Whether or not Amazon overcomes the difficulties of instituting drone deliver service in the US, drones have a bright future with a variety of applications. They are being used to survey archaeological sites, escort children to the bus stop and, soon, to combat poaching and protect endangered species.
One limitation of flying drones is the difficulty in piloting them, but that challenge may soon be solved. Your Futurist Friday assignment: this video of the first “co-ordinated flock” of autonomous quadcopter drones.
The team of Hungarian scientists who designed these drones used biomimicry–imitating the design & behavior of biological organisms (which, after all, have been honed by millions of years of evolution). The drones’ programming draws on the rules that govern the behavior of flocks of birds.
So maybe, in a few years, when you need to inspect the condition of your large historic building, you will call in a flock of condition reporting drones to buzz the property. Oh, like this (bonus feature!):
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