The use of commercial drones appears to have a promising future, and this article will outline the top 6 applications for drone technology. Continue reading to discover more about this amazing technology that is transforming our world. The future of drones is bright. With the increasing popularity of drones, we can expect to see a lot more development in this field.
Drones are no longer just for military or commercial use. As a matter of fact, drones have found their way into almost every industry and are now being used by ordinary people for various purposes. We can expect to see new developments in this area in the future as well. Here are some of the things that you should expect from drones in the coming years:
What Is The Future Of Drones?
Drones are quickly integrating into society as a whole. In fact, during the past few years, they have aided in efforts to combat fires, find the missing, and even conserve the environment. It’s safe to predict that drones will be used in a variety of different ways as a result of a wide range of upcoming breakthroughs and new features.
Delivery Drones
Before using drones for delivery becomes popular, the technology is still in its infancy and faces many challenges. However, a few businesses have had significant success employing this technology. When Amazon’s then-CEO Jeff Bezos revealed plans for their drone delivery program through Amazon Prime Air, the company garnered media attention in 2013. Although their ambitions have somewhat halted, there are numerous businesses who are successfully using drones to deliver packages.
Drone delivery has a lot of advantages, especially in emergency situations where it may take longer to get crucial supplies delivered by conventional means. Companies that use drones in their logistics chain provide same-day delivery, particularly for items like food, groceries, takeout, and medical supplies. In terms of drone deliveries, China is in the lead. Businesses like JD.com, Alibaba, Meituan, and a host of others have already established several drone delivery networks, and many of their drones are capable of transporting huge items weighing hundreds of kilograms.
While drone deliveries are still in their infancy in the West, they are slowly advancing thanks to regulatory relaxation and technological advancement. In Australia, where they have completed over 100,000 drone deliveries in the previous three years and have collaborated with some large retailers for same-day drone delivery, Google’s parent firm Alphabet’s Wing drone delivery subsidiary has made remarkable strides.
Delivering essential supplies like medicine and medical equipment in distant locations where traditional distribution methods by road are challenging is one of the key areas where drone delivery has been quite helpful.
Zipline, a US-based firm that has a sizable presence in Rwanda and delivers essential medical supplies all around the nation, is one of the industry leaders in medical drone delivery. The COVID vaccine has also been distributed by drones to rural areas all over the world.
Uber Drones
The ability to fully operate an aerial vehicle autonomously is already a reality, albeit it might take a while before you can take off in your own personal passenger drone or taxi. This is the one I am most enthusiastic about.
The developing urban air mobility (UAM) sector, which will completely change how people move around cities, will be dominated by passenger drones. This market is expected to be worth $1 billion, and major aircraft firms like Boeing and Airbus already have plans to introduce their own completely autonomous passenger drones.
However, only three businesses—Volocopter, Ehang, and Joby Aviation—have currently made any significant strides in this field.
Volocopter, a German aerospace business founded in 2011, aims to dominate the UAM market with its cutting-edge eVTOL drones and related goods. Two passenger drones for air mobility and one for drone delivery have currently been developed. The VoloCity, a two-passenger drone with a range of 35 km and a speed of 110 kph, is one of the two-passenger drones. The VoloConnect can accommodate up to 4 passengers and has a greater range and faster speed.
There have already been test flights in a number of nations, including Singapore, Dubai, Germany, and Italy.
The other aerospace firm that has made significant progress for UAM vehicles is Ehang. They have conducted numerous successful test flights with their Ehang 216 passenger drone, which is fully autonomous and redundant. The Ehang 216 is a two-passenger passenger drone that has been tested in China, Indonesia, Dubai, Estonia, Spain, and Japan so far. It has a range of 35 km and a top speed of 130 km.
The last business I want to bring up is Joby Aviation, which was created in 2009 and will go public in 2021. This business has gotten a significant amount of capital from well-known companies like Toyota, Intel, and Uber. Their eVTOL is a remarkable vehicle with a top speed of 200 mph, a maximum range of 150 miles, and seating for 4 passengers plus the pilot.
Emergency Drone Services
Drone technology is used more and more for public safety activities, from search and rescue missions to managing disaster zones. Drones are having a big impact in search and rescue operations, for example. Drones have many advantages for search and rescue missions over using manned aircraft, including being deployed more quickly, being able to maneuver into tight spaces, having professional sensing equipment, and being simple to use. Drones are also less expensive and less rigid than using manned aircraft. Drones are also used in disaster management since they can map a large region quickly and easily, giving interested parties like first responders, law enforcement, and cleanup personnel a highly detailed birds-eye picture of the area that will allow them to proceed with greater knowledge and efficiency. Although it is not an exhaustive list because not everyone is aware of or will report on a drone-related rescue mission, DJI maintains an interactive map of incidents where drones have been used to help people. You can find it here, and it does demonstrate how frequently drones are used in emergency situations.
Drones for surveillance and security
Law enforcement, commercial security companies, and even private individuals are already using drones to assist with security and surveillance. Law enforcement is using these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as a tool for information gathering, which might be useful in high-crime regions. Drones can also be used to keep an eye on crowds on the ground for threats or unlawful activity. For instance, police use drones to closely monitor the audience at huge concerts or protests. As a result, they can look for any criminal activities without risking their lives.
Drones can be used to scan and secure very important locations, including airports, seaports, building sites, and sensitive areas. This is accomplished by automatically deploying drones through a trigger or at predetermined intervals. Security officers will have access to the live video feed and be able to respond swiftly and forcefully if a problem is found.
Since they are transportable, these ground stations may be readily moved to locations with security vulnerabilities. Many security drones, like those made by Easy Aerial, can be attached to a mobile ground station and provide round-the-clock observation.
Drone technology has several advantages when used for security, some of which include routine patrols, tracking intruders and alerting security personnel, decreasing labor expenses, coupled with cutting-edge remote sensing technology, and minimizing hazards to workers.
Drones Used in Agriculture
The usage of drones in agriculture is very much in the future, and the precision farming technology that has been embraced in many nations is already producing some excellent results.
A variety of agricultural applications have used drones. From finding and mapping irrigation systems to tracking crop health and growth. Drones can be used to spray crops, which has additional advantages. Some of them even come with spreaders, which will help farmers plant seeds and spread mulch more precisely. Farmers are gradually starting to employ these drones, but China is where they are more prevalent and the advantages are already clear.
Farmers can regularly monitor the health of their crops, notice insect infestation and disease much quicker, and take the required actions to rectify these concerns as soon as possible because these drones are entirely autonomous and easier to deploy.
Many drones have been developed expressly for precision farming; they either come with or can be fitted with various sensors that will enable farmers to collect various sorts of plant and soil data and pinpoint problems down to the centimeter level. Accurate data collection will aid in better decision-making, accurate crop growth prediction, decreased use of hazardous chemicals, and increased crop yield.
Read this BBC article to learn how farmers in El Salvador are for the first time saving their sugar crane crop thanks to drone technology, as well as how one South African farmer cut pesticide use by 30%, to see the beneficial benefits drone technology is having on agriculture.
Drones That Follows You
One of the most exciting developments in drone technology is the quadcopter that can follow you around. Snap’s Spectacles camera attached to a DJI Spark follows you around wherever you go. It’s great for capturing footage of your action sports adventures or for taking selfies with friends and family members in front of landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge or Eiffel Tower.
