http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2015/5/8/technology/n...

http://www.businessspectator.com.au...&utm_content=1347687&utm_campaign=kgb&modapt=

Here come the autonomous drones
Drone technology is developing rapidly. There’s particular focus on autonomous drones. These have on-board computers programmed to fly by themselves, so they don’t need to be actively piloted.
They can fly around a region to spot vegetation disease, conduct all-night surveillance of a highway for oversized vehicles or locate missing bushwalkers — all by searching methodically.
We may not be too far from developing fleets of autonomous drones. But inventors are pondering if it is possible to monitor, say, a fleet of a dozen drones all at once?
In the US last week, the Drones Data X Conference looked at this question among a raft of issues affecting investors, regulators and inventors. We’re told a NASA researcher discussed developing software that would let a human controller manage several drones at the same time but with collision avoidance software.
Expect these issues to become a lot more prominent, fast.
In the US, spending on unmanned aerial vehicles is projected to almost double during the next decade, from about $US6.4 billion ($8.1bn) to $US11.5bn a year, according to industry analyst Teal Group.

Should be something in this for OEC