On Monday, three drone aircraft from Aeryon Labs were dispatched to Kathmandu to work with first-responders at GlobalMedic.
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8 Totally Cool Uses for Drones
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Domestic uses for drones are growing to a wide range of applications not even considered a few years ago.
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A ederal law signed in 2012 opened drone technology to commercial applications such aerial photography of homes for sale.
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A UAV is perfect for getting great shots of athletes engaged in extreme sports.
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Traffic officials are just starting to investigate the use of drones for inspecting roads and bridges, monitoring traffic and surveying land.
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Aerial surveys are an important componet of monitoring the endangered sandhill crane.
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Scientists can quickly and cheaply send a UAV into the stratosphere to measure ozone levels.
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Drones have also been used by animal-rights advocates to determine if illegal hunting is taking place.
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Hard-to-reach disaster zones could be assessed quickly from the air.
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Aerial views of the environment can keep city park officials aware of suspicious activities such as illegal dumping.
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High-flying drones and digital data crunchers are teaming up to find victims of the devastating earthquake in Nepal. These technologies give rescuers on the ground better information about where people may be trapped and how best to send supplies and first aid to remote villages beyond the reach of trucks or helicopters.
“What authorities are trying doing to do is to figure out what is going on,” said Robin Murphy, director of the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue at Texas A&M University. “Then you have humanitarian relief organizations trying to meet individual needs on the ground. They are asking, 'Is this place flooded? What about roads and transportation here?'”
Drones are good for more than hunting down terrorists. Groups around the world are adapting the technology to save our planet.
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Murphy says unmanned aerial vehicles have been used since 2004 for eight previous earthquakes, mostly for reconnaissance and structural mapping of crumbled buildings.
In 2010, during the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, the U.S. Navy also used underwater robots to clear the harbor in Port-Au-Prince so ships could bring in responders and supplies without running aground or destroying existing piers. The Chinese military used small UAVs to find victims of the 2013 Lushan and the 2014 Yunnan earthquakes, according to Murphy.
On Monday, Ontario-based Aeryon Labs dispatched three drone aircraft to Kathmandu to work with first-responders at GlobalMedic, a non-profit that provides drinking water and shelter to disaster victims.
“You can send them into areas that are inaccessible,” said GlobalMedic executive director Rajul Singh. “If I can’t get past the road I can put the UAV up there to see if anyone is there that needs my help. There are not enough helicopters in Nepal right now, and they shouldn’t be taking pictures, they should be flying aid.”
The Aeryon drones being sent to Nepal are equipped with thermal cameras to help locate survivors by detecting body heat, as well as the company’s newest digital zoom camera that can see the details of human faces at 1,000 feet away. The team will also undertake aerial mapping of the affected areas, building 2-D and 3-D maps, for disaster teams.
Murphy said small flying UAVs have limitations. Backpack-sized drones are easy to carry into a disaster zone and to launch by hand, but they run on batteries and only have 30 minutes of flying time. With electricity to most of Nepal knocked out, that means relief teams have to haul in lots of spare juice.