By Mr. SAURABH KUMAR SINGH
“Technology will never replace humans but technology in the hands of great humans is transformational”
INTRODUCTION
Being in the 21st century, we are living in an era of technological innovations and advancements. Technology has become an inseparable part of our daily lives. From waking up in the morning with the lights of our rooms switched on to get on the bed in the night enjoying the blanket of the cold breeze of an air conditioner, we are surrounded by multiple innovations of technology which has transformed our lives, in a way or another by providing plenty of such goods and services that made our lives more easy and comfortable.
Technology has paid a vital role in reducing human efforts, which was required to be put in by humans to do work. Whether be it a smart phone or a television, a car, or an aircraft, all of these have just made our lives easier and have reduced our efforts. And carrying the technological flag high, now we are moving ahead to the generation of something, which was once thought to be next to impossible, something as a dream, i.e., “Unmanned vehicles”.
As the name itself suggests, an unmanned vehicle is a vehicle without a person on board as a driver or as both driver and passenger in cases. These unmanned vehicles can be either remote-controlled or guided by remote vehicles, or there could be autonomous vehicles that are capable enough of sensing their environment, analyzing, and navigating on their own, with proper support by the artificial intelligence.
HISTORY AND CONTEMPORARY STORY
The revolution of unmanned vehicles dates back to 1916 when the United States began developing the first unmanned aerial vehicle technology to be used during the First World War for surveillance and shortly came up with the first-ever pilotless aircraft named ‘Kettring Bug’ and since then, we haven’t looked back. If we talk about today, we have various types of unmanned vehicles brought up to us by the technological experts. A few of those have been named below:
- Radio Control Cars/Aircraft, they are vehicles that are usually operated by radio or remote control which has an external origin.
- Unmanned ground vehicles such as autonomous cars and combat vehicles
- Unmanned aerial vehicles, popularly known as drones
- Autonomous Spaceport drone ships
- Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
- No Crew Spacecrafts
AN APPRAISAL
Technology has always been a controversial affair. The two poles of view stand apart from each other in it. One group favors the need for the human touch in every activity whereas the other group supporting technology as a replacement for human involvement. Like every coin has two faces to be seen, the unmanned vehicle technology has its pros and cons.
IS IT BOON TO MANKIND?
Unmanned vehicles have seen a decent surge in the last few decades the possible reasons for which could be:
1. Reduction in human efforts
The foremost important feature that could be highlighted is, unmanned vehicles have resulted in reducing the human efforts that were earlier needed to be incorporated.
During the recent COVID times, drones were used to deliver medicines to home isolated patients, and also it was used to sanitize residential colonies, this reduced the human efforts that otherwise would be required to deal with the circumstances.
2. Increased efficiency of performance
Unmanned vehicles have also ensured greater efficiency of work in recent times. As machines work on pre-defined instructions, that they can retain for a much longer period than humans and are prone to omit fewer errors and performs activities in a much efficient and effective manner.
3. Ensuring the safety of the human factor
Increasing usage of unmanned vehicles has also ensured the safety of the human factor if we see the broader picture. Unmanned vehicles could be used as combating vehicles, thus ensuring that human factor (military personnel) is not hurt during any war or combat.
4. Easily deployable
These vehicles are easily deployable as there is no need to train the drivers and they can work even with relatively minimal experience. Combined with the relatively low cost of most models, drones are becoming accessible to a wide range of operators. UVs also have a greater range of movement than manned aircraft. They can fly lower and in more directions, allowing them to easily navigate traditionally hard-to-access areas.
5. Creating new technical job opportunities
Also, UVs are generating new job opportunities for the IT and technical experts for developing more advanced features and ensuring safety measures for the technology.
WHY IS IT A MATTER OF CONCERN?
Nothing in this world comes without a cost. Unmanned vehicles might have various advantages, but it faces the following shortcomings:
1. A threat to humankind
UVs could be helpful in the future but it could be a major threat to humans if it gets into the wrong hands. Even if we make the most advanced machine, but it is eventually getting to be handled by humans and pre-determined instructions, that presents a great scope of blunders.
2.Privacy issues
Machines are created by humans and can be destroyed by them too. UV’s are also machines and could be easily tampered and hacked, thus there is a constant threat of misuse, which could be disastrous.
CONCLUSIVE STATEMENT:
Though unmanned vehicles could be said as a great technological discovery this also holds that these UVs are not for apt to be extensively used today, as we don’t have that required legal framework for its operation and also even if we are getting technically advanced still for incorporating such highly advanced vehicles we need to nurture our digital & technological infrastructure a lot.
Thus I will conclude with a statement by Albert Einstine “The Human Spirit Must Prevail Over Technology”.
Nice work !!