Hello,
I've found
very interesting article about automation in aviation industry.
Groups of
engineers are working on inventing a robot that would be capable to replace
human pilot in a plane. It turns that even nowadays pilots don't have a
lot of work to do. The intense time is only during take off and
landing, for the rest of flight time they have autopilot on
duty. On the other hand automation in air traffic control is also in progress.
Air business wants to save a lot of money on labor costs.
1 What do
you think about automation in aviation industry? Could it be perfectly
safe?
2 What are
the risks?
3 Would you
buy a ticket for flight without any human pilot?
1 What do you think about automation in aviation industry? Could it be perfectly safe?
ReplyDeleteIt seams to be logical step like in any other industry to replace human with robot or automation system to make it cheaper and more reliable. Sooner or later it will happen, I have no doubts. Maybe in a future it will be developed to stage where safety will not be a problem, but it takes many years and many failures until it happens.
2 What are the risks?
Risks are simple, what if machine fails and plane is left without anyone to take care about the problem? What if there will be someone hacking the system and taking over the plane. There will not be even possibility to ask for help and report the situation. What if there is non standard procedure like landing on water or fire, how system will deal with such problems. Many different scenarios comes to my head.
3 Would you buy a ticket for flight without any human pilot?
At this stage definitely not. In general we don’t see those pilots anyway, even if we see we don’t know them, we can’t evaluate their’s skills and sometimes in cases of emergency you have no idea what will happen anyway. But as in every other field I think all machines will need supervisor and someone real on board to make sure people will be save in case of emergency. As we see during weekend because of IT system failure all British Airways around the world are cancelled and imagine some problem with IT system in automation pilot, that would be a disaster. Still I don’t like the idea of giving my life in hands of machine in any possible field.
Thank you very much for this article. Materials published by Piotr are very interesting and intriguing. I love such kind of science articles. As far as Piotr’s questions are concerned I would like to start answering from the end not from the beginning. My answer for third question is – YES. I believe in technology more than the human possibilities. In the article it is mentioned that human factor is a weakness issue in majority accidents not only in plane crashes. I agree with this theory because nobody knows everything about pilots who fly every day and what is wrong with them. Therefore I reckon in the future sky travel will be safer when companies start to use AI robots. Generally in the future I think people will travel without human pilots not only by plane also by train, car or ship. Future means of transport will be completely automatic and nobody can stop these tendencies.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for a very interesting article.
ReplyDeleteAs per question no. 1, I totally agree with Cezary replacing human beings with robots and machines is a natural step to achieve technological progress nowadays. Nevertheless, at this point it wouldn't be perfectly safe. I think that technology is not that advanced yet. As per risks, the most important one is that the machine fails and it crashes killing many people. That's the very first thing that comes to my mind. As per question no. 3 I wouldn't buy a ticket for such a plane. I am a real coward when it comes to flying.
1 What do you think about automation in aviation industry? Could it be perfectly safe?
ReplyDeleteI think that his is very interesting idea. Everyone has heard about fully automated cars and now is time for planes. As so far it can't be perfectly safe. Even humans make mistakes despite of some automates in plane. There was also several examples when something was wrong in automates and was the reason of accidents.
2 What are the risks?
The risk is that we can't predict everything what may happen in the air. Automation usually works on observations and we still need some improvements in automated learning how to deal with previously unseen situations. Pilots are needed in a case when something unexpected happens.
3 Would you buy a ticket for flight without any human pilot?
I won't buy a ticket for such flight at the moment because I would be a little bit afraid. Maybe in a future when it will be nothing unusual.
Hi, thanks for interesting topic.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the automated aviation will be natural step in the future. I can not agree with that a this solution will be more reliable because most of work is fully automated now. Aviation is very safe - but professional, experienced pilot can solve a lot of strange situations (please take a look on Mr. Wrona achievement) :) . It will be cheaper but it will require additional maintenance and support from human operators.
This kind of solution needs a lot of tests and thousands of hours validation in real world environment. In my opinion pilot will be present on the board. He will be some kind of supervisor that can take control in critical situation. In my opinion only the role of second pilot will be replaced by machine. Mostly due to Airways Operator responsibility. 3rd question is too abstract for me - I do not know :) I have to take a look on the offer ;)
Thank you for interesting article. In my opinion, the level of security resembles the Gaussian curve where minus infinity is only a man and plus infinity is only a computer. The most comfortable situation when on board is a human pilot and computer, where a human pilot so trained that he doesn’t need support systems and a computer so good that he doesn’t need a human pilot. Threats are on each side - the pilot can be a terrorist or suicide and the computer can be hacked. I personally prefer to fly with a human pilot. But I could fly without a human pilot.
ReplyDelete1 What do you think about automation in aviation industry? Could it be perfectly safe?
ReplyDeleteMost of air catastrophes are happening due to human factor or human failure (not only pilots but also ground crew), so in my opinion automation in aviation could bring great increase in terms of security.
