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| RMAX, Gallager, 2015 |
UAVs or Drones will have
the biggest impact on our society over the next few decades. While unmanned maritime
and ground systems will certainly continue to evolve and shape those
industries, drones are becoming more and more integrated into everyone’s daily
lives. The drone industry is expected to
create 100,000 additional jobs by 2025 (Drake, 2017).
I live in South Korea and
about a mile away is a company that trains pilots to operate unmanned
multirotor and helicopters, such as the RMAX, for crop dusting and
agricultural surveys. The RMAX has been
used in Japan for nearly twenty years, and it came to Korea about five years
ago. The university of California has
been using it to crop dust since 2013 (Gallagher, 2015).
 |
| UPS Drone, Stewart, 2017 |
Amazon, Google, 7-Eleven
and UPS are all attempting drone delivery. UPS successfully completed initial
trails early this year. The driver would
pull up to the start of a long rural driveway, load a package into an automated
drone and send it to deliver the package. Meanwhile the driver would continue
down the road to the next destination. The drone would deliver its package then
return to the truck, which is further down the road, land itself and dock into
a charging station. The driver could choose went to employ the drone and when
to hand deliver. When houses are directly
next to each other it makes sense to hand deliver, but when they are in the
country and separated by miles of road and then long driveways the drone delivers
and the driver moves to the next destination (Stewart, 2017).
 |
| Zipline, HSU, 2017 |
Zipline, a San Francisco
based company, is using fixed wing drones to deliver medical supplies in
Rwanda. It uses parachute drops to
deliver medical supplies to remote villages. Rwanda is developing its own
infrastructure with Zipline, leaving Zipline free to develop to project as needed.
In 2018 Zipline will introduce the same medial supply delivery system, but on a
larger scale, in Tanzania. They plan on
delivering to 1,000 hospitals around the country making almost 2,000 deliveries
per day. The Tanzanian government is
working with Zipline to achieve this (Hsu, 2017).
Drones are being
integrated into our lives more and more.
Search and rescue, hobbyists, wildlife management, delivery of goods and
medical supplies, video and photography shoots just to mention a few
industries. I’m personally excited to
see all the different ways drones are being used to help improve our
lives. If it’s flying a drone for fun,
racing with some buddies, conducting wildlife counts or delivering much needed
medical supplies drones are here to stay and will continue to grow and develop
as we discover new ways to integrate them.
References:
Drake, D. (2016, March
04). Drones Rising: Bringing the Economy Along with It. Retrieved October 06,
2017, from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-drake/drones-rising-bringing-th_b_9324278.html
Gallagher - May 5, 2015
10:12 pm UTC, S. (2015, May 05). Crop-dusting Unmanned Helicopter Gets Cleared
for Commercial Fight. Retrieved October 06, 2017, from https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/05/crop-dusting-unmanned-helicopter-gets-cleared-for-commercial-flight/
Stewart, J. (2017, June
03). UPS Tests the Future: A Drone-Slinging Delivery Van. Retrieved October 06,
2017, from
https://www.wired.com/2017/02/drone-slinging-ups-van-delivers-future/
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