Many sci-fi movies have featured futuristic cities with streams of flying cars buzzing around skyscrapers. However, in a lot of the more recent television shows such as The Expanse and West World, you see something a bit different. Instead of the flying cars, you see drones buzzing around the skyscrapers. This may be a more realistic depiction of what future cities will look like given how far drone technology has advanced and the many different practical uses that are still evolving out of them ever so rapidly. This article only covers a tiny fraction of the great advances in drone application that we are seeing but nevertheless, the following areas we are about to cover are sure to see more drone usage in the coming years.
Drones are more than mere flying objects with cameras. Their power of flight, compact design, and maneuverability allows them to get into places where humans cannot such as difficult to access and dangerous areas. Inspection work has been hugely profitable for both businesses and drone pilots eager to provide their services because of this. For instance, a store that needs to have its roof checked for storm damage can easily hire a drone pilot for much cheaper than a construction crew. A construction crew, contrarily, would have to rent an expensive lift to get their workers up on the roof to do the inspection. However, doing drone work eliminates the need for all of this with just one person taking some photos and getting it all done much more quickly.
In the past few years, drones have increasingly been used for manufacturing purposes. One of the reasons for this is because of regulations. Recently, the prohibition of drones being used out of visual sight has been lifted for drones that weigh more than 5 kilograms. These types of heavy drones are typically used for manufacturing. Therefore, the lifting of this restriction has opened many doors for drone use in manufacturing. Drones that are equipped with infrared and thermal technologies can be beneficial in checking on machines in factories and detecting when they are going to overheat. A drone can therefore alert a machine operator of when this is about to happen. The operator can therefore plan accordingly to avoid valuable downtime. Additionally, drones can survey assembly lines and workers to ensure things are working in a safe and efficient manner.
Another ever-expanding area of drone use is delivery. These services have also taken great strides forward in recent years. It is estimated that in 2021, there were around half a million drone deliveries while in 2022, it is estimated that there were around 1.5 million drone deliveries, showing the increased use of the application. It is also estimated that there are about 2,000 drone deliveries worldwide and that there have been about 660,000 drone deliveries in the past 3 years. Most of these occur around the pacific islands. However, other not-so-off-the-grid places have made significant strides as well such as a Walmart in Arkansas that offers drone delivery for certain products within a 50-mile radius of the store.
Drones are also able to meet a wide variety of needs in agriculture such as mapping, surveying, crop dusting, and spraying. Some of the drones designed for crop surveying even have automatic flight paths and can use a GPS to automatically take shots of the target subject matter. Very large drones are now used to spray crops, and some are arguably cheaper and more precise at spraying crops than tractors. Growth in the drone agriculture industry is expected to continue and replace both traditional machinery and laborers.
Our sister company, Iler Aerial Imaging, offers a wide variety of drone services. We have over 30 years of experience and we are part 107 certified. We offer professional photo and video shooting and editing, commercial agriculture, and industrial inspection, lidar and 3D mapping services, and more. Check out some of our work at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi7Ty5uhCR8DWCULNRov7dQ. To get a quote about some of our services you may be interested in, please call us at 440-462-4537!
