Drones technology has become crucial in the time when we cannot be close to each other and when we need to limit contact and interactions.
Drones (UAV – unmanned aerial vehicles) couldn’t break into the ‘hot tech’ for a long time. It was many times categorized as ‘let’s wait and see’ but now we can already watch it done. Drones space has been quietly but constantly growing and since the thesis stayed the same, ‘send machine where it’s not safe or efficient for a human being‘, the use cases exponentially multiplied last days. Initially, it’s been used to reach inaccessible places which are too dangerous or costly to be accessed by humans (Flyability), to clean buildings with sanitation drones (Lucid Drone), oversee and detect crop health issues in real-time and accurately assess losses (Drone Data Solution) but it’s been never more helpful than nowadays with embracing the global lockdown.
Drones are saving lives, limit our exposure to the virus, potential infection and they are helping in many different ways offering among others:
Medical Drone Deliveries
UPS drone delivery is serving hospitals as well as those in quarantine. It’s another big step forward in adapting drones in the delivery services. UPS partnered with leading U.S. drone service providers DroneUp and actively help to provide medical supplies, deliver packages between hospitals when the regular transportation is disrupted.
In the U.K. Skyports drone delivery joins U.K. CAA “Regulatory Sandbox” to test BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) flights. Skyports specializes in operating end-to-end drone deliveries within the medical, e-commerce, and logistics sectors.
Diagnosing
Pandemic Drones can see who has a temperature or cough. Drone tech now can be used (having thermal sensors) to ID COVID symptoms from above reaching distance as high as 190 feet. Few towns are testing a drone that can measure social distancing and detect COVID19 symptoms from the air.
Draganfly seems to be the pioneer in this space. They have been selected to globally integrate breakthrough health diagnosis technology onto autonomous cameras and specialized drones to combat coronavirus and future health emergencies.
Surprisingly, it’s not a totally new use case, this functionality was used before. Drones with thermal imaging cameras have been used by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to track macaque movements in the province of Palawan in the Philippines — a region where malaria is an active threat.
Monitoring & Crowd management
Drones are now successfully used to monitor social distancing. Acecore Technologies came up with an idea of next level speaker drone. Drones with the speaker systems are being rapidly adopted by law enforcement agencies all over the world to remind communities of social distancing guidelines.
Disinfection
World’s first indoor Disinfection Drone was recently brought into life by Digital Aerolus. They developed the first indoor drone with C-band ultraviolet (UVC) lights, created specifically to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus with a 99% disinfection rate.
Broadcasting/Jurnalising
NBC, CNN, FAA used drones in broadcasting in some cases. Dejero helps if you need to report a breaking news story, happening or cover sports, weather, or a live event. They offer the equipment and technology needed to be fast, modern, versatile, and reliable.
Documenting Your Job Site
Since you cannot be on the job site to monitor the work you can now use drones to check the progress, see real pictures or video and share with your clients, contractors. Multivista, powered by DroneDeploy, is one of the companies that provide construction photo and video documentation services.
Spraying
Disinfecting drones are spraying streets to stop the spread of COVID-19. Local health authorities have tested out ways to deploy agriculture spraying drones to disinfect public areas like parks, buses more efficiently. The drones are filled with disinfectants instead of pesticides. China and Spain used this tech as a key tool for responding to COVID-19 for aerial disinfection. The vehicles simply use, high-definition zoom lenses, loudspeakers and chemical spray jets for disinfecting large areas
Surveying
China adapted surveying to enforce the world’s biggest quarantine and contain coronavirus outbreak. MicroMultiCopter Aero Technology offers surveying and mapping drones that are also geared with loudspeakers, 40-times zoom lenses, thermal sensors, and floodlights. It all helps to combat the virus and help to enforce quarantines.
Vehicle Take-Off and Landing
What’s the biggest drone you have ever seen? If you can go inside and fly, s it still a drone or a plane? eHang is lending now its eVTOL for medical relief and it’s used as ambulances in the current coronavirus crisis. What differs then from the regular helicopters is that it takes off faster and can land in tighter spots, is electrically efficient, and make lower noise which is perfect for urban environments.
These are just a few examples of how the Drone Technology emerged and could help in the time when time is crucial. There is a lot of regulations around this technology and it should be properly considered taking into account safety and privacy of all human beings but the current pandemic helped to clarify the use cases and recognize the value of quick, immediate, safe, and efficient actions that wouldn’t be possible without the help of UAV.
Below is a nice summary of the drone applications in the pandemic put together by Droneii.com.
CBInsight also researched different markets and listed pioneering companies that may be interesting to take a closer look at (not necessarily related to pandemic use cases)
At the end, if you are still wondering where else we could use the drones, here are a few more categories they can find meaningful and disruptive applications:
When we open our minds, let the biases go away we can think of many more spaces the drones can be used. Something that may seem to be not possible now can eventually turn out to be a great business idea and perfect case to introduce the drones to a new category. This is how the disruptive technology emerges, from the low-end or new markets (where none existed) footholds and the firms will not catch on with mainstream customers until quality catches up with their standards.
Inspired by Clayton M. Christensen’s theory of ‘disruptive innovation’ and his book ‘The Innovator’s Dilemma’.
