cooking techniques. Miguel Valenzuela turned his children’s penchant for pancake perfection into a countertop tool that can artfully craft flapjacks in any form. Valenzuela developed the concept for PancakeBot while reading Make magazine. According to PancakeBot’s Kickstarter, his daughter asked what he was reading about.
Kids watch on as PancakeBot draws out a design.
He responded, “I am reading about a guy that made a pancakestamping machine out of LEGO.” The three-year-old girl then turned to her one-year-old sister and said, “Papa’s going to build a Pancake Machine out of LEGO!” Valenzuela delivered on his daughter’s demand. After six months of trial and error, he debuted the system at the 2013 World Maker Faire in New York. And in 2014 he took an advanced version to the White House Maker Faire. Once it’s loaded up with pancake batter, the user can load nearly any image, and the robot’s software will print out a pancake in that shape. The user can specify which lines get drawn first to create darker parts for contrast. The project crushed its original Kickstarter goal of $50,000, raising $460,584 from 2,074 backers. Another at-home robot made by 2013 graduates of Georgia Tech aims to shake up how you make alcoholic beverages at home. The robot, called Monsieur, comes stocked with 12 drink themes, each containing 25 different recipes for cocktails, so once it is loaded with at least eight differ-
ent liquors and mixers it can play bartender for you. The system uses an Androidenabled touchscreen for drink orders, or users can order a drink to be made from their smartphone. If someone is unsure of what they’d like to have, they can tell Monsieur what kind of liquor, mixer or palette they’d prefer, and the robot becomes a mixologist — suggesting a drink to suit the occasion. Users can customize their drink strength as well, choosing from a sliding scale that starts at “light” and tops out at “BOSS.” The system can also learn to make you a drink if your favorite team wins a game or if you just came home from work. In fact, if you come home late, it will ask you if you’d prefer a double. For bars and restaurants, a team of Monsieurs can be controlled via a cloud network that lets management know when an ingredient is running low, what profits are coming in and what moneymaking opportunities were missed. The $3,999 machine is currently sold out, but the company is offering it on backorder for a $5 deposit. MISSION CRITICAL
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FLYING WITH
FLARE Flare Stack Inspections are Hazardous. UAS Operators Aim to Change That. By Marc Selinger
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Flare stacks play a key role in oil and natural gas production by burning off unusable gas at drilling rigs and refineries, but inspecting the flame-tipped towers for damage has traditionally been dangerous and difficult. Advocates of unmanned aircraft systems say the technology could make such inspections far safer and easier. Flare stacks can stand several hundred feet tall and emit 2,000-degree-Fahrenheit heat. Having inspectors climb flare stacks or nearby structures or elevating them with a sky lift is risky, and using manned helicopters can be cost-prohibitive. Small UAS offer a better option, according to operators and manufacturers. The unmanned vehicles keep people out of harm’s way and are relatively inexpensive and simple to operate. Their agility and compact size allow them to easily fly above and around flare stacks, potentially providing better views than other means. And flare stacks do not have to be shut down for UAS inspections.
Photos: VDOS Global LLC.
“Drone technology improves safety, reduces liability, increases accuracy, and saves time and money for our customers while allowing them to continue work as usual during the inspection process,” says Houston-based Total Safety U.S. Inc., one of several companies that plan to participate in the American UAS flare stack inspection market. After years of considering how to integrate small UAS into the national airspace, FAA has begun reviewing hundreds of industry applications on a case-by-case basis, using its authority under Section 333 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012. In late 2014, VDOS Global LLC of western Oregon became the first company to be approved for flare
stack inspections. In early 2015, Total Safety became the second. “The risk to an onboard pilot and crew during an incident or accident is eliminated with the use of a UA [unmanned aircraft] for the inspection operation,” the FAA wrote in its approval document for Total Safety. “In addition, utilizing UAS to conduct flare stack inspections will reduce the need for inspection personnel to perform this hazardous activity.”
time, VDOS was aiming to begin inspections in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2015. While the FAA initially authorized VDOS to inspect flare stacks on 14 Shell Oil production platforms in the Gulf, the agency later lifted restrictions on what and where VDOS could inspect. The company is now approved to operate across the continental United States.
