Regulatory future for unmanned vehicles pondered

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-The increasing range and capabilities of remote-controlled vehicles has made some jobs easier for law enforcement and military officials. However, the same devices are making it harder to distinguish hobbyists from potential threats, a specialist in unmanned aerial vehicles said here last week at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Computer-controlled planes using global positioning systems (GPS) and other technology could pose a danger despite regulations by the Federal Aviation Administration on craft lighter than 500 pounds or less than 55 feet long, MIT professor Eric Feron said at the school's Industrial Liaison Program, which connects sponsor companies with research at the university.

"There is a discussion for how to regulate them so they don't become a homeland security danger-or even a threat if people live near an airport," he said. "The issue is much broader than that."

Who should be allowed to buy such machinery? That is just one question facing several government agencies.

One manufacturer, Advanced Ceramics Research in Arizona, builds unmanned aircraft costing $500 each for remote surveillance, he said. Hobbyists can create gas-powered or electric planes, helicopters and other craft. The trans-Atlantic flight of an 11-pound airplane from Newfoundland to Ireland in April 2003 demonstrated the possibilities of using commonly available materials.

Feron showed a video of a computer-controlled helicopter than can replicate some of the most dangerous maneuvers and some that might be too risky for humans. The craft spiraled wildly in S-like turns and rolls, a feature that could help craft enter canyons or urban settings that he said are too dangerous or too small for manned aircraft.

Border-control agents, military officials and police agencies can use the devices to "see" remote areas without endangering people and then send the people if needed, he said.

Feron and his students are developing algorithms for unmanned flight that could permit the craft to sense and respond to threats, or to changes in internal or external conditions. Unlike autopilot systems that manage basic flight, the maneuvers offer more options such as hovering, distance flight and escape that are not available to larger aircraft that require onboard humans.

"Maybe a traditional way of flying is not enough," he said. "Bees or flies don't fly the same way as an F-22." Such a system could be used to compute optimal trajectory between two waypoints to minimize costs, travel time or fuel consumption, he added.

Unmanned vehicles in sea and air also are approaching an ability to perform functions, not act merely as remote cameras. Professor Chryssostomos Chryssostomidis, the director of MIT's Sea Grant College Program, said improvements in battery life, communication and remote operation have enabled machines to identify and remove unexpected materials from below a ship's waterline, eliminating the need for human inspection.

"The next challenge will be intervention: machines that assemble, recover items, sample returns and manipulate objects underwater," he said.