“Drones overall will be more impactful than I think people recognize in positive ways to help society.”-Bill Gates. Drones are today being used for various purposes ranging from photography, surveillance and security, agriculture and so on, impacting the way we monitor and operate things around us. It is
transforming the industrial operations for the better. Let’s look at some of its applications.
Improving the agricultural sector
The measurement of the agricultural land and spraying of manure and other agricultural products is mostly done manually which consumes a lot of time and effort. This leads to complications such as untimely plantation of crops, improper management of water supply to the fields, mismanagement of fertilizers and seeds. The drones soar up the sky and scout the fields with ease. Agricultural drones, attached with multispectral images provide us with infrared images which can distinguish healthy crops and unhealthy crops. The amount of water, the amount of pests in the field can be monitored in hourly basis. Thus, we can see how drones have eased up the agricultural operations.
In the current scenario, drones are used by a few farmers who have a vast area of agricultural land or have a large number of livestock. The small scale farmers do not use this much because they do not how to use the technology. There seems to be a gap between farmers and the technology in general. The government of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are currently employing the services of drones in farming. But in order to improve the reach of drones towards the entirety of farmers, there needs to be a structure laid down by the government. The drones need to be popularized and made available to the common farmers through this structure.
Changing the film industry and photography
“You have to be very prudent with what you are doing and what sort of tools you are utilizing. Drones have become a wonderful new tool in filmmaking.” - Werner Herzog. Drones became popular because it was a cheaper version for a helicopter. And then it has been an important part of the industry. The camera quality has been improved. The drones are used to take from-the-sky shots and then a person would catch it on its landing and can continue filming. Innovative creators, photographers are giving new applications for drones every day. But, as anything, drones needs to undergo evolution to become better. The battery life of a drone is not efficient for a 12 hour shoot. Many drones have to be used for a long shoot. This would increase the cost of rent for week long shooting. Also, the film-makers say that it is difficult to use drones on an off-weather day. The quality of video is not great when it is raining. A gusty wind would blow the drone away, leaving the film-maker with loss of time, money and effort.
Although drones such as DJI Inspire 2, DJI Matrice 600 pro or the Freefly ALTA are being used, it is understood that it may take some time before the above mentioned problems are rectified since anything would need to undergo evolution in order to become better. As it becomes cheaper to manufacture the drones, the usage of drones would become common among the farmers and also in other fields.
