Drones Over Your Head
By: Nidhi Kamra
Tags: Aerospace, Aeronautics, Drones, Technology, Future Technology

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“Quarantine.” That’s probably one of the most echoed words in the world during the COVID-19 crisis. And whether you are 9 or 99, it’s a word you won’t forget. I bet you missed that hot gooey chocolate fudge on cold vanilla ice cream sticking to your teeth, your straw buzzing while savoring that last drop of a refreshing mango smoothie, or slurping those flavorful noodles from your favorite restaurant.

Didn’t you wish those delicious foods would magically drop down from the heavens?

Your wish will soon be a reality faster than you think.

It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane. It’s a UA What?

A UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), or RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft System), or the pop-culture word, “drone,” is an aircraft that does not have a pilot, can be controlled remotely (remote control, phone app, a more complex ground station room, etc.), can carry a payload (think pizza, camera …), and flies using the principles of aerodynamics.

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In this post, we’ll talk about drones in different industries, types of drones, launch, and recovery, policies, and how you can be a responsible citizen if you own a drone. There are lots of videos mentioned to keep you entertained as well.

I promise it won’t go over your head. No pun intended.

Pies in the Sky, Pigs That Fly, and Hollywood

Drones are making their way into many industries, including delivering your favorite foods. Here are some examples of industries that are being disrupted and propelled forward, thanks to drones.

Delivery: Big and small companies are assessing drone delivery methods because they are quick (avoid traffic) and cheaper (low shipping costs). Deliveries can range from apple pies, pizza, pork chops, clothes, express parcels, medicines, organs, blood … Use your imagination.

Wing, a company owned by Google, is testing delivering a hot cup of coffee to residents in Canberra, Australia. The drone hovers over the residence and lowers the goodies down via a string. ​

Watch this video of the coffee delivery:

Another company, Zipline, is delivering blood. The drone saved a little girl’s life in Rwanda when it dropped off a parachute containing cold, refrigerated blood, ready to be pumped via IV in minutes. It can take hours or days for blood and medicines to be delivered to distant villages with dirt roads and no infrastructure. Drone companies are seeing an opportunity and providing quick “last-mile” much-needed services.

Watch Zipline’s drone delivering blood here:

Security, Emergency Services, Search, and Rescue:

Let’s think of Hollywood for a second. A bank’s been robbed, and the fugitive is on the run.

Police cars. Hot pursuit. Sirens. Screeching. Wrong side of the highway. Car crashes. Explosions.



You get the picture. In the real world, this dangerous ordeal can be avoided if law enforcement deploys a drone to follow the fugitive. Drones equipped with day or night vision infrared cameras and GPS can fly at high speeds above ground (avoiding accidents and casualties), and provide real-time data, like location, license plate number, etc. Similarly, drones are a perfect choice for border security, searching for wildfires, crime scenes, accidents, traffic congestions, etc.

​Some bigger drones can even rescue people. Hey — and even if it’s Hollywood, shooting a movie scene using a drone equipped with a high-quality camera is cheaper — you don’t need to rent a helicopter for aerial shots. It renders better shots as the drone keeps the camera stable and captures tricky angles. Drones can squeeze into tight spaces like tunnels and are great for documentaries!

Watch a drone follow a rally car here:

Surveying: Drones are growing in popularity in surveying infrastructure, railroads, forests, pipelines, geological features like volcanoes, oceans, etc. The drones carry cameras and/or sensors that can take regular color pictures or more sophisticated images used to generate 3D models of the area and provide detailed information.

Pipeline monitoring for oil or saltwater leaks is a cumbersome, time-consuming task, considering pipelines can stretch for thousands of kilometers. Many times, the pipelines are in remote places and dangerous to access. Leaks from corrosion of pipelines are hazardous to the environment, properties, farms, oceans, etc., and can take many years plus hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix. Drones allow for proactive and frequent monitoring of pipelines, preventing damages, and high repair costs.



Scientists are deploying drones to study volcanoes as traversing the volcanic landscape is risky business for humans. Some ways a potential earthquake can be detected are by monitoring changes in the composition of gases like carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide in the volcanic plume, ground swelling and cracking, steaming in vents, changes to plant life, etc. A drone can employ gas detection sensors and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensors to perform some monitoring tasks accurately, potentially saving millions of lives.

