The surging technological advancements has tremendously given rise to many innovations in diverse fields and similarly to a broader extent the drone technology has its prevalence and widespread applications in several sectors that are perceiving immense growth presently. Drones are bringing the next mass tech revolution and various sectors are riding through this new wave. Drones are formally known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) which is an unpiloted aircraft that are able to carry out many innovative range of tasks from a small scale to larger scales which can be large as an aircraft or small as the size of your hand. UAV is a flying robot that can be controlled remotely ( with pilot intervention) or autonomous drones ( without pilot intervention) through software controlled flight plans comprising of sensors, infrared cameras, GPS, laser etc.

Remotely controlled drones

Here the drones are controlled by remote ground control systems which also referred to as a ground cockpit. Drones do not require a pilot onboard whilst a drone controller works by sending a radio signal from the remote control to the drone which manipulates the action of the drones. There are numerous products around the world that are Wi-Fi enabled so that they can be remotely accessible and can be broadcasted over a computer or smart devices. These are more common, possess wide range of applications and allowed in all categories unlike the autonomous drones which are allowed in only in a specific category. With the remote control abilities, drones monitor locations, communicate possible hazards and notify threatening conditions , they are also more economical to afford. They are used in surveillance, rescue, in agriculture to monitor the crop growth and detect pests, capturing high quality aerial photographs, film making, construction, mapping etc.

Latest autonomous drone technology and challenges

Autonomous drones is the juncture where AI and drone technology meets, as it works so with the help of artificial intelligence, powered navigation and operational software, enabling it to cope up with all kinds of unforeseen and unpredictable emergency situations. An autonomous drone is a type of UAV, but a UAV is not necessarily an autonomous drone. It is a UAV that can operate and conduct a safe flight without any human intervention. It can take off, flight, establish the missions and land completely autonomously with pre-determined routes defined by the drone operator. It sounds fascinating right? Delivery drones are usually autonomous that are used to transport food, packages or goods at your doorstep. Markets and sectors may use autonomous drones to perform work in broad fields that are difficult to analyze swiftly by people. It also makes data collection easier by its integrated software and solutions.

Drones that can be used for commercial purposes have a huge market. Its TAM is expected to be worth 100 billion dollars (total addressable market). Drones might thus be utilized in a variety of areas, including industry, agriculture, scientific data collection, inspection and security monitoring, managing photographs, delivery, defense, disaster management etc. Even though autonomous drones are very unique in operation there are also many challenges linked with it because it is harder to design one that works all on its own like handling adverse weather, flying in urban populated areas, managing intricate situations etc. Right now drones can achieve conditional automation, where an intervention is necessary to monitor how the vehicle is doing on its own and there are less widely available fully developed autonomous drones as of 2020.

In a big push for drone technology, government eases standards

The Ministry of Civil Aviation released certain draft policy for drones recently which brings more safety features and appears to address some problems in India’s nascent unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry regarding the compliance norms outlined earlier. “On the premise of basis of trust, self-certification, and non-intrusive monitoring”, the draft policy reduces the number of approvals required by applicants. It brings down the number of forms from 25 to 5 under the UAS Rules, and reduces fees for certain approvals. This draft policy has got approbation from the industry.

Many fields are revolving around the effectual drone technology and the future of drones and their distinctive applications are much exciting and obliging!