WASHINGTON: The current craze of grabbing the latest mobile phone may soon be replaced by a desire to own a drone, according to Indian-origin scientist Parimal Kopadekar from NASA.

In five to 10 years from now, every home may have a drone, Kopadekar said at a conference on Unmanned Aerial Systems Traffic Management hosted by Nasa and the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International last week.

"I see a time when every home will have a drone,” Kopadekar, manager of Nasa's Safe Autonomous System Operations Project at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, was quoted as saying by USA Today.

You are going to use a drone to do rooftop inspections. You are going to be able to send a drone to Home Depot to get a screw driver," he noted.

He said that "this is in five or 10 years”.

Scientists conceive new beneficial applications for these aircraft, including goods delivery, infrastructure inspection, search and rescue, and agricultural monitoring.

The sky could become increasingly crowded as personal and commercial uses of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), commonly called drones, become more popular,” Kopardekar pointed out.

In collaboration with companies like Google, Amazon, Lochheed Martin, Raytheon, Airware, DroneDeploy, Matternet, Cisco and Verizon, NASA is working towards an air traffic control system for small, low-altitude drones.

"We have 125 collaborators and it is growing," Kopadekar said.

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