Drones: Applications, uses and significance for the future

Close to the military use of drones is the use of drones for surveillance and security. The ability to control a large area helps keep an eye on many people at once and increases safety. It is useful not only for monitoring private properties, but also for commercial events. 

The significantly rising costs of security from human personnel, makes drones an economical choice. In addition, the price of drones and the systems they require are falling. An important advantage of drone surveillance is the low failure rate, which is much lower than that of human surveillance. 

Drone mapping is used to create a 3D map by taking images from different positions and angles, known as photogrammetry. This technology has already been used in the past. Thus, 90% of the known maps are created by photogrammetry.   

Nowadays the energy crisis means that agricultural technology is more dependent than ever on efficiency. Luckily new opportunities are emerging through the various types of software. One of them can track the health of plants based on photogrammetry and compare it with other parts of the soil. With this system, agriculture could save 85% of planting costs and it can also save energy costs and water. In this way, it will also help to increase sustainability in agriculture.    

Just lately, more and more people order their goods directly to their homes. In 2021 alone, there were more than 1.8 billion packages in Germany alone. 

To relieve the parcel deliverers, parcels can be delivered from the air by drone. Now drone delivery is by no means economical. At the improvement, however, the method is being tested in various areas, initially only for light parcels.    

There are currently two options for delivery: The first is for a human to fly the drone remotely. The second - and more efficient - method is AI. This is a program that delivers parcels autonomously and without human intervention. Because of the manpower savings and accuracy, this may become the future way of package delivery. 

With the hot summers we have been experiencing more and more frequently in recent years, severe forest fires are on the rise. Often, especially in impassable terrain, helicopters are used to fight the fires. 

Drones are also used to fight fires, but do not put out fires. They are more suited to analyse the area by scanning the burning environment. They can then create a heat map to assist firefighters. To that end, they can be very useful in searching for people who have been trapped by fire or are in other distress.  

The use of drones in firefighting is a great advance for safety in such hazardous situations. Therefore, they will be irreplaceable in the future and will be constantly developed further. 

Visual information is very important to construction companies and their customers, so drones can help here in several stages as well. 3D mapping technology, which is also used in agriculture, is also a good solution for many areas in construction: before the actual construction, it can draw a map of the site and the building for the customer's presentation and highlight safety issues. Later, it can inform the customer about the condition of the building. 

By analysing the environment and the ground, costs can be avoided, and efficiency can be increased. It also saves a lot of time, as it can perform the same analysis as a human within 20 minutes. 

Drones have a variety of applications in different specific areas. The efficiency and low cost promise a bright future and make drones an affordable technology. Applications such as firefighting, search and rescue, agriculture, and perhaps delivery services are already unimaginable without drones. In the future, the variety of uses for drones will continue to grow.