Drone technology, while not brand new, has taken some significant strides over the last few years. Listed below are several things that you can look for in the near future.
Because they have the ability to transport small items from one location to another quickly and without having to worry about personnel costs, labor strikes, or traffic, drones will most likely be utilized by many large companies to deliver packages in the near future. However, gaining the legal go-ahead could be a lengthy process.
Many drones today can already carry boxes weighing a few pounds, but corporations such as Amazon want to be able to load their drones with up to 14 pounds. In addition, the drone would only be used for flying short distances. Your packages would be shipped to a local distribution center and the drones would pick up and deliver packages from here.
Drones would not typically interfere with aircraft because they are not allowed to fly above 400 feet and thereby would not share the same airspace. However, airports and other aircraft zones would need to establish proximity boundaries to prevent the drones from crashing into aircraft during takeoff and landing.
It is commonly wondered if the drone could be used to drop packages off in the back garden or near the steps of the front porch. Drones guided by GPS are currently accurate to approximately one yard, so lowering packages to the ground wherever you want them delivered shouldn’t be too much of a problem. However, this will depend a great deal upon the weather. Drones that have either four or eight propellers are thought to be stable enough to deliver packages, but their ability to switch from fixed wing flight to helicopter-like hovering has yet to be proven.
A recent breakthrough in getting drones set for delivering packages occurred recently when Amazon was given legal permission to test drones carrying packages weighing up to 1 ½ pounds below 400 feet out of the line of sight of the pilot and within close proximity to people and buildings.
Recently, federal researchers looking for clues to help sustain healthy populations of whales used drones to help them gather information on the often elusive animals. The team of researchers were able to use a hexacopter drone to take photographs of the dolphins and whales they were studying, something that has never been done before in the region of the coasts of the Hawaiian Islands. By using the drone, the research team was able to get much better pictures of the groups of whales than usual, because the animals were not disturbed by the boat. The researchers hope to be able to use drone technology to track and photograph rare and elusive species of marine life, such as the beaked whale. These sea creatures dive to insanely deep levels and only return to the surface of the water approximately once every hour, which makes them incredibly hard to study and identify.
Drones have been in commercial use since the 1980s, but only now that laws are becoming less strict are practical uses for the drones becoming possible. Now, drones can be used to help support farmers all throughout the process of growing crops.
First, the drone can be used to map a precise 3D image of the field for soil analysis. This data can be put into a computer to determine the optimum seed planting pattern.
The drone can then be used to plant the seeds. Recent studies have shown that planting costs can be decreased by 85 percent when drones are used to do the planting. The drones will shoot pods containing plant nutrients and the seeds directly into the soil, thereby giving the plant everything it needs to get going.
Drones can then be used for spraying the crops, completing the task up to five times faster than spraying the crops with traditional machinery. The drones make use of distance measuring equipment such as laser and ultrasonic echoing to adjust the altitude based on the geography and topography and thereby avoiding collisions.
Drones that have been equipped with multispectral, hyperspectral or thermal sensors are able to determine which areas in a field need improvements or are becoming dehydrated. They can also be used to determine the relative health and density of the crop.
