Quote:
Originally Posted by legion
What concerns me is that machines are not good at synthesizing solutions on the fly.
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Having been in the Unmanned Aviation business since 2003, I can tell you that aviation is the most welcoming environment for unmanned operations.
Land, underwater and other complex environments present thousands more variables per miles than aviation. Airlines fly in very tightly controlled airspace with strict regulations...the perfect environment for a machine.
There are lots of reasons why but advances in avionics in the past twenty years make everything I flew (gyros, control systems, auto-pilots, Health and Usage Monitoring Systems, etc.) look like a Model T compared to a Tesla. Power and weight requirements for these systems have also been dramatically reduced and enable system redundancies that are incredible.
I used to go out to the LSO Shack at Patuxent River and watch my Global Hawks land. They hit the same spot, regardless of weather and winds, every time. We also found that retrofitting auto TO/land capability in UAVs dramatically decreased accidents.
All I need upfront is one rated pilot to monitor the "system". This from a former pilot.