Drones are changing the way people do many things, and are leading to a lot of great changes in so many different areas! Camera quadcopters are helping people find easier, more efficient, and cheaper ways of doing things, and this is helping the drone industry tremendously. BI Intelligence has estimated that drones sold to civilians (as opposed to commercial drones) as well as their accessories will make at least $12 billion in annual revenue by 2021, and that the sale of these products will shoot up from 10 million units (as of 2017’s rates) all the way up to 29 million by 2021—that’s nearly triple the number!
Below, I’ve highlighted three examples of ways that drones are already able to challenge everyday ways of doing things.
1. High-resolution 3D mapping
Drones can help surveyors map and analyze terrain that is too dangerous or time-consuming to survey manually. GPS technology that can be used in tandem with these drones makes surveying much easier than it was in the past.
Drones were actually used to survey the shifting sands in the Great Sand Dunes National park in Colordo—the highest dune, the Star Dune, is over 750 feet high, and so it would have been a nightmare to survey manually! Using drones allowed the dune to captured in a 3D image, thanks to the drone’s obtaining over 145 million data points to work from.
2. Emergency Services
Zipline, an American start-up, was profiled in August, 2017, by Wired because of their efforts to improve the lives of Rwandans. A young Rwandan woman was giving birth to her child, but was experiencing severe complications that could have been fatal: Zipline sent over a drone carrying platelets, red blood cells, and plasma to make sure that the woman had a better chance of surviving her complications.
Zipline’s drones are fixed-wing models that travel for 100 miles per charge, and can reach speeds of 70 miles an hour. Their success in Rwanda has led them to explore the possibility of using their drones in Tanzania to help patients there as well.
3. Remote Monitoring
Drones are also extremely useful when it comes monitoring things that are a hassle to visit in person as frequently as is needed. phys.org highlighted research that showed how drones are used to monitor natural gas and oil pipelines efficiently.
Drones allow leaks to be detected quickly, preventing potentially disastrous explosions and harmful effects on the surrounding areas. They are also extremely efficient and much cheaper than using helicopters to monitor pipelines. Drones can also catch acts of vandalism. Fixed-wing drones can monitor large areas because of their speed, whereas multirotor drones are great for monotiring smaller areas.
