DRONES: WHAT ARE THEY?

ABOUT

ASME IITR Chapter
2 min readFeb 5, 2023

A drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle that can be operated manually or autonomously to perform various tasks.

In recent years, Drones have become quite useful in both the public and defense sectors. They can perform various tasks such as package delivery, surveillance, mapping a terrain, etc. In recent times drone racing has become quite popular and many drone racing competitions are held worldwide.

Apart from their applications, drones are quite popular because they are easy to control and can be cheap as the lowest-priced drone will cost around 10k, making it fun to fly around these things with a camera attached.

There are many types of drones serving different purposes such as:

· Tricopters

· Quadcopters

· Hexacopters

· FPV Drones

WHERE ARE THEY BEING USED?

Law Enforcement Surveillance: Drones are commonly used by law enforcement agencies to monitor public safety progress. The police department, as well as the military agencies, use drones to monitor any suspicious activities that could signal safety risks to the affected community.

Visual Arts: Multimedia professionals use drones as an important tool to capture and record aerial images from above. Cinematographers, visual artists, and mass media cameramen also use drones to take aerial footage of live events.

Weather Forecasting: Meteorologists use drones to make more accurate forecasting regarding the current weather systems affecting a specific area.

In Military Applications Drones are used for purposes such as:

Military Espionage: Military facilities like monitoring systems have been improving with the help of the use of drones. The application of military drones aims to monitor suspicious activities that will be used for documentation by military officials for strengthening the evidence of illegal activity.

Unmanned Military Arsenal: During an armed conflict such as the war on terrorism in Syria, armed drones have been utilized by both the coalition forces and the members of the terrorist organizations. The application of unmanned military drones is to provide another firepower for the government’s armed forces.

Now for the fun part, Drones are used for racing and competitions such as The Drone Racing League, FAI World Drone Racing Championships where FPV Drones shine with their fast speed and precise maneuver.

Drones are also used in Drone Light Shows where drones synchronize to form different figures. A drone light show uses multiple, unmanned aerial drones, flying in a coordinated pattern for entertainment purposes.

CONCLUSION

The future scope of drone technology is massive. This technology is set to take on the world from agricultural drones to commercial drones to drone deliveries.

As Drone technology advances more potential drones can be utilized. They can be used in rescue operations, can be used in surveillance of the areas thus increasing security, and much more.

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ASME IITR Chapter
ASME IITR Chapter

Written by ASME IITR Chapter

The ASME Student Chapter at IIT Roorkee is an undergraduate club of students majoring in various fields of Engineering.