Drones.. Two-Sided Technology

The first unmanned aircraft was developed in both Britain and the United States during the First World War. The British plane was tested for the first time in March 1917, a small radio-controlled plane. The American plane was tested in October of 1918, and on Although both showed promising results in flight tests, they were not used in practice during the war.

And in 1935, the British made a number of remote-controlled aircraft, to be used as targets for training purposes, as the term “unmanned aircraft” began to appear, and its names are now varied between “drones”, drones, drones, and drones. First piloted extensively in the Vietnam War, as booby traps in combat, and for firing missiles at stationary targets, and dropping leaflets for psychological operations.

Wide Spread:

Since the 9/11 attacks, the United States has relied on drones for many missions, especially surveillance missions in areas and terrain that forces cannot safely go to. Fighter drones were in the past the preserve of major military powers, but they are no longer so in Currently, it has also begun to be used by rebels in many countries, and military experts point out that China is the main source of armed drones around the world.

In recent years, models have been developed that use technologies such as solar energy to tackle the problem of long-distance refuelling, and the missions of drones are now diverse, from military purposes to commercial, environmental and other applications, ranging from fighting fires, monitoring climate change, and monitoring air pollutants It can be used for natural disaster searches, infrastructure monitoring, pipeline monitoring, photography, and merchandise delivery, and can be developed to perform drug delivery and flower pollination missions, and can be used for monitoring public and entertainment events and (widespread) internet coverage for remote areas. , but the most common use is by military for reconnaissance, surveillance and launching air attacks.

With the wide spread of this type of technology, many research agencies have begun to issue several warnings regarding the process of communicating with each other in space to avoid collision, and the need to avoid them falling into the hands of rebels and outlaws, and limiting their negative effects on the environment.

Swarm Of Robots:

Recently, a team of researchers at the Institute of Technological Innovation in the UAE conducted a study that included the most comprehensive survey in the world of aspects related to unmanned aircraft (UAVs) "drones", especially the challenges of communicating between them and developing their capabilities and design characteristics, says Depashisha Mishra, assistant researcher in the Department of Strategic Management at the Institute. In a press release, a copy of it said: “The long-range communications technology of the drone depends today on the technology of military satellites, and this is expensive for civilian uses.”

The study explored many wireless methods, including satellite technology, Wi-Fi networks, and current cellular communications networks, and it was found that satellites are expensive, and that the Wi-Fi network is limited to a few hundred meters, while cellular networks provide a greater range. And scalability in the long term, but there are still some issues that need to be addressed.

Researchers at the institute are trying to develop a new model to teach swarms of robots how to allocate themselves to tasks efficiently, so that many robots can be controlled to perform more difficult tasks and independently even with poor or no external communication, and this approach will allow robot swarms or drones to operate in restricted environments: such as: Deep in the earth, behind enemy lines, or in outer space.

Giulia de Masi, an expert at the Institute for Research on Autonomous Robots at the Institute and principal investigator of the study published in the journal Sorm Intelligence, says that analysing the performance of robots in a group mission (swarm) such as drones showed the need to secure their orientation and not deviate from the specified path by making some decisions. error and its impact on the rest of the swarm, which necessitates interdisciplinary collaboration between robotics and security research centres, to address one of the most important emerging issues for the widespread deployment of multiple robotic systems in practical applications, she adds: “Since every swarm member can perceive threats in Its immediate environment or in the environment of the robots next to it, we can through this experiment prove that the entire swarm is able to respond to attacks, if most of the robots are working optimally, and this ability gives the drone swarm a greater advantage compared to using a single robot. I mean, it will disrupt the whole task.

Privacy and security issues:

Mishra said: "There are many challenges that must be resolved before authorizing the use of a drone, the most important of which are privacy and security issues, as well as the reliability of communication, and the error-correction process, so as not to endanger people's lives, explaining:"Imagine A defective drone falls over a person from the sky, the result is catastrophic and fatal, so the reliability of communication between the drones, in a team mission (swarm), availability of coverage everywhere, and effective control, are some of the important aspects that require a high level of effort research and study.

