Rules & Regulations
Here one finds information about the Rules and Regulations in current existence and the considerations that need to be made for the future. As can be seen, there is a shift of legislation towards addressing the future of drones.
The Netherlands
Rules & Regulations
What is and what is not possible in the use of drones in the Netherlands is still quite unclear. Because of it being a new technology, a lot of legislators are not yet prepared this. However, there are certain laws applicable to the use of drones in the Netherlands. The laws there are make a difference between personal use of drones and the commercial use of drones. The commercial use of light unmanned aircrafts is not allowed unless one has an exemption. This exemption can be applied for.[1][2]
The exemption deals with light unmanned aircrafts up to 150 kilograms and a maximum speed of 126.64 kilometers per hour. Moreover, there are two types of exemptions, a company exemption and a project exemption. The company exemption allows that company to use drones for a maximum of 1 year, after which a new exemption is needed. The project exemption only allows the use of drones during a single project. Such a company exemption is only granted after the earlier successful application of a number of project exemptions.[2]
In the exemption it is stated that the unmanned aircraft can only be used in uncontrolled airspace and it should stay in the visual line of sight of the person controlling the aircraft and the observer. Flights should always be performed by a team of at least two people. The airspace in which the aircraft can fly is further restricted to a maximum height of 120 meters above ground level, not further than 500 meters from the captain, and at least 150 meters away from people and buildings. Flights should also take place within the visual flight rules in the daylight period.[2]
Problems for drone deliveries
There are two major problems for drone deliveries within this legislation: the need for a flight team for every unmanned aircraft, and the restricted airspace they can fly in. The drones that will be used for deliveries will be autonomous. They will not need a team to be able to fly and drop off packages. If every drone has to have a team of two people to be allowed to fly, the company using these drones should hire a lot of people, which costs a lot of money. The restricted airspace makes the delivery of packages with drones impossible. The drones will always have to fly out of the indicated range to be able to deliver their packages.
Necessary changes
As becomes clear from the problems the current rules and regulations impose on drone deliveries, some changes will have to be made to these rules and regulations. For a company like Amazon, or Bol.com in the Netherlands it is of major importance that the use of autonomous drones is legalised. Such a legalisation of the autonomy for drones will not have to apply to all sorts of drones, but it will have to apply to the somewhat smaller drones that will be used in package deliveries. Flying within built-up areas will have to be legalised too. To get the packages to the pick-up point at a supermarket in the city, the drone will have to fly in built-up areas. Another change that is not strictly necessary, but will improve the delivery system for consumers and company is the legalisation of flights in the dark. Drones are now only allowed to operate in the daylight, which is an obvious consequence of the need of visual contact of the captain with the drone. When drones are allowed to fly autonomously and there is no captain involved anymore, it seems reasonable that these vehicles will be allowed to fly in the dark as well.
Package safety
Package safety is a big issue in drone deliveries. Packages can easily go missing or get damaged. Of course this can happen too in van deliveries nowadays. Drone deliveries, however, bring up some more concerns. These concerns stem from what drone deliveries actually are, small unmanned airplanes carrying a package through the air. The fear exists that these drones might drop packages or even crash themselves. They also might be an easy target for people wanting to steal the packages they carry, who could either hack the drone or shoot it out of the air. All these things will lead to packages not being delivered, or being damaged on delivery.
Although these things could all happen, it should not be the consumer who should be afraid of these issues, but the delivery companies. As long as the packages are under their supervison, they can be held responsible for it. Moreover, it would be very easy for people to prove that a package has never been delivered when using the pick-up system we designed. The RFID tags in the package that have to be scanned in the system are an easy proof of whether the package has been delivered or not.
Package delivery companies should not worry too much however. When they make sure their drones are reliable and hard to hack, they will not have much to worry about. Moreover, it would be hard to shoot a drone out of the air in the middle of a city, where these systems are most profitable, without being noticed. It would also be very easily noticed when one drone is off the normal route from depot to package pick-up point. For someone willing to intercept a drone this might be a large risk to take when they do not even know what is actually in the package.
Drones as a risk to public safety
Threaths
Just like other aircrafts do, drones are a potential threat to humans, animals or objects through direct impact or through their payload. In addition to the direct damage, an impact may lead to explosions or fire, resulting in more damage. Moreover, the rapidly moving parts drones have can cause substantial physical and mental trauma.[3]
Incidents with drones can have many causes. They may be used to cause harm deliberately by emloying them on a kamikaze mission or dropping their payload. In case of drone deliveries it will not be the owner of the drones that intends to do harm, but drones can be hijacked just like manned vehicles can. Drones do also suffer component failure, which can have serious consequences while suffered in mid-air. Physically and electronically congested airspace can also cause harm. The risk of collisions increases and signal interference becomes a reasonable threat.[3]
Natural controls
There are factors keeping the safety risks of drones in check. In manned aircrafts, physical danger to the pilot acts as natural control, this is however not the case in an unmanned drone. Economic considerations are an effective form of natural control. When drones keep crashing through component failure, a company will invest in the improvement of drones, instead of keeping on buying new ones. Better drones will crash less often, and therfore they will improve safety. Reputational controls do have some impact on large organisations, particularly consumer-facing organisations. Irresponsible drone usage can harm their reputation and therefore cost them money. These natural controls, however, are not likely to be sufficient to guarantee public safety concerning drones.[3] Regulation and clear communication and enforcement of this regulation is necessary to ensure public safety. But, this regulation should still enable the use of drones for package delivery.
Drones as a risk to privacy
The deployment of drones is seen as a risk to privacy. People are scared by the thought that these drones can easily fly anywhere they want and record anything on their way. Delivery drones are in no need of having cameras or other recording devices on them. But that these drones do not need such devices, does not convince people they will not have them. People might worry that law enforcement agencies use this network of delivery drones as a surveillance system. Such a system ofcourse causes a lot of concern to people.[4]
Privacy concerns as these could impede the use of drones for package deliveries. In the United States law enforcement officials have already tried to assure the public “they will not be spied upon by these unmanned drones” and that “this is not different than what police have been doing with helicopters for years”. In LA they have also stated that “There’s no place in an urban environment that you can go to right now that you’re not being looked at with a video camera”. In the United Kingdom, senior police officials have stated that “unmanned aircraft are no more intrusive than CCTV cameras and far cheaper to run than helicopters.”.[4] These statements are of course not really comforting for people. It is clear that privacy concerns are not yet adequately addressed to ensure the public that their privacy is not in danger.
You have now completed the pages addressing the design of the system, now you will head towards the evaluation page of this project.
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References
- ↑ N.A. (2014). Wetgeving. Drones.nl. <http://www.drones.nl/wetgeving/>
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 ILT/Luchtvaart – Civil Aviation Authority (2013, Sept). Lichte onbemande luchtvaartuigen. Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport. Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Mileu. <http://www.ilent.nl/Images/Informatiebulletin%20lichte%20onbemande%20luchtvaartuigen_tcm334-342963.pdf>
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Roger Clarke & Lyria Bennett Moses, (2014). The Regulation of Civilian Drones' Impacts on Public Safety. Computer Law & Security Review. 30 (3), pp.263-285. Retrieved from http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/Drones-PS.html#DR
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Finn, R. L., & Wright, D. (2012). Unmanned aircraft systems: Surveillance, ethics and privacy in civil applications. Computer Law & Security Review, 28(2), 184-194.