Drone Applications
Agriculture
Drones have proven successful in reducing costs and improving performance on farms in Japan, South Korea, and Australia. The Drones have the ability to hover closer to the ground than traditional airplanes can, allowing them to spray fertilizers and pesticides over crops with more accuracy. The drones increase plant yields by revealing plant health and growth.
Weather Surveillance
Teams are developing drones that can be used to track and monitor hurricanes. The drones will have the ability to remain with the hurricane and collect data that can be used to improve forecasting in order to save lives. Some of the drones will be able to use wind water, allowing them to function with limited power.
Ground Surveillance
Drones have the ability to survey landscapes, taking thousands of images that can be used to develop 3-D maps. They can also be equipped with heat-sensing technology that archaeologists have used to discover structures hidden under the desert.
Wildlife Preservation
Conservation groups are using drones to monitor wildlife populations, as well as their distributions and density. The groups can use these images to lobby the government to establish wildlife preservation areas. Drones provide the ability for these groups to not only update animal data more frequently, but they can also developing the mapping significantly faster. The groups are also using the drones to constantly monitor sanctuaries for poachers.
Search and Rescue
Drones can use their heat-sensing capabilities to find lost individuals in remote locations. Drones greatly reduce the time and cost involved in standard search and rescue missions.
Medical Supply Deliveries
In addition to everyday commercial deliveries, humanitarian groups are developing drone technology that can be used to deliver medical supplies and vaccines to remote locations. DHL is currently using drones to deliver medicine and other urgently needed goods to a small island off the coast of a harbor town in Germany.
Expanding Internet Connectivity
Facebook and Google have each launched initiatives to bring reliable internet connectivity to remote locations around the world.
Law Enforcement
Michigan State Police have been given authorization to use drones in support of public safety efforts, including surveillance and photographing of crash scenes resulting in the ability to clear and reconstruct the areas quicker. The police have also been able to use the drones to monitor fires and aid in the determination of cause and origin.
Drone-vertising
Drone-vertising, which means using drones to deliver marketing messages, is something we could soon be seeing more of. This summer, PSFK reported on Russian agency Hungry Boys launch of the country’s first ‘drone-vertising’ campaign. The agency used ten drones to fly real life banners in the financial district of Moscow to promote Wokker, a Chinese takeaway restaurant.
Military
The US military uses drones for two types of missions: surveillance and targeted lethal drone strikes on individuals. The first type surveillance is accomplished by high flying drones that are silent to the observed targets on the ground. The other type of mission is to eliminate any enemy target in any location (and possibly anyone else in the target’s immediate area). “Currently, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) oversees the targeted killing program which utilizes drones to strike individuals across the globe including in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and the Philippines.”
Additional Business Uses
- Trimble's UX5 drone weighs 5.5 pounds and performs precision aerial surveys by taking digital photographs.
- VDOS plans to fly Aeryon SkyRanger drones to inspect flare stacks for Shell Oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Clayco plans to fly Skycatch multi-rotor drones to survey construction sites.
- Woolpert plans to fly Altavian Nova Block III drones, which weigh 15 pounds and are 5 feet long with a 9-foot wing span, to map rural Ohio and Ship Island, Miss.