Drone News & Articles

The SETI Institute is probably best known for its work scanning the stars for signs of extraterrestrial communications. But the organization’s remit is broader than that. Its many research teams work towards a noble goal: to explore, understand, and explain the origin and nature of life in the universe.

Exploring other planets isn’t a task to be taken lightly. Equipment and methodology have to be perfected well ahead of time. The SETI Institute and Astrobotic Technology this week revealed that they have used a drone to successfully map an ‘ice-rich lava tube’ (also known as a cave) in Iceland.

The team generated a 3D map of the Lofthellir Lava Tube Ice Cave in the remote Myvatn region of Iceland. From the data gathered they now know the caves shape, size and depth, and also have a good idea of its history. With a drone and a LiDAR system, they learned all the secrets of this isolated cave’s rock falls and ice formations.

The mission is being touted as a proof-of-concept for the use of drones to explore and document the terrain of other planets, including Mars and our own Moon.

The field team was led by SETI Institute planetary scientist Pascal Lee. “We went to Iceland to study a lava tube with massive amounts of ice inside it to understand better both the potential hazards and opportunities presented by the many lava caves we hope to explore on the Moon and Mars,” he said. “One promising way to explore them is with drones.”

Drone-LiDAR mapping of the “skylight” entrance area of the Lofthellir Lava Tube Ice Cave in Iceland.

Figure 1: Drone-LiDAR mapping of the “skylight” entrance area of the Lofthellir Lava Tube Ice Cave in Iceland. Top: Aerial view of the entrance. Bottom: Drone-borne LiDAR map of the lava tube cave below the skylight entrance area. Middle: Drone LiDAR map projected against the aerial view to show underground extent of lava tube entrance area. (Credit: NASA/Astrobotic/SETI Institute/Lee et al. 2019)

Cave exploration: Another example of drones providing insight in inaccessible places

We’ve seen before how drones can handle operations in dangerous and hard-to-reach locations. SETI’s plan was to show how that capability can be taken to the next level.

Exploring underground environments in other worlds is a priority for researchers. Both the Moon and Mars have cave openings on their surface, each one of which houses an environment that’s been sheltered from the harsh conditions prevailing at the surface, temperature swings, radiation and micrometeorite bombardment from space.

These sheltered spots are obvious places to look for signs of life. They have also been proposed as natural shelters that future human explorers could use for storage, short-term stays, and, if Elon Musk gets his way, colonization.

Astrobotic's LiDAR-equipped drone inside Main Chamber of the Lofthellir Lava Tube Ice Cave in Iceland

Figure 2: Astrobotic’s LiDAR-equipped drone on the floor of the Main Chamber of the Lofthellir Lava Tube Ice Cave in Iceland, ready for its subterranean mapping mission. (Credit: NASA/Astrobotic/SETI Institute/Dubai Future Foundation/Lee et al. 2019)

All that’s needed is an aerial system capable of navigating what would be an incredibly treacherous environment for a human explorer.

“Small free-flying spacecraft might be the ideal robotic platform for the exploration of lava tubes on Earth, the Moon, and Mars for the simple reason that they would not need to come in direct contact with any of the rough and potentially unstable surfaces found inside caves and lava tubes,” says Andrew Horchler, Director of Future Missions and Technology at Astrobotic, the private space company developing the drone-based LiDAR mapping technology. “Nimble drones could enter, map, and exit caves quickly, returning from the darkness to send data back to Earth, return a sample to the surface, recharge and refuel.”

Drones on the Moon would have to be specially adapted. As there is practically no atmosphere, any drone would rely on small thrusters rather than conventional props. They would also need sophisticated navigation tools, such as the LiDAR proven in the Iceland mission.

NASA and Astrobotic’s LiDAR and stereo vision navigation system, AstroNav, gave the drone the ability to autonomously explore and map the subterranean environment. It relies on both stereo vision and LiDAR, works without GPS or previously stored maps, and can operate in real-time.

“The Astrobotic drone and LiDAR performed exactly as we had hoped, and was able to help us map the Lofthellir Lava Tube in 3D within minutes” says Lee. “We now have a highly accurate model of the shape and dimensions of the cave, and of the configuration of its many rocky and icy features, such as rock falls, ice columns, and micro-glaciers.”

The project represents a first for researchers. “More development work will be needed to create a system that’s ready for the Moon or Mars, but the study of this icy lava tube is an important first step for us” said Horchler.

