We will soon have hundreds of thousands of drones flying our friendly skies, so we should take a number of safety precautions, and study some potential dangerous situations posed by the errand runners in the sky.
Currently, drones are primarily used for surveillance, photography, and even capture some pretty unique shots at live events, but they pose a significant risk to humans on the ground if they ever lose control and crash. Actually, drone collisions with humans are more common than you think – as you can see from the many drone fail collections online.
Earlier this year, the FAA's Center of Excellence for UAS Research issued a report that found that drone strikes to your skull were at least safer than being struck directly by wood and steel impacts. Given the increase in drone usage, and hopefully the decrease in rogue steel and wood chunks falling from the sky, perhaps some further research is warranted.
This is why a team of researchers from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore have been destroying hundreds of quadcopters, crashing them into crash test dummy heads.
According to a report in Digital Trends, the team of 10 has already crashed about 600 drones. As you can see from the footage, the study confirms that a drone strike to the head would most likely be painful. After all, it's not just the sheer weight of the flying object, which in tests has ranged from 2.2 pounds to a staggering 19.8 pounds, but the four propellers that would likely mark up your mug as well.
The researchers hope that the data will inspire more informed drone regulations, perhaps even designated routes that would travel less population dense areas. The initiative is important when you consider that about three million personal and commercial drones will be shipped in 2017 alone.
This is IEN Now with David Mantey.