Watch a small documentary on measuring volcanic emissions with drones here:

D for Dangerous

While selecting a drone, it is imperative to first define the mission. Missions fall under the Ds category — for example, Dull, Dirty, Dangerous, Difficult, Dash, Delivery, etc.

‘Dull,’ synonymous with ‘boring,’ is exactly that — a mission that would have long-endurance (many hours to days), like surveying a forest or urban area.

A dirty mission would involve dealing with spraying pesticides, detecting chemical agents, radiation exposure, etc.

Dangerous missions are a lot of what the military is involved with, for example, rescuing people from a war zone, fire, etc.

Based on the type of D, and several other factors, a drone must be selected that will perform the job best. Examples of more missions include providing telecommunications infrastructure, news broadcast, hostage situation monitoring, crowd control when people go wild at a concert, building security, poaching detection, climatology, warfare, etc.

Pick Your Drone

Once the mission is defined, picking the right drone is key. Most drones are either fixed-wing (like an airplane where the wings are fixed) or rotary (like a helicopter where the wings are attached to one or more rotors and move).

A mission that requires hovering over an area, perhaps to pick up or lower a parcel, is the job of a rotary drone because rotary drones can hover. If the mission requires monitoring pipelines by flying along the pipeline, a fixed-wing drone would be a better option since these drones have longer endurance.

If your mission is to fly a drone for fun, there are many types available at hobby and electronic stores at affordable prices. Just attach a video camera and use it to capture bird’s-eye views of landscapes on your next vacation!

Drones can be classified based on size, endurance, capability, etc. The Department of Defense categorizes them into groups based on weight, altitude, and speed. The US Airforce classifies them in tiers, depending on if the drones are LALE (Low Altitude Long Endurance), MALE (Medium Altitude Long Endurance), HALE (High Altitude Long Endurance), etc. Drones will generally fall within categories inside the following parameters:

Weight: less than 250 grams to over 1000 kg

Range: distance is less than 10 km to over 2000 km

Altitude: flying height is 150 m to over 20 km

Endurance: flies continuously for less than one hour to a couple of days

If you own a hobby or toy drone, it’s likely a Micro or Mini UAV, weighing less than 25 kg (Or a few grams!), with endurance less than two hours, range less than ten kilometers, and chances are, you don’t have a license for it (though in most cases you should).

Here are some examples of cool drones:

DJI’s Spark mini drone can be launched from your palm, flown via hand gestures, and is the perfect companion for the selfie lover in you — you can take a selfie by making a square with your fingers!

Watch a video of the Spark taking a selfie and other functionalities:

This NAV (Nano Air Vehicle) was developed by AeroVironment. It looks and flies like a hummingbird. Drones that resemble and fly like birds are using “biomimicry.” The Hummingbird is equipped with a “spy camera” and can fly indoors and outdoors. It weighs less than one AA battery, and will only cost you pocket change — $4 million (though it’s not for sale to the general public).

Watch a video of the Hummingbird flying here: ​

Boeing’s Phantom Eye is a HALE (High Altitude Long Endurance) drone. It is designed for persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (S&R), and communications missions. It has an endurance of four (or ten) days at an altitude of 65,000 ft. Since it cruises above the stratosphere, it is uninterrupted by turbulence, storms, and other aircraft.

Watch a video about the Phantom Eye here: ​

NASA’s X-43A was a hypersonic drone, meaning it flew faster than the speed of sound. It was designed to fly up to 10 Mach. If an aircraft flies at the speed of sound, the Mach number = 1 and it is called a transonic flight. The speed of sound is about 343 meters per second. The X-43A holds a Guinness world record for speed. It was designed to test various aspects of hypersonic flights. These drones were not designed to land, and subsequent test versions of this drone crashed intentionally into the ocean.