The project was supported by NASA, the Mars Institute, and a Mohammed bin Rashid Space Settlement Challenge grant from the Dubai Future Foundation.

The winners of the annual drone photography contest hosted by Skypixel, the photo-sharing community owned by drone maker DJI, show the alluring beauty of nature and the ways humanity inhabits it.

Consumer drones are still a relatively novel technology in the long history of photography. They have been particularly useful in showcasing angles most photographers would have been unable to get before, like showing a small structure or a single person against a vast landscape. This selection of 2019 winners does exactly that, from the image of a monastery set on a foggy beach to silhouetted skiers on the precipice of a mountain.

Here’s look at some of the photos below, with caption information provided by the photographers.

DERYK BAUMGÄRTNER/SKYPIXEL

AGON NIMANI/SKYPIXEL

MICHAL SADOWSKI/SKYPIXEL

TRUNG PHAM/SKYPIXEL

MATHIS DUMAS/SKYPIXEL

李珩 13811278527/SKYPIXEL

SEBASTIANMZH/SKYPIXEL

SERGEY RISTENKO/SKYPXEL

圆猪笔/SKYPIXEL

Paul Royle-Grimes officially got his business, Elevation Aerial Photography, off the ground in early 2017.

He was among the first people to get his commercial drone license in September 2016 then spent the next couple months setting up his business to launch the new year with the new company.

Royle-Grimes started his Greeley business as soon as he could, because “no way” it could have existed before that, he said.

“There was no technology that did this,” he said. “It couldn’t have even existed a month before I had my license. No commercial drone use was allowed.”

In 2017, the Federal Aviation Administration put into effect regulations for commercial use for drones restricting the weight of the devices and when and how high they can fly. Since then, Greeley residents and businesses have found a way to use the new technology to generate dollars.

Elevation Aerial Photography, located at 4324 W. 31st St. in Greeley, provides aerial imagery, mapping, and a bird’s-eye view of crops to monitor progress and issues.

“I think we’re just now seeing the tip of the iceberg as far as what we can do with the business landscape,” Royle-Grimes said. “The first year the technology was there but it took a while for businesses to actually see the allure as to what technology could do for them. We’re now entering the phase where commercial liability is starting to pick up.”

Mountain Harvest Media in Greeley, formerly Colorado Aerial Images, has used drones to capture construction reporting, document flood damage and more.

“It has helped us stay competitive in the market,” Mountain Harvest Media owner George Sickler said. “A lot of the companies who do what we do see the value in being able to capture those kind of images. That’s why we pursued it to begin with.”

Operating the camera was “second nature” to Sickler, he said, but flying the drone the camera was attached to was “more of a task.”

“Learning FAA rules was a bigger undertaking,” he said. “We were able to offer aerial services and it was a big upsale for everything we do.”

Marcos Fulling, known as @dogparkdude on Instagram, has used drones in photography. He also works for Wireless Specialist, LLC., and can use drones to inspect 500-foot towers and save him a trip up.

He’s noticed an uptick in drones locally.

“The thing about drones is, it’s made RC hobbies trendy,” Fulling said. “It brought a lot of new people to the remote-control hobby, which is good.”

However, drone newbies should exercise caution, Fulling advised.

“I see a lot of people buy a $3,000 drone, crash it and that’s it,” he said. “Some of the people may not be so experienced with these devices.

Here's a short video from 3DR detailing what it is that a drone can bring to your construction site. From data acquisition to resource demonstration, 3DR can optimise your process no matter the challenge.

Certain types of properties have always been a challenge for Realtors to photograph. It could be a complex residence, perhaps hidden by trees, or it could simply be so large the camera can't take it all in. Many of those problems are being solved with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.

"One example is a home that I shot in Abiquiu," said Joy Rudemyer. "It was situated in a valley surrounded on all sides by mountains, very beautiful, and from the air it becomes very clear just how secluded it is, so this may be the best initial way to entice a buyer who's looking for that. And there is no way to capture that setting from the ground."

Rudemyer, owner of Su Casa 3D Imaging, has been flying drones for more than two years now. Most of what she uses it for is taking photographs and videos of homes, ranches, and parcels of land that are on the market, and mostly in the Santa Fe area.

"What I love about this is basically the birds-eye perspective you have," she said. "It really pulls people in. It enables the viewer to have a better sense of how the home is located in relationship to the neighborhood. The colors of the New Mexico sky and landscapes are always changing and it's beautiful. These cameras are awesome with color. I enjoy everything about that, just being outside, and how the cloud drama can make a nice backdrop to properties."