VDOS Global plans to use Aeryon’s SkyRanger to inspect flare stacks like these in the Gulf of Mexico. FIRST APPROVALS “When we first worked with the FAA, we were asked to be For its inspections, VDOS plans somewhat specific in our applicato use the SkyRanger quadcopter, tion,” Whiteside says. “We have built by Aeryon Labs of Ontario, Canada. Despite weighing no more since amended our authorization” to no longer be location- or than 6.5 pounds, SkyRanger is mission-specific. rugged enough to withstand the extreme heat of an active flare and The FAA’s adoption of that can withstand wind gusts of up to amendment was welcome news to 55 miles per hour, Aeryon says. Whiteside, who foresees “significant” demand for “at-height” inspections, Brian Whiteside, VDOS and not just for flare stacks. Global founder and president, explained that a thermal camera “There are potentially 3,500 potential inspection sites just could be used to detect gas leaks, in the Gulf of Mexico,” he says. which could be signs of environ“There are something like 60,000 mental or safety hazards. A highcell phone towers throughout the resolution camera could detect U.S., one-third of which have to structural problems, such as corbe inspected every year. All the rosion or other concerns. At press MISSION CRITICAL
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A drone’s-eye view of a flare stack.
Whiteside expects his company’s FAA approval to help open the door to opportunities in other countries. “What we find often about the FAA and the rest of the world is that they seem to adopt the FAA’s policies,” Whiteside says. “So if you have an FAA approval or you have an FAA procedure, then they seem to accept that pretty readily.” VDOS will not have the flare stack market to itself. Total Safety plans to use the S1000 octocopter, built by DJI of southern China, for flare stack inspections. Total Safety says a two-person team 24
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will conduct its inspections. One person will pilot the S1000 while the other will monitor what the camera sees and take photos and video for further study. “I could see a lot of people trying to enter this market,” Whiteside says. “We will probably see a lot of changes in the coming years about the market and who’s in it and why they’re in it. How things shift over time is going to be interesting to watch.” Much of the competition in the United States is expected to come from non-U.S. firms that are well established in operating UAS. United Kingdom-based Cyberhawk, for instance, calls itself “the world leader in aerial inspec-
tion and surveying using remotely operated aerial vehicles … whether it’s a close visual inspection of a live flare stack, live transmission tower or topographic survey from the air. We work for the oil and gas industry and utility companies both onshore and offshore, in the U.K., Europe, [the] Middle East and around the globe.” Cyberhawk says its “recent clients” for “live offshore flare inspections” include ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell. SAFETY FOCUS To ensure that UAS do not introduce new risks into flare stack inspections, the FAA and industry say they are taking a host of safety
Photos: VDOS Global LLC, Aeryon Labs Inc.
refineries throughout the U.S.” are inspection candidates, as are pipelines and windmills.
precautions. The agency noted that it requires approved users to perform preflight inspections, be familiar with UAS operations, fly only during the day and keep UAS within the pilot’s visual line of sight. Total Safety says it will program an aircraft to return to a predetermined location if it loses communications or its GPS signal. The vehicle will be able to abort a flight if it encounters unexpected obstacles or emergencies. The FAA cited these and other safety steps in its Total Safety approval document, which notes that the Air Line Pilots Association raised a host of concerns about the company’s application. Whiteside says VDOS evaluated nine UAS from around the world and picked the SkyRanger because of its built-in safety features, including encrypted data
links, robust electromagnetic shielding and the ability to continue operating if it loses its GPS signal. VDOS and Total Safety received two-year approvals from the FAA, and they will eventually be governed by the small UAS regulations that the agency VDOS Global plans to use Aeryon’s SkyRanger to is formulating. Whiteside believes the requirements for inspect flare stacks. being a UAS operator should be stricter than those outlined a commercial pilot’s license or in the draft rules that the FAA something along those lines if you published in February. want to do commercial work. As There “needs to be more accountability to an operator than just getting a simple, general knowledge test to fly a UAV,” says Whiteside, a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot. “I’m more of the opinion that you need to have
a pilot and one who has extensive experience with both manned and unmanned aircraft, there is a level of knowledge and wisdom that comes from being a pilot that is important to the safety and success of any operation.“ MISSION CRITICAL
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Michael Balzer, his wife Pamela Shavaun Scott and the model of her skull that helped doctors visualize the location of her tumor.
