Few centuries ago, Flying was just a fantasy for writers & poets and had no space in realistic stories and novels. That all changed with a small event when two brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright flew their dream machine “wright flyer” in the sky of North Carolina, America on December 17 ,1903. Ever Since that event, the face of world transportation changed drastically and world became closer to each other. Today (2020) about 110 thousand flights fly daily on average carrying about 13 million commuters per day. As this technology is getting better with continuous iteration, newer technology is getting integrated to it and increasing the scope of aerial vehicles from a commuting means to a tool of research and study. One of the most commonly used and evolving aerial vehicle technology is Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology with a very promising future. Let’s get introduced to this technology and its implication in different fields
Just like they abbreviate, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are those flying Devices where the Pilot controlling the flight controls the flight without being inside it. The pilot can be a person or a computer Transmitting the signals to direct the flight through a transmitter to a receiver in the vehicle or pre- program the flight through lines of code. This ability to control the flight with a computer makes flight extremely precise and risk free to conduct flight in dangerous areas and situations. Also, as human controlling the flight is not essential to be inside the vehicle, UAV can be made very portable as well as affordable compared to Manned Aerial Vehicles (MAVs). To get more familiar with these types of vehicle, let’s get introduced to it using commonly used term: Drones.
Most of us know Drones as a flying device to capture a great aerial footage, shoot vlogs and take selfies. But in fact, there’s more to the implications that Drones are having in today’s world. What if I tell you Drones can predict the harvest from a field, tell the health condition of plants in field, smell the gases in the atmosphere, deliver your goods, conduct rescue in disaster hit areas, guard the national border and much more which we’ll be discussing today. But for understanding how that works, let’s dive into the basic information about drones, their type and their components.
Types of Drones
Generally, we can distinguish two types of Drones:
- Multi-rotor drones
- Fixed-wing
Multi-rotor drones look more like a helicopter but have multiple rotors just like their name suggests. Rotors are basically fan like structures that spins to create thrust enough to carry the weight of Drones. Relative Speed of each rotor is varied for the movement control purpose in these types of drones. There can be different number of rotors in multi-rotor drones. Common types are tricopter, quadcopter, hexacopter and octocopter referring to systems with 3, 4, 6 and 8 rotors respectively.
Fixed wing drones look like an airplane and can be identified by their rigid wing. Because of this rigid wing, they cannot do vertical lifts. Instead, they glide to higher altitudes.
As these two types of drones exist, there must be some implication of each type of drone as per the situational requirement. A table is constructed below to illustrate the drone type with their corresponding implication:
Components of a Drone:
For a Drone to complete any intended task, functioning of certain components is very essential. Obviously those component varies with the purpose of UAV missions but basic components of a Drone for a successful and functional UAV mission are enlisted below :
Now as we are familiar to the Basic components of a Drone. Let’s have a thorough look into how this technology can be used in different fields other than video making and filming:
Express Shipping and Delivery:
As we know that Drones are equipped with GPS in them and flights can be computer programmed. So, it’s the matter of precise GPS system and Drone friendly flight regulation before they can be used in shipping and delivery industry by programming the delivery flight to the destination using built-in GPS system where drones able to carry sufficient pay-loads can be used.
Disaster Risk and Emergency Management:
Disaster Risk planning as well as Emergency rescue operations can be carried out using drones. High resolution images and LIDAR data captured from Drones can be used to map any entire region to produce a Disaster Risk Management Plan as Flood Mapping, Landslide Vulnerability mapping, Fire hazard mapping etc. can be spatially done using data produced from drones.
Also, Thermal sensors can be used in human body detection and rescue operations. Chemical Sensors “Mechanical Nose” are widely used during rescue operation to find out real time breathability of air during hazardous accidents like Fire, chemical leakage etc.
Geographic Mapping:
Many of the Civil Engineering Construction projects like Hydropower and Roads needs a good and very precise geographical mapping. But many of such places are very remote and difficult for human beings to access for surveying. Those places can be easily mapped very precisely using LIDAR and RGB sensors facilitating the designers with precise data for better infrastructure design.
Construction Inspections:
Civil Structures cannot be Inspected very easily as there are many critical but in-accessible places like place underneath the decking of the bridge over a large river and faces of Dams. Condition and Quality of Construction in those in-accessible places can be easily known and measured using 3D mapping Sensors in Drones to give good Visual representation of the structures for inspection.
Agriculture:
Agriculture sector can be revolutionized using drones. Using Spectral Sensors, Crop health can be easily determined on the basis of wavelength of light reflected by the crops. Also, the weeds can be easily detected by training the computer with the help of training sample pictures of weed & crops which helps in locating unnecessary weeds using built in GPS system. Also, the distribution of irrigational water can be computed using thermal sensors on the drone. Thermal Sensors can also help in Soil Moisture mapping and disease mapping in agricultural farms. For Large animal farms, animals and their location can be mapped and monitored over certain time interval using RGB sensors.
Military and Law enforcement:
One of the biggest evolution of Drone technology has been seen on Military and defense front. Being used as target decoys for combat missions, research & development and for border supervision, drones have been part of the military forces worldwide. Drones will play a vital role in the resolution of future conflicts and in the replacement of the human pilot as these UAVs are very precise for the flight planned and reduces the human loss.
Conclusion:
To conclude,there can be many other fronts where this technology can be used. As this technology is evolving rapidly, there’s no denying that the future jobs will require more of flight planners and remotely sensed data analyzers than pilots and surveyors.
All the images in the article are by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC