The Positive and Negative Effect of Drone Technology (2024)

Drone is a type of unmanned aerial vehicle. Original intent for drone invention was for military purposes. But at present civilian drone outnumbers the military ones by far. Apart from the military, the usage of drones is expanding to other sectors like commercial, scientific, and recreational. Agricultural and more. Drones can also help in special activities like surveillance, product delivery, and aerial photography. The high popularity of drones has led to the sport known as drone racing. In this race, participants control drones equipped with a camera and wear head-mounted displays showing live stream camera feed from the drones. To win the air racing, one has to complete the set course as quickly as possible.

Based on functional categories drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are classified into these popular categories:

• Target and Decoy
• Reconnaissance: That is providing battlefield intelligence
• Combat: Useful for high-risk missions
• Logistics: Useful for cargo delivery
• Research and Development
• Civil and Commercial uses

Based on the number of wings or rotors they are classified into 3 categories:

• Fixed Wing
• Single Rotor
• Multiple Rotor

The Positive Aspects

• A useful tool, drone helps to track endangered species and monitor changes in wildlife habitats and behaviours. Even WWF uses this technology to combat animal poaching.
• Helping in pinpointing wildfires and gauging movements, drones make it possible to actually fight fire without putting another human in danger. Further, this technology can assist in disaster management, through presenting an aerial view of the situation.
• Logistic sector is also trying to involve the drones. This is because bigger companies like Amazon are considering using drones for a faster product delivery form door-to-door.
• Drones help a lot in scientific research, for surveys, surveillance difficult terrains, mapping and geophysics surveys. It helps in monitoring hostile situations and in a remote environment.

The Adverse Effects

Drone strikes are one of the most popular yet double edged tool which has many side effects. These attacks affect the environment and public health to a great extent. They de-stabilize regional economic and political condition. The damage is at par with aerial missile attacks. The chemical content and residue left from these strikes, harm agriculture, public health and cause numerous skin and respiratory diseases.

Apart from these air attacks, the usage of drones also lead to invasion of privacy, interference with air activity, storage of weapons and many other illegal activities.

To know more about drone technology, read our blog on it. To read more click here: The Necessary Details of Drone Technology

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