Drones of various types can be bought from $15 to more than $20,000. The ones Rudemyer uses are in DJI's Phantom series, costing about $1,500. They're four-propellered crafts, about 15 inches wide, with a small but high-tech camera mounted on the underside.

You would think photographing a house from up in the air would be difficult in Santa Fe's winds, but Rudemyer said it's not. "I've flown in winds up to 15 miles per hour and the steadiness of the video is amazing, because of the gimbal [stabilizer]. You can see the drone being tossed about a little bit, but the clips you get are steady."

Her drone cameras have a fixed focal length. The more expensive models have zoom capability, but she said Realtors are usually not using drones for details, but for wide, expansive shots. "You can even alter color and saturation while it's in the air, but usually I'll do that later at home, because the battery only lasts about 22 minutes."

Many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be controlled by a smartphone or tablet computer, and the user uses the device's viewing screen to find and photograph scenes. But Rudemyer's newest model came with a built-in monitor. "You're seeing what the camera is seeing and you can turn the view up or down and left or right."

DJI now offers special goggles (for another $350) that will connect wirelessley to its Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 drone. With that equipment, you can pilot the aircraft with movements of your head.

But what if you move your head the wrong way and the drone zooms into someone's herb garden? If you read up on UAVs, you will find practical advice about the sagacity of notifying neighbors before using a drone nearby — and about employing a professional instead of trying to maneuver UAVs yourself.

The fact is that drone pilots haven't needed to have an FAA pilot's license since August 2016, when the Federal Aviation Administration changed its rules. The real-estate industry responded quickly to that news.

In a CBS News story by Ilyce Glink a few months after the restrictions were loosened, Bill Brown, then president of the National Association of Realtors, said drones were "streamlining the buying and selling process by providing more visual information at a reasonable cost. Any opportunity you have to further educate the buyer to the property they're purchasing is a win-win for everybody."

He predicted that Realtors not offering potential buyers drone images of real-estate listings "will stand out negatively because everyone else will be doing it."

Kurt Lauer, construction manager for Prull Custom Homes, uses one of these high-tech aircraft for another reason: providing stunning progress reports for clients of the high-end Santa Fe builder.

A great example is the contemporary home built for John Rizzo and Anne Mansfield by Prull and architect Craig Hoopes. The horseshoe-shaped residence, which won the "Grand Hacienda" award in last year's Parade of Homes, is a real challenge for the ground-based photographer.

Lauer said he couldn't care less about drones before that project. "Then John Rizzo bought a drone," he recalled. "He toyed with it for about an hour then he handed it to me and said, 'Here you go.'

"He just thought it would be cool to get some aerial views of the project, then the more I started using it, it turned into a tool for me. Especially these modern homes are nearly impossible to photograph from the ground, because you're not getting the dimensional perspective. Now I've taken this on as my own little thing for my clients; they love it when I send them a few drone shots."

Lauer uses a similar UAV to that of Rudemyer, and revels in the fact that he can see everything on the remote's screen, even if it's a half-mile away. "It's an extremely handy little thing and it takes amazing pictures.

"My only complaint is that the battery life is short. The drone has a range of one mile, but you only have 15 minutes or so," he said, laughing. "It does have a feature that when the battery starts losing power, it knows how far away it is and it just turns around and heads back, and it lands within two feet of where it took off.

"It's a great tool to keep the clients involved on the progress of the house," he said. "You can even go up there and check the roof, to see if the roofer did what he said he did, and you don't even need a ladder."

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, commonly known as drones, have a growing presence on the farm. ( MGN )

Wind and hail took a big yield bite out of one of Mason Lantrip’s cornfields last summer. When the insurance adjuster showed up to verify the claim the two men enlisted help to assess the damage in the tall, tasseled corn, from Lantrip’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV or drone).

 

“He said ‘Fly it to your four worst spots.’ So, I flew the drone over the field and hovered it. He walked to the drone and came back and said, ‘Oh, it’s really bad in there,’” recalls Lantrip, who farms near Coatesville, Ind.

 

Ultimately, Lantrip says his insurance paid nearly twice the amount he initially expected for the corn wind damage, and that wasn’t the first time the drone, a quadcopter, improved his bottom line.

 

“You know, it’s paid for itself 10 to 20 times over, and it's done that three or four different years,” Lantrip says.