3-D Printing Gets Personal for Couple Battling Tumor Three-dimensional printing has been used to perform tasks such as creating unmanned aircraft fuselages, auto parts, toys, even robotic prosthetics. Michael Balzer, a 3-D printing enthusiast who hosts a podcast on the technology and runs a company that provides printing and imaging services, says he sees medical use as a likely key use for such creation in the near future. “Obviously it is an important thing … bio printing, bio medicine, I think is extremely important, and as I told Motley Fool, that’s where 26
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I would put my money, because I don’t see it going away,” he tells Mission Critical via a Skype interview. Balzer recently hosted a session at South By Southwest 2015 on the top myths of 3-D printing. “I think the biggest myth is in bio printing, printing tissue,” he says. “You’re seeing news articles in the media hyping up that organs are being printed. That’s not actually true.” What have been printed are husks or structures, such as ears, but they don’t have circulatory or waste systems, and without them, they die.
MEDICAL MYTHS That doesn’t mean there aren’t many uses for 3-D printing of the body or for medical uses. Balzer himself recently helped pioneer one use when he printed a copy of his wife’s skull to help her doctors remove a tumor that was located behind her left eye. In 2013, his wife Pamela Shavaun Scott began experiencing headaches, and an MRI revealed a tumor. Some doctors said not to worry about it, but Balzer disagreed. He sent the MRI to neurologists across the country, most of whom said Scott needed surgery. Balzer then requested the files of
Photos: Michael Balzer.
A NEW MODEL FOR MEDICINE
“So what are they good for? They are good for drug testing and now for cancer treatments, but other than that you aren’t going to be able to print one and put it in your body. That’s still many years off. So I think that’s one of the myths that needs to be dispelled.”
END USERS Scott’s scan in digital format. When Scott got a diagnosis that her tumor had grown substantially, Balzer checked the new digital files against the old ones and found that the tumor hadn’t grown at all. That prompted him to try a new tack — he converted the 2-D files into 3-D to get an accurate model of her skull, allowing him to view the tumor from any angle.
expects that 3-D models will become the norm as the FDA and doctors come to accept them and every hospital will have a printer for such use. It could also be a good educational tool for residents, who can get some surgical training “without having to be involved in the surgery per se.” There are other medical uses as well. Balzer’s company, Slo
costs would be thousands of dollars. Who’s going to pay for that? Now you’re looking at $100, $200. People can afford that.” Because of that, the main use he sees for such printing in the future is medical. “I see that as being a huge boom for 3-D printing,” Balzer says.
He then used a MakerGear printer to produce a full-size version of the front of her skull. He hoped this would help allow for a noninvasive type of surgery, which it did. This story put Balzer on the map, but he says it wasn’t an easy thing to do, and the hard part was done by his wife, who handled a lot of the medical research, and the surgeons. It took Balzer four hours to clean up the scans to make sure they were showing tissue and not bone, a task that drew upon his decades of work with 3-D imaging. He didn’t buy the software at a local big box store either, instead drawing on open-source software such as InVesalius from Brazil and 3D Slicer, a research tool that’s not approved for medical use by the Food and Drug Administration. The 3-D model helped the surgeons visualize the tumor, but it was still a grueling procedure, Balzer says. For instance, the tumor had tentacles emanating from it that were not visible in the model. “It was a very long, tedious process … even though some of the articles made me the hero, no. Really, it’s the surgeons. All I could do is provide the models. And for the most part they were great for discussion, but they didn’t take my model and use that to drill. They’re not there yet.”
Going forward, however, he
A model of Pamela Shavaun Scott’s skull, printed on a MakerGear M2 printer.
3D Creators, based in San Luis Obispo, California, is working with an orthotics maker in Los Angeles who wants to scan feet to create better orthotics. Three-dimensional scanning is also being used to create betterfitting prosthetics, including, in one celebrated case, for a New Hampshire dog named Derby, whose stunted front legs have been augmented by printed devices that allow him to run. “The thing is, even though there was some design time and it was a promotional piece, what does it really take?” Balzer says. “Before, to do something like that, the engineering time and material
NO SELFIES? Balzer doesn’t think the much-touted consumer market for scanning will take off. “In five years, I think it will be a novelty, I think it will be great for the kids. It will be an educational tool. People will be able to print trinkets that sit in the closet.” One myth his panel worked to dispel at SXSW is that people will want to have scans made of themselves, much like they take selfie photographs now with their cell phones. “Until you can actually build it into a device they can use themselves, they aren’t going to be doing it,” he says. MISSION CRITICAL
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