The mother of all AI projects! Potential for autonomous or automated systems fields like mobility and transportation. Requires sensors, mechatronics, software, navigation, planning, etc.

Very hard and complex to integrate Product of Products, and Systems of Systems that now require Systems Engineering.

Includes Land, Air, Water, & Space . . .

When Drones Fly | November 2019 | Communications of the ACM
https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2019/11/240357-when-drones-fly/fulltext
(pdf)

Buildings, birds, power lines, trees and people remain formidable obstacles for autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), as they are known. Fog, snow, smoke, and dust present additional challenges.

First, they are not like the autonomous vehicles that operate on land. UAVs have extreme space and weight restrictions. Whereas a car can potentially have dozens, even hundreds, of sensors mounted across its surface, a drone can accommodate the weight of only a few.

Second, UAVs move in almost every direction in a three-dimensional (3D) space, while a motor vehicle operates on a two-dimensional plane. This makes designing software and algorithms for UAVs exponentially more complex.

Finally, the simple fact these machines are suspended in the air and constantly moving introduces additional challenges and risks.

There is also a need for improved safety systems—particularly in crowded urban areas. “Currently, drone companies add redundant propellers to avoid crashing. More advanced technology is necessary,” says Davide Scaramuzza, director of the Robotics and Perception Group at the University of Zurich in Switzerland.

References

Challenges in Autonomous Vehicle Testing and Validation, Preprint: 2016 SAE World Congress (pdf)

Challenges in Autonomous Vehicle Testing and Validation (2016-01-0128 Journal Article)- SAE Mobilus, April 5, 2016 (html)