Drone technology: Working and Uses

“Drones overall will be more impactful than I think people recognize, in positive ways to help society.” - Bill Gates

 

Abraham Karem is the name that pops into our mind when we talk about the invention of drones. He is the founding father of drone technology. At the age of 14 he started building aircrafts and his love for aeronautics led him to be the man who found drones.

 

Drones are called “unmanned aerial vehicles” and to normal people they are a weapon or a tool used by military people. But now even normal people can use them. For purposes like- videography, surveillance, traffic monitoring, weather monitoring, agriculture etc.

 

One of the most recent uses of drone technology has been delivery services. During the covid pandemic medicines, food, basic necessities were delivered to people via drones. You must have seen or heard about it through the news. 

 

Drones do not have a big storage capacity but they have sufficient space to deliver the important necessary items to people. In this blog you will learn about drone technology and how it works along with its uses and real life applications.

 

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What is a drone?

 

Drones were developed for the purpose of aerospace and military. They are unmanned aerial vehicles that can remotely fly to different ranges. It can be outer space, disaster zones, the Arctic and even your door steps. 

 

So, the extremity of the location is of no significance as they can reach almost everywhere. The fun part is that on one hand you can find them delivering medicines at your doorstep and on the other you can see drones rescuing people from disastrous zones. 

 

They are safe and work with full efficiency. Obviously they are remote controlled as drones are robots. But being remote controlled comes with a benefit. Having no pilot or person operating it, a sense of security is there. Somehow this is the reason why this technology is able to reach every possible perimeter. 

 

This being said the overall autonomy of a drone can vary. Some are remote based while the others are so efficient that they can work through sensors. They have LIDAR detectors. Not every drone can travel to extreme heights and spaces. The drones that are close ranged can travel up to 30 miles. Whereas drones that are short range can travel up to 90 miles.

 

The drones that are used for intelligence purposes are mid ranged and they can cover a 400 miles perimeter easily. The “endurances” are the longest ranged drones that can travel up to 400 miles and almost 3000 feet in air.

 

Because of their remote controlling feature, drones are used to look out for any survivors or alive people in need of help in extreme disasters. Drones can also supply them with food and water. Some hobbyists use drones at home and work for recreational purposes, adventures, photography, and videos.

 

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Types of drones

 

• Single Rotor

 

These are like mini helicopters that run on electricity or gas. The single rotor(blade) helps to maintain stability so that it can fly long. Usually these drones are used for land surveys, researching erosion, looking out for storms etc.

 

• Multi Rotor

 

These are the tiniest and lightest in weight too. Being small in size limits their utility. They cannot fly far off. These are used by people for photography. These can hold cameras in them. Once a camera is installed or fitted, they can stay for 20-30 minutes in the air.

 

• Fixed wing

 

These are like airplanes. They have wings instead of rotors. They don’t work on electricity. Rather fuel is what is needed. They can run for almost 16 hours. As their size is huge they need runways like airplanes for take offs and ons. They are used by scientists for carrying heavy chemicals and stuff. Or by the military for strikes and wars. Carrying food and other things is being done by non profit organizations through these fixed wings helicopters.

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Drone Applications

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Uses of Drones

 

• Military

 

The UK and British government were among the very first ones that started using drones for military purposes. The reason was drones were small and a powerful weapon to spy on other countries. 

 

But now technology has enabled drones to be one of the best equipped weapons with lasers, sensors, thermal lighting and what not. MQ9- Reaper is a very popular drone used in the military. It can fly up to 50,000 feet and go unnoticed. It has missiles and many intelligence tools equipped.
 

 

• Photography

 

Drones can take a shot from the sky. It is a boon for the photographers. Aerial photo shoots are in trend now. Even though they are expensive, people are preferring them for the oomph factor. Special drones are designed to cater photography needs.

 

 

• Agriculture

 

Drones have helped the farmers in understanding their cropping and field patterns better. They can optimize their farms. Even seedings can be done. Field surveys can be carried out and even crop yield can be estimated. Drones have helped in saving the time of the farmers.

 

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• Rescue

 

Situations during disasters can take any turn. In the worst case scenarios it is better not to send humans to rescue people. Therefore, the alternative would be to send in drones. 

 

Drones that are battery operated or with built-in sensors can do this job perfectly. They can signal to alive people and then a rescue team can be sent depending on it. For example: During an avalanche, drones can signal to people that are caught in it.

 

• Wildlife and conservation

 

You can check out this video link given below to understand how drones have been an important tool for wildlife conservation. Poaching of animals done in Asian and African regions can be looked into. Poaching is a crime but people still poach animals for their skin, teeth, bones.

 

• Medicine

 

Have you ever wondered how difficult it would be to get medicines in remote areas? How about organ donations? People die because they don’t get organs for transplant within time. Now drones are used to supply organs and medicines in remote areas to save the lives of people. 

 

These are some of the real life applications of drones. But apart from these there are multitude of uses like in outer space by NASA, for playing, delivering groceries etc.

 

 

How do drones work?

 

Drones are very complex in the way they are built. The working of drones is an equally complex process. Let us see how drones work:

 

• VTOL

 

VTOL stands for vertical take off and landing. The multi rotor drones we discussed above are VTOL drones. This is because they fly and take off in a vertical direction.

 

• GNSS

 

GNSS stands for Global Navigation Satellite System. It is similar to GPS & GLONASS. Many drones can be operated via satellites as well as non-satellite modes. Both modes provide efficiency while in operation. 

 

The specialty of GNSS is that it has safe home return technology. Using which a drone can safely return back. In case there is low battery or loss of connection between drone and its controller GNSS can be initiated and drone will automatically return home.

 

• Ground Control stations

 

These are control stations that allow the drones to fly and the unmanned aerial system to operate. These control units can either be controlled by human personnel or through satellites.

 

• Payloads

 

Drones come in different sizes and they can carry payloads of different weights and sizes as well. Right from medication to weapons they can carry anything. Some carry 100 pounds worth, others only carry 10 pounds. It all comes down to the operators of drones to decide the payload for working.

 

• Data links

 

Transmission centres are called the data links. They use the radio frequencies to communicate. Data links are crucial for operators as they provide details like flight time, distance, speed, and altitude. A frequency of 2.4GHz is required for control and 5GHz for video communication.

 

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It was until 2016 when commercial businesses had to take licenses to possess and control drones. But now the government laws have mandated people to pass a test in order to use drones for commercial purposes. 

 

Irrespective of the utilities, there are many challenges that have to be overcomed about drones like its safety, military use, crashes etc.