The Festo Sky_liner story is compelling:

It takes a fair amount of skill to fly a kite. However, thanks to its Sky_liner project, Festo has become the first company to demonstrate that it is possible to achieve fully automated control with the aid of mechatronics, therefore tying in a new development with its core competency of automation using moving air.

Wow, if they can do this then I can see actually bringing a kite to my next picnic. Then I read the next paragraph and noted:

The two kites are operated automatically indoors, using servo motors and artificial wind.

If they were automating flight with genuinely fluky and unpredictable (e.g. real-world) conditions I think they could use the term “automation” more accurately. If you have to create a special environment for something to work properly, it should not be considered a complete demonstration of “fully automated control”.

Imagine a fully automated security control system. Now imagine artificial network traffic…