Of more immediate concern is the safety of these flying robots. What if they go out of control and crash land? Or what if they get sucked into the engine of a passenger aeroplane? Cummings thinks that it will be possible to design intelligent air traffic control that can avoid that kind of dangerous collision. In the case of malfunctioning, it would also need to pre-empt engine failure before a crash landing. “It’s relatively easy for it to detect if an engine is failing and to find an area to land in an unpopulated area.”

But you can’t discount the possibility for human error. Cummings points to the recent case of man who shot his neighbour’s drone when it was “trespassing” on his land. Not only does the case raise important questions about the nature of trespassing; the falling debris could have been a danger if it had landed in the wrong place. “It would have just been a falling rock,” says Cummings.

But surely that’s a freak incident?

In fact, the idea of shooting drones seems to be striking a chord with certain quarters of our society: “Johnny Dronehunter” clips advertising gun silencers became something of a meme in the US. Admittedly, few will take it seriously, but it does highlight perhaps the biggest hurdle for drones: you. “Ultimately, the biggest obstacles are the socio-technical issues,” says Cummings. Many people still associate the technology with the military, says Cummings – and so many are somewhat hostile to its possibilities. It’s a mistaken attitude, given the potential, she says. “Most people who hear about drones think about them killing people in Pakistan – they don’t realise they can have a positive impact.”



