Social drones in future technology

Social drones in future technology:

Since last decade, growth in robotic utilization and its applications are expanding exponentially, both in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems. The progress of machine intelligence is fast developing, there are AI systems that can outsmart humans in strategy and critical thinking like the game of AlphaGo, a computer program defeated human professional player in the game of Go. On the other hand, the development in drone industry is at pinnacle to mass produce robust, cheaper, and lighter devices that can carry multiple sensors and actuators. The applications of drones are wide in range starting from aerial photography to disaster management. Thus, a greater challenge is caused due to the autonomy of drones operating in the public environment, especially direct contact with human space. Down the road, to adjust and adapt with these intelligence systems, a positive social change is required. To provide better space and to integrate robotic systems in our daily live, we need to understand the inner working and intelligence of the social drone for better Human-Computer Interaction.

Transforming phones to social drones:

Now-a-days, machine learning and AI can be seen everywhere, especially in social media industry a massive amount of data are being processed every day. To connect with people, the information on personal interest are shared through mobiles and computer devices, which are used to learn about personal preference. The present AI systems can even read human emotions from social media, and understand a person’s mind set from posts, videos and comments.

In the years to come, the mobile devices will be even smatter, and becomes an intelligent companion with humans, most like an electronic pet. Transforming these mobile phones to a drone is like adding wings to an electronic pet, thus social robots and its intelligence are already becoming part of human lives. This gives a further consideration even more to understand the growth in technology and their intelligence around us.

On a note: Transforming mobile phones to drones may have fewer problems, considering the mobile weight, battery power for the rotor and safety of the device from the fall.

Types of intelligence needed for the social drone:

Drones can interact with humans through lighting effects, sound direction, motion gesture, and sometimes through physical touch. Based on the interaction the intelligence needed can be classified in to three major categories:

Mimicking robotic drones: These drones are like the robot in the movie “Real steel” that they can copy and reciprocate human actions. They maintain a synchronized relationship with humans, like two horses pulling a cart in parallel. The robot observes human actions, learns the task (one time is more than enough), optimize if required and produce results. These types of drones need less of computational and decision-making power.

Some applications of this drone type can be used in,

• Aerial photography – To capture fast action scenes in cinematography, live presentation in conference (follow me algorithm), capturing natural scenes from high altitudes.
• Farm management – Drones working in farm to plant seeds, detect ripening and picking of fruits.
• Shipping and delivery – Multinational companies like Amazon, DHL, FedEx prefer to utilize smart drones for sorting and delivery (Detecting the tags and processing for shipping).
• Cooking – Drones with robotic arms can be used in modern restaurants for cooking fast food.
• Public library – Drones can also be used to categorize and arrange books in the library.

Guiding robotic drones: These types of drones can be used to oversee human actions and behavior. They maintain a hierarchical relationship with humans, like a parent and a child. The robotic drones have a better judgement of the environment and act like a hawk’s eye to guide humans in the right path. These types of drones need to make prier level of decision-making process.

Some applications of this drone type can be used in,

• Geography mapping – Navigation guider drones can be used during shopping in big malls, mountain trekking or hiking in forest.
• Disaster management – Drones can be used to navigate humans during evacuation, provide food and medical equipment, and measure affected areas.
• Search and rescue – Drones can be used for search of lost person and animals in forest and desert area.
• Security systems – Drones can be used to patrol in borders and monitor wildlife habitats.

Higher intelligence robotic drone: These types of drones have advanced features like performing a perfect conversation with humans. They maintain a hormonic relationship with humans. They can recognize human action and behavior through gesture, and sometimes they can even understand human emotions.

Some applications of this drone type can be used in,

• Registration desks – Drones can be used for organizing events, welcoming guest in hotels and office.
• Research – Drones can be used in collecting scientific data and participating in space missions.
• Entertainment – Drones can be used for stand-up comedy, drone racing and games.

some other applications can be designed for entertainment like the game “guess the object in the hidden box?”, the user hides an object in a box and let the drone to ask number of questions to guess the item in the box. These types of drones need high and sophisticated intelligence, they might also show emotional response, when asked the same questions more than three times, it replies “Now, I am bored with this game!”.  

On a note: Proper rules for navigation must be established for better path planning, like setting altitude, only fly over the roads (maybe adapt to traffic lights and signals) and maintain proper distances to avoid collusion in crowded places (drones may have to interact with each other).