PRE2015 3 Groep1 considerations

Safety

Drones require several limits to reduce the chance for risks and accidents. Every drone will be facing technological problems which are inevitable, but some interventions may reduce their occurance or their impact.

The more complicated a drone will be the more (technological) problems are given the possibility to intervene. For example, the more autonomously the drone is, the more ethical and technological issues are to be resolved. Therefore the more complex the drone and its actions, the greater the decrease of it’s reliability. This is why it is usefull to keep a drone as simple as possible.

Reducement of navigation errors or obstacle collision is reached by sufficiend data feeds of the surrounding of the drone. The better the information is about the surrounding the better the drone will function. It is also favourable to have a more or less continuous data feed. This reduces the possibility of missing information or obstacles and therefore reduces collisions. Another navigation improving property is the amount of training data or options a drone is given. By having more options in certain situations , the drone is more likely to be able to choose the right choice. Of course there must not be that many options for the drone to be slow in decision making, because this would have a rather negative effect on the decision making.

In our concept the drone communicates with the safety guard , and this safety guard has the final decision responsibility. This has consequences for the drones actions. Therefore the communication of the drone with other drones or the surveillance center Is very important. Airwaves or electronic communications can interfere in the drones communication and prevent the message to arrive at the surveillance center or back at the drone. Because those messages have a huge impact on the drones actions, it is important to secure the communication to ensure a safe surrounding for the intruders which are probably close to the drone at that moment. Cheap drones are mostly quite easy to hack. Therefore a certain amount of costs must probably be made to secure the drone to the right level.

Any collision with a drone easily has a big impact. Not only the kinetic energy the drone exerts is of importance, the propellors too can cause serious trauma’s or injury’s. The damage by the drone is less if the drone is smaller if the drone itself is smaller too. This requires a drone as small as possible for our application. On the other hand, a drone too small or light is too easily affected by external forces like the wind or lightning. A good compromise must be found between the two of these.

Besides the physical damage the drone itself can cause, it can distract or interfere with other vehicles which will cause accidents. In this project we won’t include intentionally induced harm, the drone is not made to fight the intruder. Solely to slow it down or capture its face in a picture.