Emerging Themes: Drones, Robotic Machines, and Driverless Cars

This document discusses the emerging themes of drones, robotic machines, and driverless cars and their potential impact on operational and strategic decision making in organizations. It explores the role of drones in various sectors of the UK economy, the advantages of robotic machines in labor requirements, and the potential benefits of driverless cars in terms of production and space utilization. The document also provides recommendations for organizations to effectively manage the effects of these emerging trends.

Emerging themes
Emerging themes
Name
Professor
Course
Date

Emerging themes
A Critical Evaluation of the identified themes and how they could affect operational and/or
strategic decision making necessary to shape organizations in the next five years
Drones
Drones have a very significant role that they play in various sectors in the United Kingdom
economy. They are an invention that has been in a position to revolutionize quite a number of
significant activities and processes that takes place in the United Kingdom economy. For
instance, drones have had the impact of reducing not only the cost but also the risk involved
when dealing with oils and gases.They improve at a very high percentage the safety, efficiency
as well as the cost of saving. This is so because statistics and logic shows that they have reduced
the extent with which an employee is often exposed to certain working conditions that are harsh
and could cause possible industrial hazards (Christaller et al, 2012 p.112)
In terms of inspection drones have also had an impact. Through a significant combination of
drones and some other traditional techniques drones have really revolutionized the inspection.
Wilson, 2018, p.117).Much lesser time and resources are spent in the case where drones are
selectively used in inspection than when other ordinary means of inspection are used. With the
use if drones, various particular defective areas are identified then fixed by either the drones or
maybe the use of some other rope access crews (McKinley, 2016 p.90).There are certain
instances with which drone inspection has been seen to very productive. In areas such as gas and
pipeline inspection, wildlife monitoring among others drones could play a very essential role in
inspections.
Moreover, drones could also be the future in the utility industry. This is in regard to inspection as
well as other forms of linear assets the tremendous 360 degree visualization (Grosman, 2016

Emerging themes
p.11). In recent years there has been the emergency of a much more complex and sophisticated
cloud-based visual assets forms of management systems that have played the role of acting as
repositories in the inspection and information storage as far as the use of drones is concerned.
In terms of delivery drones could be the future of delivery. Statistics show that drones could take
over delivery by the year 2030. This is so because of the various advantages associated with the
use of drones such as increased levels of efficiency, increased levels of customer satisfaction as
well as reduced costs of operations (Abbas, Di, Spinelli, 2018 p.323). Statistics also show that
more and more logistics and utility companies are investing on drones. The use of drones is
greatly preferred because of its unique nature and feature on not just dropping parcels where they
want to be dropped but rather their ubiquitous nature in warehousing and also the fact that drones
can conduct a real time stock and inventory check.
Robotic machines
Robotic machines have really had a very great impact as far as labor requirements are concerned
in the United Kingdom economy. There are a number of ways in which robotic machines have
influenced the economy (Mason, 2016 p.91).
First and foremost, the rise of robotic machines has led to more job creation than ever in the
economy. Quite often it’s seen that robots are taking away jobs but the fact is that robots are
actually creating much more jobs but in this case they require much more skilled labor. The point
is that robots are replacing low-skilled labor and automating the tasks that these laborers were
doing (Tutu, 2017 p.40).This is very evident in various sectors in the economy, in the
manufacturing sector for instance, robots perform the tasks of stocking, transporting as well as
sorting of materials. What is more important, however, is that in as much as robots replace the

Emerging themes
low skilled laborers in various industries, this gives workers opportunities to get much more
skilled and become competitive in the job market.
Secondly, robotic machines have the ability to increase the productivity rate. Robotic machines
are much more productive that human beings. This is in regard to speed as well as efficiency.
What is of more importance, however, is the way in which robotic machines have really played a
very great role in the revolution of labor in the entire United Kingdom economy. Much often,
there is the combination of human labor and robotic machines (Elibol et al, 2011 p.321).Well,
this is a very perfect combination and it results into a much more efficient production. A direct
corporation between human labor and robotic machines is really productive. This is so because
much often, robots play the role of assisting humans in undertaking various tasks. This has
enabled human laborers to avoid various forms of accidents associated with their tasks
(Humphries & Huettmann, 2018, p.85). This is so because robotic machines are in a position to
foresee human errors because of the sensors that have been incorporated and thus being in a
position to avoid any interment danger or hazardous situation at stake (Zakaria, Toh & Kim
2018, p.315).
Statistics show that there has been an increased use of robotic machines by various industrial
sectors in the United Kingdom. This is so because of the numerous advantages that this trending
theme has. As mentioned by Dorman & Kaufman (2014, p, 88) there are some other advantages
associated with the use of robotic machines such as simplification of work to employees. Robotic
machines play a very great role in the simplification of tasks to employees. They play the role of
relieving human labor from really strenuous tasks. Most importantly, their health and well as
safety is really assured in the case where robotic machines are employed (Hu, 2017, p.70).

