Day: February 7, 2020

Could you remember when you saw a drone the last time – hopefully in a wedding! As the latest fad, grand weddings suddenly appear incomplete without drones doing aerial photography. Almost everyone today is familiar with the term ‘drone,’ and everyone does likely remember the kids flying toys as the earliest airborne drones. It is becoming an increasingly popular way to refer the small (usually) helicopter-like devices that are being flown as ‘drones.’ The word ‘drone’ is used not only to cover a $15 hobby aircraft that a child flies, but also to describe a high-tech $15 million weapon used on a battlefield. Those devices don’t exactly serve the same purpose. They have different names too. Drones are also known as ‘unmanned aerial vehicles’ (UAVs). Many professionals in the industry believe that UAVs need to have autonomous flight capabilities, whereas drones do not. Therefore, all drones are UAVs but not vice versa – all UAVs are not drones. While drones make most people think of ‘unmanned aircrafts that can fly autonomously – that is – without a human in control,’ it can actually be used to describe a wide variety of vehicles. For example, there are seafarings (like submarines), or unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), and/ or also even land based unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) – they also count under the given definition of drone. While most of us are still fathoming drones as our own sky-patrolling aircraft, the next major step for them is already happening i.e., the unexplored underwater tasks. Scientists with National Ocean Service estimate that more than 95 percent of the earth’s oceans have so far gone unexplored in absence of an equipment like underwater drones. Sensors: The core Prior to understanding the deployment of UAVs or drones it is important to understand that a drone is just a meagre platform to carry the sensors which form the core of what is desired from the UAV platform. Without the sensor package a UAV is nothing but a fancy toy. With the advancement and miniaturization of sensor technology UAVs are finding new ways to solve myriad problems. With the advent of 3D printing technology and advanced materials, the design and development cost of UAVs have also gone down significantly, making it possible for governments, private and public sector to consider using them. Gone are the days when a UAV carried a simple video camera – today they carry fused sensors which can be deployed under varying weather conditions. Some of the important sensors such as hyperspectral sensor and LIDAR are beginning to revolutionize agriculture, and town and country planning. With the development and integration of ‘sense-and-avoid’ (SAA) system, UAVs are poised to take another quantum leap in deployment for delivery operations as they will be able to perform complex flight operations in the national airspace. Drones in India India’s drone journey which began more than two decades ago, deploys one of the largest fleets of military drones in the world; however, its journey in the civilian and commercial arena has only just begun. The UAV sector in India is beginning to look up with a number of service providers, startups engaged in innovative design and development. There are over a dozen UAV companies that have found their niche in this sector and are engaged in military, civil and commercial sectors. Drones & Mission Smart Cities India with its smart cities program spread across its diverse landscape provides an ideal laboratory for the deployment of UAVs and related technologies. India, in keeping with the global trend of transforming existing cities into smart cities, has identified nearly 100 such cities for transformation. The smart city initiative launched by the Modi Government in 2014 is expected to find new vigor which will provide a much-needed boost to the UAV industry. According to CISCO, smart cities are those cities that use digital technology to connect, protect and enhance the lives of the citizens. The UN has estimated that by the year 2050, 68% of the world population will be living in urban areas. In such a scenario drones become an ever-increasing important piece of puzzle for ushering in efficiencies in the management of the urban environment. UAVs become effective tools only when they are available at the grass root levels of every arm of government and civil society, and operate within a set of well-defined rules and regulations. With the recent advances in cloud computing, AI, wireless sensors, networked unmanned systems, big data, and Internet of Things, billions of devices are being connected together, providing a substantial opportunity for UAVs in smart cities program. “A drone is just a meagre platform to carry the sensors which form the core of what is desired from the UAV platform. Without the sensor package a UAV is nothing but a fancy toy” The use of UAVs in geo-spatial surveying and geographical information systems is revolutionizing the way smart cities operate by bringing down cost for such operations. A land survey which takes weeks and months while done manually by a surveyor can now be done in less than an hour. UAVs can relay accurate and real time information which plays an important role in the civil security of cities. They may provides information to the civic administration to deploy proactive measures rather than reactive ones. Such a decision-making process is a hallmark of a smart city concept. Drone technology today has matured to the point where it does not take an engineer or a technician to operate. Even a normal high school graduate can be trained to operate it very effectively. A good quality UAV system is fully autonomous, meaning it can take off, conduct the mission and land back in base all by itself. Such autonomous UAVs are now being used by law enforcement agencies for smart policing activities. Integration of UAVs with mobile applications, forensic software, secure and reliable wireless networks can help smart cities become a safe place. The recent news has caught attention that our own police department in Uttar…