Drones: extremely frightening or incredibly useful

Drones also draw attention to privacy concerns for many. Electronic Specifier highlights the two extremes of drone applications, weighing up whether they are indeed extremely frightening or incredibly useful.

Drones saving lives

Drones are saving lives around the world. Key applications include search and rescue, surveillance and awareness and delivering supplies. Drones can be used within disaster scenarios to identify the cause, especially in hard to reach, high risk areas.

Thermal imaging cameras can also locate those that need rescuing in disasters, or those who are missing persons, maximising chance of survival.

Drones can be deployed in places that are difficult to be accessed on foot, or by helicopters, making them suitable for providing surveillance and awareness. They can assess the scale and impact of a disaster easily, providing real time data.

Drones can also re-establish communication after disasters, delivering essential items to those in need.

Ultimately, drones are used by the emergency services to reduce risk to human life, provide added intelligence to unknown situations and make services more efficient.

Urban air mobility

Autonomous drones are set to be so safely integrated into the air space above cities that they can routinely carry people as well as deliver goods. This demonstrates yet another positive application.

The urban air mobility market is set to reach $1.5 trillion in the next 20 years. eVTOL (electrical vertical take-off and landing) aircrafts will lead this technology.

eVTOLS are powered by electricity and take off and land vertically whilst flying horizontally like an airplane. This mode of transport is set to improve mobility by transporting people and goods.

Military use of drones

A key disadvantage of drones comes from military use of killing drones, armed drones and video surveillance systems. Drones are used by the military for combat missions, research, development, supervision and as target decoys. Weaponised drones armed with shotguns, capable of using machine vision to identify targets are also used, as well as drone machine guns, drones with missiles and autonomous killer drones.

For many, the future of drone warfare is terrifying. The thought of killer drones hunting down a human target, or a swarm of tiny robots in the sky capable of dive-bombing, make drones a very real threat to ground troops.

Alternatively, drone supporters have claimed that drones make war safer for civilians and soldiers by making it more technical and precise.

Drones provide the opportunity for traditional crimes, including harassment, stalking, and killing to be committed, heightening the opportunity for people to do problematic things. These vary from flying where they can threaten civilians to invading people’s privacy.

Privacy

Privacy and safety concerns still exist for many members of the public. In many countries, drones were used to monitor lockdown restrictions, and in the US were used to monitor Black Lives Matter protests, which has caused some privacy concerns. Drones can easily collect images and recordings without drawing attention, making it easy for technology to be utilised by the public and film others without their permission.

What’s more, drones are used by the police to detect how many people are living at an address, using thermal sensors.

Although many have privacy concerns, in the UK there are strict laws when it comes to operating drones. Anyone wishing to fly a drone mut pass a theory test to receive a flyer ID (unless the weight is under 250g). The person responsible for a drone must also register for an operator ID.

Information about protecting people’s privacy is also available to drone users, urging them to respect other people and their privacy. Legally, drone users must keep a minimum horizontal distance of 50m between their drone and people, creating a no-fly zone. Also, drone operators must ensure the drone is at least 150m away from residential, recreational, commercial, and industrial areas.

It is important to feel comfortable in a world with invasive technology that drones pose, to always put safety first. This strict set of UK guidelines is in place to ensure the safety and privacy of the public and makes it easier to monitor the behaviour of bad actors.

Transformative technology

AI developments have helped drones to accelerate across multiple industries, and drones are here to stay, with an exciting future ahead for drone technology. Some applications can seem frightening, and it is vital that responsibility and safety remain paramount to all industries and individuals utilising drones. However, the incredibly useful applications of drones are clear, and as technology continues to advance, drone applicatons and capabilities will only improve.