Emerging themes
Driverless cars
Just like any other theme that has been discussed earlier, driverless cars would result into an
increase in production. Production as far as driverless cars are concerned will be in various ways
(Taraska, 2017 p.209).For instance, driverless cars would greatly improve the traffic flow and
thus reduce so many cases of accidents. A reduced traffic flow means that less time would be
used to commute to work places (Thangavelu et al, 2012, p.513). Moreover, one could also
attend to some other important issues such as working in the driverless cars because they do not
have to pay attention to the road for traffic.
Although some jobs will be lost, there would be the creation of some other more jobs in the
economy once driverless cars are brought into play (Shaw, 2016 p.50). This will greatly
transform the economy. In regard to some of the jobs that would be lost once driverless car are
bought into play, much fewer traffic police will be needed and so would traffic court
administrators. In simpler terms this means that millions and millions of jobs will be lost.
Despite the fact that some jobs will be lost, there would be a corresponding influx of totally new
jobs.
Another issue that will totally transform the economy once driverless cars are brought into play
is that there would be much more space for housing and business in the city centers. This is so
because with the driverless cars this means that the areas that were used as parking lots as well as
garages will be free for occupancy (Dvorkin, 2013 p.66).
Statistics show that there would be a complete transformation in the insurance industry once
driverless cars are brought into play. Moreover, statistics also indicate an increased demand of

Emerging themes
these driverless cars which presents a future that would be more secure and much safer. The
economy will be greatly transformed (Simpson, 2016 p.23).
Recommendations for the course of action that organizations within the broad sector can
take to ensure that they are able to manage the effects of these emerging trends effectively
The emerging trends identified and discussed above have various advantages that could greatly
benefit the economy when fully exploited (Kamilaris & Prenafeta-Boldú, 2017 p.77). There are
some other effects, however, that can greatly cause harm and negative impact on the economy
when these emerging themes are not well managed. It is therefore a call to each and every
organization that wishes to employ these themes as a result of their various advantages to
carefully consider both the advantages as well as their disadvantages (Wadhwa & Salkever, 2017
p.89).
The use of drones for instance, has the ability to result into a cross-industry transformation.
Drones can greatly transform organizations in various forms (Ven, 2014, p.67). It is therefore
recommended that organizations employ the use of drones in various ways such as in consumer
product delivery, where packages are delivered to customers by the use of drones; this has the
ability to increase customer satisfaction as well as increasing the efficiency (Compton, 2016
p.89).Drones can also be used by organizations for search and rescue. This is in regard to the
military where we see that drones have been extensively used. They can also be employed in the
media and entertainment industry. Drones can be used to capture footage during various events
such as sporting events as well as other relevant media events (Livshits, 2016 p.55).
Basically, as technology evolves, it becomes even more important and necessary for various
organizations across United Kingdom and also across the globe to adopt the use of these

Emerging themes
emerging themes (Corcoran, 2015 p.102). These emerging themes have so many advantages
associated with them and when they are fully utilized, they can result into a growth in the
economy of a country. It is therefore a call for all relevant organization that they maximize these
themes so as to increase productivity.
Finally, the future is more dependent on disruptive forms of technology such as these emerging
trends. They represent the future of not only the economy of the United Kingdom but as well as
the world’s economy. They should therefore be fully exploited and put into maximum use so that
they can result into tremendous and various changes that would change the economy of the
world in a positive manner (Bentley, 2018 p.89). It should also be noted that these organizations
should also be very cautious in regard to the use of these themes because they could also lead to
various forms of damages.