2 What are the risks?
To be honest I think biggest risks still will come from human machine interfaces and human actions
3 Would you buy a ticket for flight without any human pilot?
I am currently traveling by plane few times a year and Jus t as you have mentioned right now human interference is rather small in exception of take off and landing so in short words, Yes I would by i ticket in automated arilines
Thank you Piotr for interesting topic. I would agree with ZC and Wieslaw about they responses.
ReplyDelete1 What do you think about automation in aviation industry? Could it be perfectly safe?
2 What are the risks?
This is happening all the time. However I won't exclude human pilot from this kind of transportation. Human and machine are different mechanism and with synthesis there much more difficult to overcome. You can kill human or damage a machine but there are much few ways to either set down both systems at once.
3 Would you buy a ticket for flight without any human pilot?
I am rather a conservative...
The more I work with technology, the more I am aware of it's limitations. Yes, automation is inevitable, and yes, more of it would be introduced to such systems in the future, but there are always situations where human expertise would be necessary. It would never me perfectly safe, responding to your first and second question.
ReplyDeleteI would buy a ticket for flight without any human pilot on board only if it would be millionth such flight, with less than 0.001% failure possibility.
1 What do you think about automation in aviation industry? Could it be perfectly safe?
ReplyDeleteThe process of automation in aviation industry is consistent with the same trends in car transportation or medicine. In my opinion the automation can bring more safety to this form of transport, but the change will not be immediate. As every process it needs to be tested and adapted to the reality and it takes time. There is always a chance that a code or an algorithm of the created solution will contain an error, as it is created by humans. On the other hand, human pilot can also make mistakes.
2 What are the risks?
As I already mentioned, the algorithms and the software has to have very high quality. The software is also not creative, in an unusual situation a human pilot can make a better decision.
3 Would you buy a ticket for flight without any human pilot?
Today no, but when the technology will be stable and in everyday use, then why not :)
1 What do you think about automation in aviation industry? Could it be perfectly safe?
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great idea. Often the weakest link is man.
2 What are the risks?
In Poland, once was an Airbus accident, the land was icy. When pilots fled, they wanted to run the brake. The machine said "I do not think so". The machine "thought" that the plane was still flying.
3 Would you buy a ticket for flight without any human pilot?
Hmm. At the first point I write about it great. In the second I quote a catastrophe. But believe in the development of technology and that if it is put into practice it will be checked and will work.
It is a fairly unpopular notion to suggest to pilots that their days are numbered as meaningful participants in the actual flying of the machine. Even I am a little confused at the notion that there isn't much need pilot in plain I am. But the stark reality is that pilots are increasingly monitors of systems; they are no longer professionals required to do a tremendous amount of analytical stuff, adjusting fussy components, and deciphering which information source is telling the truth.
ReplyDeleteWould you buy a ticket for flight without any human pilot?
I think that sooner or later I will no other option. Being in Paris last year I use self driving tube (Metro). I have no other option as It was the only available way of transportation on my route from my hotel to work.
Ad. 1
ReplyDeleteGenerally I am not against automation in aviation industry. In fact, it is something strange for us, because we have no experience in this respect. We can’t be sure, that it will be perfectly safe, but actually it hasn’t been perfectly safe till now. In my opinion automation could correct the situation and even if it is not possible to achieve 100% of security, it is worth to search any improvement. Our fear is irrational, the whole process shall be prepared, all the phases shall be respectively tested without people on board. I believe in such future of aviation.
Ad. 2
First of all, there are the risks similar to current ones, but probability of real danger shall be smaller in my opinion, as I’ve written above. Automation would bring risk concerning software errors in control systems.
Ad. 3
I would buy such ticket, but I don’t know, if I would be courageous enough to go onboard ;-) Seriously, yes, I would take such risk, but earlier I would check all the previous history and all the results of tests made in this respect.
1 What do you think about automation in aviation industry? Could it be perfectly safe?
ReplyDeleteI don't think it is perfectly safe, however, It seems it works fine. It is a next natural step in aviation industry and any further ideas seems promising. Many catastrophes are caused by humans so probably some of them will be eliminated.
2 What are the risks?
Of course there are risks. An occurrence of some unexpected events which have not been programmed.
3 Would you buy a ticket for flight without any human pilot?
Yes I would take the risk and buy a ticket for such flight. Of course, I suppose it is going to take some time to test it, so I think I wouldn't be a first passenger.
1 What do you think about automation in aviation industry? Could it be perfectly safe?
ReplyDeleteIt's far from being safe in cars. In my honest opinion cars are easier to drive than planes. So, let's focus on something easier to achieve first.
2 What are the risks?
Let's say massive deaths ?
3 Would you buy a ticket for flight without any human pilot?
Not at this moment, but in the future? Why not? I don't want to be a guinea pig ;)
1 What do you think about automation in aviation industry? Could it be perfectly safe?
ReplyDeleteAs you told it’s nothing new. However I think that complete human replacement is impossible because of human’s intelligence which lets us to behave appropriately in new situations.
2 What are the risks?
As it was mentioned in the article, not all of the increasingly sophisticated planes will be safer planes. The more sophisticated technology is used the higher possibility of failure. It may be a huge challenge for the safety ensuring.
3 Would you buy a ticket for flight without any human pilot?
No, I wouldn’t. I’m so afraid of this… :)