1096
December 2014
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
PROFESSIONAL
INSIGHT
sort
Over the last several years, excitement has been growing at
the North Pole among Santa’s Elves about creating a Drone
Section (aka “Section D”). The creation of this new depart-
ment would complement the current North Pole Depart-
ments, “Section S” (sleigh), “Section R” (reindeer), “Section
T” (technology), and the all-important “P-Section” (presents).
However, within all the excitement, there is of course, a bit
of debate. The North Pole Press Corp was able to secure key
interviews with some of the leading elves involved in this
major Unmanned Santa Systems controversy.
The Chief Elf (whose identity cannot be disclosed) put it
this way: “We have never before been able to give Santa a
tool that is so scalable, so easy to maneuver, so flexible to
manage, and that fills a gap between what we have right
now for delivering toys and what we see as our future
needs.” On the other hand, many elves say that things are
“working just fine, so why try to fix what is not broken?”
Rudolph’s handler, who is, what is now becoming known as,
an “elf traditionalists” said, “Look, don’t all deserving kids
already get their toys on time?”
When asked exactly how Santa plans to incorporate UAS
into North Pole operations, Santa’s Chief Elf Technologist
refused to say. Instead, she said, “North Pole operations
are magic, and we don’t disclose the inner workings of how
magic is done here at the North Pole. Do you want to spoil
Christmas for everyone?” As the interview progressed, she
softened up a bit and said, “think about researching where
kids live, about planning efficient and flexible routing, think
about Santa’s sleigh as the mother ship and, well, I’ve said
too much already…”. This one comment from the Chief Elf
Technologist convinced me that there was more to find out
about the use of UAS at the North Pole. There is clearly sin-
cere and direct interest in this technology.
Next, I was able to secure an interview with Santa’s
head of security and he noted, “We have to be really careful
talking about this stuff. The Grinch already stole Christmas
once, and we can’t have that happen again.” Indeed, there
are rumors going around the North Pole that the Grinch
is experimenting with “drone technology.” Some say the
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Grinch plans to use a fleet of fixed wing drones to swoop
down from above and lift presents off Santa’s sleigh one by
one while in flight. Others say the Grinch is instead building
an army of rotary wing drones capable of maneuvering down
chimneys to steal presents after Santa delivers them. “On
the bright side of things,” Santa’s head of security stated,
“until the Grinch can figure out how to hack Santa’s brain,
our database of where kids live is safe – it’s completely of-
fline in the safety of the man himself, in Santa’s head.”
The story was really taking-off and achieved an extra di-
mension when talking to the average elf on Christmas Lane.
They say that things are not running as smoothly at the
North Pole as they appear. Lily Elf, a veteran of five Christ-
mases, says that Santa “does a great job of keeping things
on track” but that each year “we have more and more pres-
ents that we have to go back and redeliver, and the reindeer
are having near misses and are sometimes sliding off the
edge of rooftops.” Lily Elf’s friend, Fily Elf, said this: “You
wouldn’t believe the time and energy we spend fixing simple
mistakes that just a little bit of technology could have pre-
vented.”
Santa’s Chief Historian, Hily Elf, has a different opinion.
He said, “Technology is not the answer to everything. Some
problems are cultural.” He cited the example of when
Rudolph first came on the scene. His blinking nose
technology made a huge impact on North Pole operations.
But it wasn’t easy, he said: “At first, all the other reindeer
wouldn’t let him play in any reindeer games.” It was Santa
who had to show his leadership and force the cultural
change by asking, “Rudolph, with your nose so bright, won’t
you guide my sleigh tonight?” That changed everything.
Santa’s Chief Elf Technologist further
commented, “it’s not just UAS that we’re looking at. There is
a push to modernize North Pole operations in every possible
way – from putting RFID tags on presents to using GPS to
navigate around the globe.” Aily Elf, who is on Santa’s safe-
ty team and whose job it is to coordinate with FAA and oth-
er aviation authorities put it this way: “The skies, even on
Christmas Eve, are a lot more crowded today than they were
