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Introduction:
You might be thinking what is an unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV? so to answer this question I have a simple answer. An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is an unpiloted aircraft. The other name for UAVs is a drone. The size of the drone can vary from the size of your palm to the size of an aircraft.
Drones were first developed for military purposes. But later it found a variety of uses such as to deliver goods to the doorstep or to take photos and videos. Drone gives us many advantages in which one of which is, it can monitor hazardous areas without risking the life of the pilot.
Moreover in several regions of India, during Covid-19 Lockdown, Indian cops were using drones to look if any citizen is breaking the lockdown or not. Let’s talk about controlling UAVs. So a UAV can be remotely operated by the human operator or can be fully autonomous depending on various sensors.
Types of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles:
- Single Rotor Helicopters:
Single rotor helicopters is a miniature version of big helicopters. These types of UAVs can be powered by gas or electricity. Also, single rotor helicopters can cover larger distances carrying heavier payloads. A LIDAR laser scanner can be a payload that is used for many purposes. Which one of them is surveying land.
The demerits of single rotor helicopters are their complexity, cost and vibration. Moreover, their large spinning blades can cause serious damage to anything that comes in their way.
- Multi-Rotors Unmanned Aerial Vehicles:
These types of drones cannot carry heavier payloads just like single-rotor helicopters. Instead, they can carry lighter payloads such as a camera. They can spend 20-30 minutes on air. These types of drones are usually lighter and smaller.
Moreover, if you want to do aerial photography most easily and cheaply, this type of drone is really your best bet. Demerits include limited speed, height and distance.
- Fixed-wing UAVs:
These types of UAVs look like an aeroplane and generally needs runways for its takeoff and landing just like general planes. In this type, fixed wings of the drone provide the lift instead of the rotors. This kind of drone does not use electricity but uses fuel to power its flight. Due to this reason, they can fly in the air for more than 16 hours.
Uses of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles:
Drones are utilized for a variety of situations ranging from military to goods delivery purposes. So, now let’s dive deeper into the usage of drones.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in Military:
As I have already mentioned above, for military purposes drones were first used. When we look at the usage of drones in earlier days their task was only to spy. But nowadays drones are equipped with many advanced technologies such as Thermal Imaging and laser range finders and is also able to perform airstrikes.
These advanced technologies in drones eventually raised the scope of usage of drones. The top combat drone in today’s world is Predator C Avenger.
Delivery:
These drones for delivery purposes are usually autonomous. Usually, delivery items can be a grocery item or a package. Also, these drones can carry a package of about approx 25 kg weight to your doorstep. Big companies like Google, Walmart, Amazon and several others are testing various delivery drones.
Photography:
Drones have become a boon for the people who are in the profession of photography. This kind of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle can capture the best shots of photos from a specific height. If you want to get a bird’s eye view of your city or a building. Then these UAVs can help you to achieve that.
Wildlife Conservation:
When you want to check the conditions of various wild animals without disturbing them. Then drones play a crucial role in doing that. Monitoring animals from the sky will help wildlife conservationists to know more about wild animals.
