????各式各樣的飛行機(jī)器人往來(lái)穿梭于半空之中，徹底改變了人們與世界的互動(dòng)方式。這樣一個(gè)前衛(wèi)的理念越來(lái)越受到未來(lái)主義者和企業(yè)家的青睞。但人們往往忽視了無(wú)人機(jī)與生俱來(lái)的一個(gè)缺陷，即在沒有人類控制的情況下，無(wú)人機(jī)基本上還處在“盲飛”狀態(tài)。

????無(wú)人機(jī)在飛行方面基本上已經(jīng)做得很好了，但它們?nèi)匀粺o(wú)法感知到附近空域的其它飛行器。幾十架（乃至幾百幾千架）無(wú)人機(jī)在同一空域執(zhí)行任務(wù)，同時(shí)還能自行躲避飛機(jī)和電線等障礙物，目前還是一個(gè)無(wú)法實(shí)現(xiàn)的暢想。所以絕大多數(shù)飛行器目前還需要人為操縱，“無(wú)人機(jī)滿天飛”的概念現(xiàn)在看來(lái)不僅不現(xiàn)實(shí)，還具有相當(dāng)?shù)奈ｋU(xiǎn)性。

????不過(guò)，拜兩項(xiàng)并不算非常新奇，已經(jīng)悄無(wú)聲息地獲得重大進(jìn)展的技術(shù)所賜，這種情況在今年可能發(fā)生根本性變化。它們都不是全新的技術(shù)，但在成本和尺寸上卻實(shí)現(xiàn)了驚人的平價(jià)化和小型化。這種新型的雷達(dá)和電子系統(tǒng)不僅將促進(jìn)航空業(yè)的轉(zhuǎn)型，同時(shí)也為真正的商用無(wú)人機(jī)革命打開了一扇門。

????第一項(xiàng)技術(shù)叫做廣播式自動(dòng)相關(guān)監(jiān)視系統(tǒng)（ADS-B），大多數(shù)人一般只是在出現(xiàn)飛機(jī)失聯(lián)事件（比如去年的馬航370事件）后，才會(huì)在媒體上聽到這個(gè)術(shù)語(yǔ)。

????ADS-B的造價(jià)非常昂貴，而且一般比較沉重，該技術(shù)不僅能通過(guò)衛(wèi)星確定飛機(jī)自身位置，還能定期向外廣播它的位置和航向。除了航空管制塔臺(tái)之外，該空域內(nèi)的其他飛機(jī)也能收到它的廣播信號(hào)。ADS-B的自動(dòng)性使它非常適用于無(wú)人機(jī)，因?yàn)樗鼉?nèi)置的電腦系統(tǒng)具備同時(shí)追蹤多個(gè)飛機(jī)的多任務(wù)能力。

????各國(guó)航空管理部門正在緩慢而明確地推動(dòng)ADS-B成為一項(xiàng)所有載人航空器必須配置的行業(yè)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。目前并非所有的飛機(jī)都要安裝ADS-B系統(tǒng)，比如去年失聯(lián)的馬航370就沒有配備這項(xiàng)技術(shù)，而今年3月4日失事的“德國(guó)之翼”9525號(hào)航班則搭載了該技術(shù)。

????美國(guó)聯(lián)邦航空局正計(jì)劃為國(guó)內(nèi)所有民航客機(jī)配備該技術(shù)，以進(jìn)一步提高美國(guó)的航空安全。

????小型化和平價(jià)化的ADS-B系統(tǒng)不僅對(duì)整個(gè)航空業(yè)具有深遠(yuǎn)影響，同時(shí)對(duì)于無(wú)人機(jī)導(dǎo)航技術(shù)的發(fā)展也具有重大意義。如果ADS-B的零部件能夠?qū)崿F(xiàn)小型化和輕量化——當(dāng)然更重要的是平價(jià)化，那么它也可能會(huì)成為商用無(wú)人機(jī)領(lǐng)域的行業(yè)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。

????谷歌公司最近宣布，其工程師團(tuán)隊(duì)已經(jīng)開始著手研發(fā)小型化、輕量化的ADS-B模塊，而且成本將不超過(guò)2000美元。今年3月份，谷歌Wing項(xiàng)目主管戴夫?沃斯在國(guó)際民航組織表示：“我們將努力為市場(chǎng)提供真正低成本的ADS-B解決方案?！盬ing項(xiàng)目的宗旨就是要打造具有商業(yè)可行性的貨運(yùn)無(wú)人機(jī)。

????有了成本不足2000美元的輕量化ADS-B模塊，無(wú)人機(jī)將具備態(tài)勢(shì)感知能力，從而使它們能夠與其他無(wú)人機(jī)、載人機(jī)以及現(xiàn)有的航空管制系統(tǒng)安全地共享同一空域。

????另一方面，位于華盛頓州貝爾維尤市的Echodyne公司正在嘗試將戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)使用的掃描雷達(dá)系統(tǒng)安裝在普通的四軸飛行器上。該公司已經(jīng)找到了一種替代笨重的雷達(dá)移相器的方法：一款用特殊合成材料（所謂“超材料”）制成的新型設(shè)備。