The biggest challenge the press release points out has to do with the aerial nature of drones, as most existing cellular antennas point to the ground, confusing their communications in two ways:

First, it deals with raw signals to provide reliable communication in space.

Second, drones may have to switch across multiple base stations frequently, which leads to delivery issues.

For example, a drone directly above a base station might get a stronger signal than three adjacent base stations, constantly switching between these other devices losing cargo, causing delays and creating chaos. Companies like Amazon would like to use drones Drones, to transport high-value goods at higher frequencies, but more safeguards are needed to prevent hackers from hijacking planes to steal the goods or the planes themselves.

Environmental Risks:

With regard to the environmental risks of the high rates of use of drones around the world, Di Masi explains that swarms of robots do not pose real risks to the environment if used correctly.

Risks arise if a mission is not carefully planned, such as when the battery is discharged before the swarm returns to the operator or base station.

“Usually drones are equipped with GPS, but if something goes wrong the parts of these drones are not biodegradable and could lead to an environmental impact, but it’s a remote possibility,” she says.

Acquisition of drones:

With regard to legislation to allow the acquisition of drones, Mishra expects that public safety agencies, medical parcel and drug delivery agencies, industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and infrastructure monitoring organizations will be the first to own this system, stressing the importance of taking into account the social and economic dimensions before introducing those Drones, on a commercial scale for general applications, must ensure the privacy and security of the drone during the mission; So that physical access to the drones or their data management system does not increase the privacy risks of data being stolen or falling into the hands of armed groups, another important fact is that the aircraft designer and manufacturer should consider how well they can handle themselves when they fail. The sensor or the program directed to it.

A previous study conducted by the Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights, under the title "Unchecked Violations: The Repercussions of the Houthis' Use of Drones on Civilians in Yemen and Neighbouring Countries," indicated the high frequency of the acquisition of drones by rebel groups, armed groups and actors outside the state. This is attributed to lowering its cost. The cost of some of them is estimated at about three thousand dollars, in addition to the ease of obtaining them, as they are commercially available and anyone can purchase their components through e-marketing platforms.

Drones for amateurs and paragliders have also spread, and the best and cheapest type for amateurs is “SymaX5SC” priced at $54, and for beginners, “Syma X5C” was offered at $30, but the best in terms of flight time (25 minutes) is TYPHOON” from the company. Yuneec, priced at $1,200.

Commercial drone technology is widely available, and anyone can build an attack drone for as little as a few hundred dollars, and some terrorist groups have these capabilities, and their use in current conflicts and in some countries has raised complex legal and ethical dilemmas, especially when they result in fatalities. civilians, either because of inaccurate data or because of the proximity of civilians to the "target".

Ayman Aqil - the international human rights expert and head of the "Maat" Foundation - sees the possibility of controlling the acquisition of drones by armed groups through a set of measures:

First: Updating the arms control agreements to include the technology used in the manufacture of drones, by setting additional protocols for these agreements.

Second: The development of an international instrument that prohibits the access of these aircraft to armed groups, and the tracking of smugglers of these systems to the armed groups.

Third: Imposing sanctions on countries and people that smuggle components of unmanned aircraft systems to armed groups, and exposing the bad record of those countries at the international level.

Fourth: Providing adequate support to the Coast Guard forces and rebuilding them in countries experiencing armed conflicts, and where smuggling activities for drone systems are often active, such as Somalia and Yemen.

Aqeel said that international laws do not establish direct penalties for killing civilians using drones, but it should be emphasised that targeting civilians with these drones is in violation of international law, including international humanitarian law, which provides protection for civilians from unauthorised hostilities. The people involved in smuggling components of drones, the evidence of which confirms their use in killing civilians, are subject to sanctions by the Security Council and UN member states, for example, recently, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2624 of 2022, which put the Houthis - as a group Terrorist outside the country - on the list of sanctions for reasons, including - according to the resolution - attacks on civilians.