 

When UAVs entered the ag marketplace, they did so with considerable fanfare. But today, only 31% of U.S. farmers say they find value in using a drone. Forty percent of farmers don’t use one and don’t plan to, according to a March Pulse survey of more than 900 growers. An April 2017 survey showed similar results, with 37% of farmers saying they don’t use one.

Why the low rate of adoption, given the ongoing buzz around drone technology?

“Cost and the time required to fly the drone and then analyze the results are roadblocks for some farmers,” says Steve Cubbage, president and owner of Nevada, Mo.-based Record Harvest, a precision farming company. “Other farmers don’t want to own a drone because they have to be licensed to fly one on the farm, legally, if they make business decisions with it.

“You can hire a high schooler to fly it over your fields, but you still have to figure out what to do with the data,” he adds.

There’s more than one way to capture value from a drone. Leonard Meador says he is licensed to fly a drone but doesn’t. Instead, Meador’s family works with their local fertilizer retailer who does in-season aerial scouting on the farm that his brother, Larry, then uses to make agronomic decisions. Meador says it’s kind of a reverse progression from when they started collecting in-season data on the family farm, using an airplane. 

“Flying over the fields helped us address things like drainage issues and weed pressure,” recalls Meador, who owns land in Indiana and Washington and works as an agricultural business consultant. “A little bit later, we used a rocket we made. We’d shoot it up into the air and it’d take pictures of the crop on the way down.”

That was in the 1980s. Today, Meador believes independent crop agronomists, fertilizer retailers and seed dealers might be your best and most cost-effective resource for aerial intelligence in-season.

New collaborations in the UAV space for 2019, such as Syngenta with Sony and Corteva Agriscience with DroneDeploy, appear to support his view. Both partnerships are designed to help you, either through company or independent field agronomists, gather aerial imagery and data so they can make in-season decisions to improve crop yield outcomes.

 

Despite the commercial interest in drone technology, Bill Horan, a Purdue University Extension educator, recommends that farmers consider owning one. He notes that last year the university purchased 17 UAVs and distributed them to educators across the state to identify ways they can be used to help farmers. Horan flies a DJI Phantom Standard Quadcopter Drone with a 2.7K HD video camera.

 

“There are so many valuable things you can do with one beyond crop scouting,” he says.

 

Today’s crop growers use drones to identify fields or parts of fields that are washed out and need replanting, check irrigation systems for plugged nozzles, take pictures of tile installations to show where the lines are, and fly over grain bins and barns to identify damage when storms occur. Likewise, livestock producers find drones useful to locate sick animals or mama cows that are calving, monitor out-buildings and facilities, and even find sections of fence that need repair.

Because of their potential value, Horan encourages farmers to not be put off by the UAV licensing process, which requires doing some online “book work” and taking the exam at one of the 700 Federal Aviation Administration-approved licensed testing centers.

“It does take some time, but the FAA provides a booklet to study, some free videos you can review so you learn the rules and regulations; a lot of it’s related to safety,” Horan says, adding that test takers need a 70% to pass the exam.

Total cost for the process is about $150. More information on the test, called the Part 107 licensing exam, is available at the FAA website: www.faa.gov/uas/commercial_operators.

If you decide to purchase a drone, consider what you want it to accomplish before you buy. That may seem obvious, but doing your homework now will help you avoid disappointment later. There are tens of companies, drone types and price points in the agricultural market. Where to start? AgriTech Tomorrow, an online trade magazine, reports that “AeroVironment, DJI, DroneDeploy, GoPro, PrecisionHawk and Trimble Navigation are some of the key players in agricultural drones industry.”

 

There are two basic drone types to consider: multirotor and fixed-wing. Multirotor drones tend to have a shorter battery life but are on the lower end of the cost spectrum. Horan’s DJI Phantom, a multirotor drone, retails in a bundled package (includes a transmitter, battery and case) for about $1,500 on Amazon. He says a “starter drone” costs about half that amount.

“If you had a one-time insect infestation that the drone helped you identify and treat, that would probably more than cover your $750 investment,” he says.

Farmers wanting to cover a lot of acres, should consider buying a fixed-wing drone. It will cost you more upfront but has a longer battery life. For instance, the Quantix has enough juice to fly 45 minutes and cover up to 400 acres in a single flight.

 

As for analyzing the data, there is software available that farmers can purchase for that purpose, but most farmers find that time-intensive. Horan says a better option might be to subscribe to an online service. The cost is often less than $100 a month, and some providers will allow you to subscribe short-term.

 

“Some companies will let you try out their service on a limited basis for free,” he adds.