????Echodyne公司已經(jīng)在一臺(tái)四軸無(wú)人機(jī)上展示了它的小型電子掃描雷達(dá)。它可以追蹤地面上的某個(gè)人，或是在飛行中躲避障礙物，不過(guò)目前它仍然處于原型階段。

????Echodyne公司技術(shù)總監(jiān)湯姆?迪瑞斯科表示，他相信他的團(tuán)隊(duì)可以將這款雷達(dá)的尺寸做到只有一臺(tái)iPhone 6 Plus大小，重量不超過(guò)1磅的設(shè)備——這對(duì)于目前市場(chǎng)上的大多數(shù)商用無(wú)人機(jī)來(lái)說(shuō)已經(jīng)夠小了。另外，它的價(jià)格也遠(yuǎn)低于復(fù)雜的掃描陣?yán)走_(dá)。迪瑞斯科對(duì)《財(cái)富》表示：“我們的雷達(dá)解決方案的價(jià)格將在幾千到幾萬(wàn)美元，不過(guò)我們認(rèn)為1000美元以下的系統(tǒng)也是可行的。”

????如果達(dá)到這個(gè)價(jià)位，無(wú)論是否同時(shí)搭載ADS-B系統(tǒng)，這種360度的空間感知技術(shù)都將為無(wú)人機(jī)提供它們目前亟需的“感知與躲避”能力。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：樸成奎

????審校：任文科

????The idea of skies filled with autonomous flying robots that change the way people interact with the world has grown in popularity amongst futurists and entrepreneurs alike. Largely absent from the public conversation is a discussion about the inherent shortcomings in unmanned aerial systems: namely that without a human pilot aerial vehicles are flying blind.

????Autonomous drones can fly extremely well, but they lack perception having zero awareness of other aircraft operating in their immediate vicinity. This makes the idea of dozens (hundreds, or even thousands) of commercial drones navigating the same airspace while avoiding obstacles like planes and power lines unfeasible. Factor in that the majority of aircrafts in the sky these days are manned and it becomes not only unrealistic but also potentially dangerous.

????But, this could be the year that all that change thanks to two decidedly unsexy technologies that are quietly undergoing mini-revolutions of their own. Neither is brand new, but both are falling precipitously in cost and size. These new breeds of radar and electronic systems could transform both the aviation industry and open the door to a genuine commercial drone revolution.

????The first technology, automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (or ADS-B), is something most people only hear about after, say, an airliner vanishes like Malaysia Airlines 370 did last year.

????ADS-B is a pricey, and often heavy, on-board aircraft tracking technology that not only determines an aircraft’s own position in space via satellites, but also periodically broadcasts its position and direction. Each broadcast can be picked up not only by air traffic controller towers, but also critically by other aircraft in the area. The automated nature of ADS-B lends itself particularly well to robotic drones since computers are well-suited for the multitasking needed to track multiple aircraft at one time.

????Transportation authorities are slowly but surely moving toward making ADS-B an industry standard for all manned commercial aviation. Currently, ADS-B isn’t required on all aircraft. The still-missing Malaysia Airlines jet was not equipped with the technology, while GermanWings flight 9525 was

????In the U.S. plans are in place to add the technology to all flights as part of the FAA’s NextGen strategy to upgrade national airspace due to the enhanced safety it imparts.

????Small and inexpensive ADS-B units don’t just have major implications for general aviation but for unmanned navigation and guidance as well. If ADS-B components can be made small, lightweight and—most importantly—inexpensive, they could become industry standard for commercial drones as well.

????Enter Google GOOG -1.66% , which recently announced that its engineers have set out to develop small, lightweight ADS-B units that cost less than $2,000. “We think that—and we are going to do this—we will head-down the trajectory of putting into the marketplace really, really low-cost ADS-B solutions,” Dave Vos, the director of Google’s Project Wing, said during the International Civil Aviation Organization in March. Project Wing is Google’s latest initiative aimed at developing viable commercial delivery drones.

????Lightweight, sub-$2,000 ADS-B units would create situational awareness for drones allowing them to fly in shared airspace with both unmanned aviation and manned aviation as well as existing air traffic control systems.

????Similarly, a company out of Bellevue, Wa. called Echodyne is developing a way to incorporate the same kind of sophisticated scanning beam radar used by fighter jets—to scan and track objects—into the average quadrotor. The company has found a way to replace the typically bulky apparatus that directs radio waves—a mechanism known as a phase shifter—and replace it with a novel new device made from highly-tuned synthetic materials known as metamaterials.

????Echodyne has already been able to demonstrate a small electronically scanning radar on a quadrotor drone, one capable of tracking an individual on the ground or avoiding obstacles during flight, but is still prototyping.

????Echodyne’s CTO Tom Driscoll says he is confident that he and his team can get the size down to roughly that of an iPhone6 Plus and the weight down to less than one pound—plenty small for most commercially available drones on the market today. Moreover, the cost will be such that commercial drones could come standard with sophisticated scanning array radar. “Our canned answer is that Echodyne will be providing radar solutions in the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars,” Driscoll tells Fortune. “But we can feasibly see a sub-$1,000 system.”

????A 360-degree spatial awareness at that price point could—either alongside ADS-B or independent of it—provide the “sense-and-avoid” capability that drones today sorely lack.