aviation

AI pilots to fly passenger planes? Emirates airline president hints at possibility

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“You might see a one-pilot aircraft,” said Emirates airline president Tim Clark, sparking debates around developing AI technology. 

With the expanding abilities of artificial technology (AI), aeroplanes may now seemingly move from autopilot mode to AI pilot mode. From two trained pilots present inside the cockpit, the situation may change to no pilots at all, with AI pilots flying the aeroplanes more smoothly and safely. 

At least that’s how Emirates airline president Tim Clark feels. In his latest interview, Clark said that passenger planes may have AI co-pilots in the near future. He emphasised the possibility of a single-pilot aircraft further indicating that the technology of fully automated flights is already advancing. 

“You might see a one-pilot aircraft. Could the aircraft be flown on a fully automated basis? Yes it could, technology is right up there now. [But passengers] like to think there are two pilots up there. There will always be somebody on the flight deck in my view,” Clark stated. 

His comments raged the debate over how fast and to what extent should AI technology be developed.

However, the Emirates airline president later emphasised the skills of the trained pilots. 

“Pilots are not merely plane drivers; they are highly skilled professionals who play a crucial role in a comprehensive safety system that ensures the safe arrival of passengers, crew, and cargo at their destinations,” Clark said. 

“Pilots have diverse responsibilities beyond flying the aircraft. They act as navigators, engineers, technicians, weather experts, and customer service managers. On a typical day, pilots interact with various individuals, including aircrew, ground crew, cabin crew, air traffic control, and passengers. Effective communication is essential for pilots, both in aviation-specific terms (e.g., using radio communication with air traffic control) and on an interpersonal level,” he added.

WATCH | AI to wipe out two third of the jobs | WION Dispatch

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“For a start, pilots fly with so many different crews that they must be able to establish a rapport with other flight and cabin crew easily. They must be able to exchange information clearly with people they have never met before. A pilot also must communicate information to passengers. As well as being responsible for their passengers, a captain has the ultimate responsibility for all the crew on board. Understanding their needs, flight time limitations, rest requirements, industrial agreements and supporting them in their dealings with passengers is a vital part of the job,” Clark stated. 

Going back to the idea of completely pilotless planes, he stated, “Could the aircraft be flown on a fully automated basis? Yes it could, technology is right up there now, [but] there’ll always be somebody on the flight deck in my view.” 

Robotic tractor to deliver precision planting.

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A robotic tractor and seeding machine with unprecedented planting accuracy will improve agricultural productivity for farmers and enable cropping on 20% more land, UNSW inventors say.

Broad acre farming currently requires an operator to be present in the cabin of large tractors, but this is often perceived as being unproductive, says Associate Professor Jay Katupitiya from the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at UNSW.

Furthermore, large tractors are expensive and compact the soil as they move, creating crop lines. Crop lines render roughly 20% of land on large paddocks unusable and means cropping must happen in the same direction every year, which degrades soil health.

To solve this problem, Katupitiya has partnered with the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) to develop a lighter, more affordable agricultural machine that can accurately follow and plant seeds along a predefined path without a human operator.

“This system has the ability to lay seeds within one to two centimetres of lateral accuracy on rough agricultural terrain, which is an unprecedented level of precision for an autonomous machine,” says Katupitiya.

Achieving this precision with existing technology has been challenging because the forces generated by a plough digging into soil often cause seeding implements to veer off course. However, advanced control systems and sensors, and an optimised design, enable the UNSW invention to automatically correct against these deviations.

“Our unique design and technology allows farmers to know exactly where their crop is,” says Katupitiya. “It means the same machine can be used repeatedly throughout the cropping season to carry out all other subsequent tasks, such as weeding, fertilising and growth monitoring.”

The UNSW-developed machine, which measures just three-metres wide, is a more affordable and lightweight option for farmers, says Katupitiya, which doesn’t create crop lines.

“The flexibility of being able to access more land and plant crops in different directions has advantages for crop growth through better uptake of remnant nutrients, and a better yield,” says Katupitiya.

The research team behind the invention were finalists in the 2012 Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology. They are now working with the GRDC to pursue further development and commercial production.

 

 

Side effects of fluorescent light.

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Admit it, you don’t like the cold, lifeless light that emits from these bulbs, but what you don’t know may hurt you!

Better to vie for the warm welcoming glow of old school incandescent bulbs then to roll the dice with these bulbs that, if you dare break one, spew toxic matter all over the place.

-Headaches

-Migraines

-Eye discomfort

-Eye strain

-Enhanced tumor formation

-Contributes to agoraphobia

-Endocrine disruption

-Increased stress

At the end of the day, natural sunlight is the best option because it brings a full spectrum of light frequencies.  The unbalanced light emitted from fluorescent bulbs has been studied thoroughly and it is a wonder why many government officials are pushing for regulations requiring their use over incandescent bulbs.  In fact, incandescent bulbs emit a more balanced spectrum light that is more similar to sunlight then fluorescent bulbs.  It is no surprise that many people are willing to pay more in electric bills and replacement in order to avoid the cold, lifeless glow of these mercury laden lights.

‘Pac-Man’ in Saturn moon Tethys is a repeat performance.

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SUNAstronomers have seen that the temperature of Saturn’s moon Tethys has hotter regions uncannily like the 1980s arcade game character Pac-Man.

A similar feature was spotted in 2010 on Mimas, another Saturnian moon.

A report in Icarus suggests the effect is due to high-energy electrons bombarding the sides of the moons that face their direction of orbital travel.

That compacts the surfaces to a hard, icy texture that does not heat or cool as rapidly as the unaffected surface.

Thermal images of both moons were obtained by the Cassini-Huygens mission, launched in 1997 to study the Saturn system in detail.

The temperatures seen by the spacecraft are distinctly chilly – the warmest parts of Tethys were at – 183C, but inside the “mouth” of the Pac-Man shape it was 15C cooler still.

At the time of the finding of the first Pac-Man shape on Mimas, scientists were unsure what might be the cause, theorising that differing surface textures probably played a role.

The existence of another such shape nearby has cemented the idea that fast-moving electrons are responsible.

“Finding a second Pac-Man in the Saturn system tells us that the processes creating these ‘Pac-Men’ are more widespread than previously thought,” said Carly Howett, of the Southwest Research Institute in Texas and lead author of the study.

“The Saturn system – and even the Jupiter system – could turn out to be a veritable arcade of these characters,” she said.

Source:BBC