In Lantrip’s case, he likes flying his quadcopter manually over fields to take video and still pictures that he can then review weekly to see how his crops are progressing. He also does “programmed flights” with his drone to map entire fields and get NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) imagery, information provided by Granular.

“I get a lot of information from the NDVI pictures that helps me find and treat diseases and pests, and I can overlay those images with my yields map to improve my ROI,” he says. “This was a real incentive to go to the effort to buy a drone and get my license. It’s all about the bottom line, and the drone helps me improve my productivity.”

Israeli drone provider Airobotics is digging into new drone applications in the mining sector.

Last week, the company offered a Q&A session with mining technology manager Dan Ward to deep dive into the future of drones and mining.

The interview comes on the heels of a recent announcement on the integration of LiDAR payload with its Optimus drones. The use of LiDAR reduces the time it takes for aerial data to be collected, even at night or in low light, and allows for rapid turn-around time on data processing.

Q: What are the current positive and negative perceptions of digitization and automation amongst mine surveyors?

A: Whilst there is a general perception that the digitization of mining is an inevitable and necessary investment to improve safety and productivity, it is often executed or implemented poorly. Often because the people implementing the digitization strategy don’t fully understand the problems they are solving.

The subject of automation is far more polarizing. Naturally, there is a perception that automation will make some positions redundant. This perception does have some merit as the purpose of automation is to replace tasks. However, a misconception of automation is that it is ‘smart’, when this couldn’t be further from the truth. The tasks that automation replaces are typically mundane, repetitive tasks. Automation thrives in a non-dynamic environment, and in the case of automating data capture, this frees up time for the team on site to focus on analysis and investigation of the data, using human problem-solving skills to address complex challenges.

However, these misconceptions must not be ignored as getting automation right requires a strong focus on people strategies – transforming the business while maintaining an engaged, motivated and appropriately skilled workforce.

Q: What are the main concerns for mine surveyors with the shift towards automation and digitization?

A: I believe the main concerns revolve around becoming redundant, managing QA/QC, and how to manage the workload of day-to-day production surveying while also investing time to ensure all the systems and processes are improved to handle this new influx of data.

Q: Do you think a shift towards automation is different to previous technological changes in the mine surveying industry, such as the introduction of LiDAR?

A: Yes, while previous advances in technology have generally either made the outputs more accurate, faster or higher resolution, the process and workflow principles have remained very much the same. Automation has the potential to redefine the typical role of a Mine Surveyor from one that sets out and captures spatial data, to one that focuses on the analysis of this data for improved decision-making.

Q: How will automation and digitization change the current role and responsibilities of a surveyor? Will they be required to upskill? If so, which skills do you think are most important in adapting to these changes?

A: I think surveyors need to upskill their knowledge in GIS, ensuring robust workflows are set up so that the spatial data is easily digestible by the GIS platforms. It will be an important role of surveyors to unlock the potential of spatial data as it only adds value when it is accurate and assists the decision-making process. I anticipate communication will play a significant role as the surveyor could become the conduit between what have typically been quite siloed departments. Finally, I believe the role of the surveyor could develop into one which can find bottlenecks and correlations between various data sets as the focus shifts to investigating the causation and impact of a situation. As a result, the role of surveyors will potentially evolve to become an Analyst or Business Improvement role.

Q: What will the role of surveyors look like in the next five years?  

A: We could end up with two paths for surveyors. One will be part of a technical team on site that will maintain the data capture systems, ensure equipment is calibrated, and capturing the correct areas by integrating into the daily and weekly plans.

The other role I believe will be with the GIS production/analysis team in remote operating centers. The amount of data coming off mine sites is increasing every day, and the GIS teams will be required to manage, archive and analyse. This has the potential to open a new career path for surveyors, transitioning from a service-based role to a value-added role, optimizing and increasing the efficiency of operations.

Looking for some new perspective? Look no further than the BLUE 2 BLUE Drone Film Festival happening happening on Friday March 29th at The Avoca Beach Picture Theatre! Sit back and be amazed by the work of finalists from over 50 countries around the world as they showcase their cinematic travels, adventures and amazing feats. 

Check out a preview of the footage here: https://www.avocabeachpicturetheatre.com.au/blue2blue-drone-film-festival/ 

Not only will you be left amazed by the films, but you'll also be left feeling full and satisfied with a complimentary drink on arrival, $10.00 paella, a DJ and stalls in the garden! 