Watch the drone being launched from its mothership:

Launch and Recovery

While your hobby drone can be launched from the ground or your palm, some other drones are launched in different ways, depending on their design, mission, and performance characteristics. Some examples of launching methods are:

Conventional Launch: This is a runway launch and is the same as that of a passenger airplane, wherein the plane reaches a minimum airspeed and “takes-off” from a runway. A runway can be as small as your kitchen dining table, or as big as that in an airport. The drone requires energy from fuel or batteries to conduct a conventional launch.

This is a runway launch and is the same as that of a passenger airplane, wherein the plane reaches a minimum airspeed and “takes-off” from a runway. A runway can be as small as your kitchen dining table, or as big as that in an airport. The drone requires energy from fuel or batteries to conduct a conventional launch. Vertical Takeoff : These drones launch vertically like a helicopter, with the help of thrust, a force that allows the drone to lift. One advantage of vertical takeoff is no runway is required.

: These drones launch vertically like a helicopter, with the help of thrust, a force that allows the drone to lift. One advantage of vertical takeoff is no runway is required. Catapult Launch: A catapult-like launcher is used to launch the drone with the help of bungee (elastic) cords. A catapult launcher can also be hydraulic (using oil and gas) or pneumatic (using pressurized gas) to assist with the launch. Since this type of launch is assisted, the drone’s battery or fuel is not used much for the launch process, and no big runway is required. This launch is perfect for landscapes that have rough terrain.

Watch a video of a catapult launch of the RQ-7 Shadow Reconnaissance drone:

Car or Boat Launch: When the vehicle or boat achieves the required takeoff speed, the drone is released. This method is again suitable in situations where there is no proper runway.

When the vehicle or boat achieves the required takeoff speed, the drone is released. This method is again suitable in situations where there is no proper runway. Air Launch: This launch method has a sci-fi flair to it. It involves “dropping down” drones from a host ship in the air at a considerable altitude. As an example, “Gremlins” (being built by a company called Dynetics) are dropped out of a C-130 Hercules aircraft to perform a specific mission. Once their mission is complete, these drones can be collected mid-air by the same aircraft.

Like launch methods, there are several recovery (landing) methods for drones. The usual ones are conventional (like an airplane) and vertical recovery (like a helicopter). Some other interesting examples are:

Parachute Recovery: In this method, a parachute is deployed by the drone and assists with slow landing speeds.

In this method, a parachute is deployed by the drone and assists with slow landing speeds. Net and Cable-Assisted Recovery: Think of net recovery as scoring a goal in soccer wherein the ball lands in a net. Similarly, the drone is automatically guided to fly right into the net! With cable-assisted recovery, the drone gets stuck in a cable that helps it stop. These recovery methods are beneficial where there is no suitable landing area.

Watch a net recovery video here:

Watch a cable recovery video here: ​

Don’t Monkey Around!

Before you venture into Droneland, check your country’s policies for drones to ensure you are flying safely and legally, as well as to avoid heavy penalties. Depending on your country, different organizations define regulations and policies for drone operators.



In Canada, Transport Canada asks operators to review the rules in the Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs) document before flying a drone for the first time.



Some points to note are (Transport Canada / CARs):

Drone pilots must have a pilot certificate and only fly drones that are registered

A drone weighing less than 250 grams does not require a registration or pilot’s certificate. 250 grams is one and a half times as heavy as a hockey puck. Anything over 250 grams requires a license.

Children less than 14 years of age must be supervised

Children over 14 years of age can get a basic license, while those over 16 can get an advanced license

Your drone should always be visible

The drone should not exceed an altitude of 400 feet. That is about two times as high as the Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom (Disney World, Florida), or one fifth as tall as the CN Tower in Toronto.

Do not operate the drone less than 100 feet from another person. That is five times as tall as a giraffe.

Don’t fly the drone in restricted areas like airports

Don’t fly if you are unfit in any way

Operate in open space, away from buildings, wildlife, obstruction, hazards, etc.

To ensure you are complying with all the rules, visit the CARs website.

Well, that’s all for now, folks. Hopefully, it didn’t all fly over your head. Perhaps next time you see a hummingbird, a bee, or a bat, you may be inspired to design your own drone, as long as you don’t use it to spy on your neighbor. But till then, be safe and have fun in Droneland!

References

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(Article originally published on https://nidhikamra.weebly.com/blog/drones-over-your-head)