Drone Overview

A commercial drone is small remote control flying device typically propelled by multi or quad rotors for dexterous omni-directional flight and stability. Aside from the physical controller, these devices usually come with software that allows it to interface with modern smart phones. The software provides features such as additional piloting, settings, diagnostics (battery, altitude), and a view of the on-board camera. Software in the drone can generate topographic maps and other geographic data which can be viewed from the phone screen. Drones are a useful tool for agriculture and land surveying, allowing farmers to track the location of their grazing livestock with leisure.   

While pleasant as a toy, the real charm of drones for hobbyists lies in film and photography. With a drone, it is possible to take video from perspectives and heights that were never before possible for your average layman. Vacation photography is popular, but the strength of drones are highlighted in sport and wilderness documentary. A drone will be able to follow a skier down a mountain, granting a grand sense of scale to the height and speed of the athlete. In hazardous terrain conditions such as dense rain forest or a cave network where freely manipulating a camera would be impossible, drones allows a cameraman to fly above obstacles and get perfect shots of the environment. Before, professionals would have to rely on far more expensive and cumbersome alternatives like a plane, balloon, helicopter, or even zipline for these unique aerial shots.

Mentioned earlier, drones also serve practical uses in area surveillance and remote sensing. They are used for disaster relief and search&rescue, tracking the spread of wildfire and scanning wide areas with infrared vision to look for people. Because drones can travel to locations where humans cannot, they can even ferry medical supplies to those temporarily out of reach to rescuers.

While laws and regulations must be enforced against any invasions of privacy, I believe the advance of drone technology is essential for sports, film, aviation, and environmental career fields and will eventually become a mainstay in modern life.

Later, I will divulge further into the commercial and professional aspect of drones.