Grab your tickets here (https://www.avocabeachpicturetheatre.com.au/blue2blue-drone-film-festival/) , and buy 10 or more tickets and you'll go in the draw to win the cinema for 1 night!

What: BLUE 2 BLUE Drone Film Festival

Where: Avoca Beach Picture Theatre

When: Friday 29th March 6.30pm

As drone technology improves, its uses are increasing. Today, scientists, conservationists, farmers, clean energy companies and others are using the technology to help the environment. Here’s how.

Mapping and Environmental Monitoring

Drones can quickly fly over fairly land areas of land to assist with mapping and environmental monitoring. Drones can accomplish these tasks much more quickly and cost-effectively than other methods and are ideal for remote or hard-to-reach locations.

Drones can be outfitted with all sorts of technologies including cameras, thermometers, humidity, and pressure sensors, wind gauges and more, which enables them to collect important environmental data. A drone could repeatedly collect this data and eliminate the need to send people out into potentially unsafe conditions.

Greening Agriculture

Farmers can also use drones to monitor their fields. The information that drones can collect can enable precision farming practices.

Rather than using greenhouse gas-emitting equipment like tractors or inspecting fields by hand, farmers can use drones to analyze vegetation growth, soil health and other factors. This enables them to determine precisely where they need more water, fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides and how much to use. This is a great way to reduce water waste and the amount of potentially harmful chemicals that farmers need to use.

Researchers at Moscow’s Timiryazev State Agrarian University, for example, used drones to survey a wheat field and apply precise amounts of fertilizer. This enabled them to reduce fertilizer use by 20 percent.

Monitoring Ocean Health

People typically think of drones as aerial vehicles, but there are also underwater drones, which be used to conduct research in oceans, river, and lakes and monitor the health of marine ecosystems. This can enhance safety for researchers by reducing or eliminating the need for them to go underwater, which can be dangerous. Underwater drones can also enable researchers to reach places they otherwise could not.

Researchers in St. Andrews, New Brunswick have used underwater drones to better understand the impact of aquaculture operations on the surrounding environment. The drones collect water and sediment samples that scientists analyze to determine what species are living in a given area and how the makeup of species may have changed since the introduction of aquaculture.

Supporting Clean Energy

Drones are also playing an increasingly important role in the clean energy sector. They can be used during siting, installation, monitoring and more.

Drones can quickly fly over potential utility-scale renewable energy project sites to help companies choose locations. They can also fly over existing fields of solar panels and use infrared sensors to detect panels that are no longer working. They can also be used for inspecting rooftop solar panels and ensuring they’re in the optimal position for maximum energy production. Solar companies say drones can reduce the time needed for residential solar module measurement by as much as 50 percent.

Additionally, they can inspect wind turbines for damage, increasing safety for workers by eliminating the need for them to climb to the top of the turbines.

Monitoring Wildlife

Drones are also useful for monitoring wildlife. They can help scientists to monitor populations sizes, track migration patterns and more, all without disturbing the animals by getting too close to them. Australian researchers recently conducted a study to test the accuracy of using drones to count wildlife populations and found that it was more precise than other methods.

Conservationists are also using drones to watch for poachers and prevent them from killing protected animals. If poachers see a drone flying over a wildlife park, they’ll likely turn away for fear of getting caught.

Final Thoughts

Drones can do a lot more than take cool photos and videos. They can protect the environment in a variety of ways. We’ll likely see more uses for drones arise in the near future too. Companies may soon start using UAVs to deliver packages, which could reduce carbon emissions associated with shipping. Amazon, Google, DHL and others are already looking it.

UAVs are a powerful technology with a lot of potential applications. One of the most important may be protecting the environment.

Intel dazzled its Folsom audience Sunday night with a spectacular light show designed to feature 1,500 drones, in an effort to outdo its previous world record of 1,218 Intel Shooting Star drones.

Several thousand employees and their families brought lawn chairs and picnic blankets to the sprawling parking lot at the company’s Folsom campus for the one-time live event, which marked the microchip maker’s upcoming 50th anniversary on July 18, 2018.

The performance displayed multicolored choreography including bright, fireworks-like orbs. A single pilot mans the entire fleet of light-emitting remotely controlled machines.

An announcer said the performance told “the story of Intel’s journey.” The show opened with data spheres floating in clouds in the original company logo. Drones then formed an image of Intel’s first commercially available microprocessor, the 4004, released in 1971. A globe symbolized employees around the world, followed by a “disco party” with dancing figures. The show concluded with the company’s anniversary logo.