Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) is no longer part of science fiction, but is rapidly becoming part of our everyday lives. The numbers speak for themselves:
1,563,263 Drones Registered
1,117,900 Recreational Drones Registered
441,709 Commercial Drones Registered
171,744 Remote Pilots Certified (UAS, March 10, 2020)
Not only are these flying robots increasing in sheer numbers, but also in complexity.
It is hardly an exaggeration to claim that drones have the potential to transform the way things operate in our world today.
It is our belief that drones and robotics (high-tech) are still in the early stages of technology as people are beginning to integrate unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology to their daily lives and jobs. This means that drones are no longer just for the “pro” users or people who use them as adult toys. We have now entered the market, and many businesses are excited to use the capabilities of these devices.
You can see it basically covers almost every sector of life with more new uses coming out each week. While many people are amazed as Amazon is beginning to unleash an army of delivery drones on the world, we need to keep in mind that these flying robots can do so much more than just deliver packages. In fact, drones have grown from a toy to a life-saving tool. It is also inspiring the next generation of scientists and technologists.
Two of the reasons these unmanned flyers are such efficient workers is because they can hover high off the ground and hover low to the ground and thus are able to carry out more difficult and precise work.
Many of the infrastructure jobs were originally done by airplanes and helicopters. Not only are the drones much more agile (and thus multifaceted in their use), but also significantly cheaper. Because using airplanes and helicopters is also very time consuming since they have to fly in from other locations, they are not always available.
One of the best new uses this year for drones was using a large drone to de-ice a wind turbine. The drone with 4 pods (which carries the de-icer) and the drone is also equipped with a long power lead so it has power all the time and can stay in the air until the job is finished. The other option is to have the drones refill the de-icer pods. Such new technology is a very cost efficient way of clearing the wind turbine of ice.
The following are 35 reasons why you should be interested in drones:
- Coronavirus
- Delivery System
- Unmanned Cargo Transport
- Aerial Photography
- Disaster Management
- Search and Rescue Operations
- Geographic Mapping of Inaccessible Terrain and Locations
- Precision Crop Monitoring
- Law Enforcement
- Control Surveillance
- Storm Tracking and Forecasting Hurricanes and Tornadoes
- Agriculture
- Forestry
- Fishing & Hunting
- Surveying
- Construction, Building
- Safety Inspections
- Infrastructure
- Utilities
- Mining
- De-Icing
- Recreational Use and Entertainment
- Sports
- Law Enforcement
- Military
- Special Events and Family Fun Occasions
- Journalism
- Marketing
- Fire Fighting
- Imaging Structures
- Counting Stockpiles
- Monitoring Weather Patterns
- Environment & Conservation
- Insurance
- Media, Movies &Videos
Drone usage in search and rescue is growing rapidly. Drones are being used more and more in these mission critical sectors. Fire Departments, Lifeguards, Mountain Rescue, First Responders are big users of drones. This sector knows the value of drones in finding and rescuing people as quickly as possible with less injuries and loss of life of fire-fighters, lifeguards, etc.
Here are just a few of these positive uses for drones in this sector:
- Very recently drones dropped lifebuoys to swimmers who were in trouble.
- Search and Rescue teams (SAR) fly drones with cameras and thermal sensors to find hikers, mountaineers, missing children, etc. in trouble.
- Police, Fire Crew and Rescue teams use drones with thermal vision cameras to find missing persons at night or in burning buildings.
- Disaster regions use drones to get an overall picture of the extent of damage to property, infrastructure, telecoms, find people and help with the decision to allocate resources.
- Life-Guards use drones over beaches, keeping an eye on swimmers and watching out for sharks.
- Finding missing persons. Neighbors and communities have found missing persons using drones.
Rescue drones don’t have to be a huge cost. The Mavic 2 Enterprise comes with an extended port for mounting a dual spotlight, loudspeaker or beacon making it perfect for inspections, search and rescue missions, fire response and more.
The list above is only the tip of the iceberg!
Here we see some of the numerous areas where drones can expand our businesses while they also help our nations’ health crisis with their delivery system which gives us limitless opportunities. Drones also enable us to take proactive measures to protect our nation’s future health and safety, and potentially minimize the lives lost to this virus and take proactive measures to guard against anything our health crisis of this caliber in our future.
This list above not only points out what drones are currently being used for and it doesn’t even scratch the surface of how drones will be needed for our current Coronavirus crisis both now and in the future.