VISIONAIRY TAKE-OFF TALK WITH PROF. Dr. Gollnick Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH)

1) For years, you have been one of the leading experts on aerospace in Germany and beyond. Drones, air cabs, automated and pilotless flight systems. The world of flight is on the move. What has changed the most in the last 5 years from your point of view?

The most significant change in the flight world has definitely been the many creative ideas about air cabs. But also the intensive search for business fields for the civil use of drones has really shaken up the scene. One can sense the strong yearning of aviation enthusiasts to seek new creative solutions that are clearly off the beaten track.

2) In the KOJAK project, you are working with Spleenlab on solutions for safe, automated collision avoidance of drones in flight. From your perspective, how important is the development of safe algorithms with regard to BVLOS flights and broad drone use in general?

We are all seeing that electronics, and inevitably associated software, is the value-added portion of an aircraft product and will become even more so. This results in completely different functional dimensions of flying so also flying and especially communicating beyond the horizon. If we have operationally reliable algorithms that can identify objects highly reliably, communicate with other objects and control vehicles reliably, we will also reach new fields of application and create the basis for profitable fields of application for highly automated flight systems. 

3) Redundant sensors and secure algorithms, are cornerstones of automation. What role do you think AI will play in the success of drones and air cabs?

Artificial intelligence is not a new technology per se. We have already used pattern recognition algorithms in industrial research in the 2000s, based on fuzzy. neural or evolutionary/genetic algorithms. Two aspects are crucial in the context: a) Do AI algorithms necessarily have to be integrated into highly safety-critical functional paths? If so, verification and approval methods must be developed down to the processor level. This is the real basic technical requirement for the widespread use of drones and AirTaxis in fully automated operations.

b) AI algorithms in the area of mission tasks such as observation, detection, classification, identification are most certainly important success factors for the commercially viable operation of modern drones. In the case of air cabs, such functions will most certainly be part of safe operations. Here, the key task of proving safe operation comes into play again.

4) Logistics? Passenger transport? Inspections? Which fields of application do you think will have the greatest chance of success in the next few years?

Drones are already on the move in many cases with inspection and observation tasks, and most application studies are heading in this direction. Air cabs are bound to come, not so much as a mass market as a niche market. Nevertheless, passenger transport will be a successful target field in the next 10 years at least in the USA and China. In my opinion, Germany must participate as a demonstration field, preferably in Hamburg.

5) A look upwards:  What does the sky above our heads look like in the next 5 years?

Due to the current events of the pandemic and the war, it is very difficult to look ahead. My expectation is that the very startup driven development of drones and air cabs will continue largely decoupled from events. Critically, I am concerned about the availability of capital.

What is recommended in any case is the availability of financial resources to get the developments up and running in the next 5 years. And that has to happen in the next 5 years!