Emerging themes
Reference
Abbas, D., Di Fulvio, F. and Spinelli, R., 2018. European and United States perspectives on
forest operations in environmentally sensitive areas. Scandinavian Journal of Forest
Research, 33(2), pp.188-201.
Bentley, M., 2018. Fetishised data: counterterrorism, drone warfare and pilot testimony. Critical
Studies on Terrorism, 11(1), pp.88-110.
Christaller, T., Laschi, C., Nagenborg, M. and Salvini, P.,2012. Techno-Ethical Case-Studies in
Robotics, Bionics, and Related AI Agent Technologies.
Compton, A., 2016. Waste of a nation: photography, abjection and crisis in Thatcher’s
Britain (Doctoral dissertation, University of Sussex).
Corcoran, M., 2015. Drone Journalism: Newsgathering applications of Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles (UAVs) in covering conflict, civil unrest and disaster.
Dorman, A.M. and Kaufman, J.P. eds., 2014. Providing for national security: a comparative
analysis. Stanford University Press.
Dvorkin, D., 2013. Dust Net: The Future of Surveillance, Privacy, and Communication: Why
Drones Are Just the Beginning. David Dvorkin.
Elibol, A., Gracias, N., Garcia, R., Gleason, A., Gintert, B., Lirman, D. and Reid, P.R., 2011,
September. Efficient autonomous image mosaicing with applications to coral reef monitoring.
In IROS 2011 workshop on robotics for environmental monitoring.

Emerging themes
Grosman, L., 2016. Reaching the point of no return: the computational revolution in
archaeology. Annual review of Anthropology, 45, pp.129-145.
Hu, M., 2017. From the national surveillance state to the cybersurveillance state. Annual Review
of Law and Social Science, 13, pp.161-180.
Humphries, G.R. and Huettmann, F., 2018. Machine Learning and ‘The Cloud’for Natural
Resource Applications: Autonomous Online Robots Driving Sustainable Conservation
Management Worldwide?. In Machine Learning for Ecology and Sustainable Natural Resource
Management (pp. 353-377). Springer, Cham.
Kamilaris, A. and Prenafeta-Boldú, F.X., 2017. Mapping the Collaborative Economy Landscape
and its Relationship with Information and Communication Technologies.
Livshits, R., 2016. Does Ishiguro dream of electric sheep?: androids as a distinctive emergent
phenomenon in Japan(Doctoral dissertation).
Mason, A.D., 2016. Monitoring individual animals through a collaborative crowdsourcing and
citizen science platform(Doctoral dissertation, University of Surrey (United Kingdom)).
McKinley, S.A., 2016. Frugal Design and Robotic Surgery(Doctoral dissertation, University of
California, Berkeley).
Shaw, I.G., 2016. Scorched atmospheres: The violent geographies of the Vietnam War and the
rise of drone warfare. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 106(3), pp.688-704.
Simpson, C.R., 2011. The impact of robots on socio-environmental fields. Interdisciplinary
Environmental Review, 12(1), pp.63-79.

Emerging themes
Taraska, P.A., 2017. How Can the Use of Human Enhancement (HE) Technologies in the
Military Be Ethically Assessed?.
Thangavelu, M., Khoshnevis, B., Carlson, A. and Leach, N., 2012. Architectural concepts
employing co-robot strategy and contour crafting technologies for lunar settlement infrastructure
development. In AIAA SPACE 2012 Conference & Exposition (p. 5173).
Tutu, A.D., 2014. Drones and targeted killing: Legal, moral, and geopolitical issues. Interlink
Publishing.
Ven, T.V.D., 2014. The Geography of Drone Warfare: An explorative research on the changing
spatial dynamics of warfare as a result of the increased use of armed drones.
Wadhwa, V. and Salkever, A., 2017. The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology
Choices Will Create the Future. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Wilson, S., 2018. Figures in black: heavy metal and the mourning of the working class. In Youth
Subcultures in Fiction, Film and Other Media (pp. 147-162). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Zakaria, A.D., Toh, J.W.T. and Kim, S.H., 2018. Future Perspectives in Robotic Colorectal
Surgery. In Surgical Treatment of Colorectal Cancer (pp. 315-325). Springer, Singapore.