The advancement in drones and drone technology has been picking up pace in the past five years and there are some really interesting applications being developed that involve drones and unmanned aeronautical devices.

How Are Drones Being Used in the Classroom?

Because of the mass adoption of drone technology and its use in both commercial and military industrial applications, some educators are finally deciding to bring drone technology into the classroom and expose people to this field in a larger way.

Dozens of high-school students watched as four-legged drones buzzed past each other like yellow bumblebees in a gym at Kentucky’s Hazard Community and Technical College. More than 70 kids from eight schools had spent hours designing, building, and testing their own remote-controlled quadcopter unmanned aerial devices.

“We want to not only have a site in which drone testing can occur, but we want to develop a workforce so that as the drone industry grows, we will automatically have people that have skills to work in the various areas of drone technology, whether it be drone pilots or technicians or designers or manufacturers,” said Paul Green, the cooperative’s director of career and technical education.

How are drones being used commercially?

Many industries are beginning to use drone technology in their operations. Fields include real estate, online shopping (amazon), security firms and the list keeps going...

Even developing nations are using this technology. I came across an article entitled 'How are drones being used commercially in the US and how can they be used in Zimbabwe?' and I found it to be an interesting read about how they are incorporating this technology into their businesses.

A couple of weeks back, we were having a conversation with an executive at a leading Zimbabwean company that has a global footprint as well. This person was telling us how they are using drones on their construction and infrastructure projects. They went on to tell us that they now wanted to leverage on their own experience with drones to launch a service (kind of drone hire but a little more than that).

Private investigators are using drones

The Wright Group is one of many organizations that are beginning to adopt drones for data collection and assistance in litigation. Drones allow investigators to do their traditional monitoring at a further distance, minimizing the risk to the investigator and of getting caught prematurely.

Real Estate agents are using drones

One industry quietly changing with technology has been real estate. The web has been a major boon for real estate agents, who can catalog the properties they sell under a single domain. Virtual tours have become a popular method to show prospective buyers footage of a home before they see it.

Drones are making the experience more interactive and engaging. For now, the footage is a novelty addition to existing virtual tours, but on a larger property, the shots can provide a lay of the land. The footage is also relatively inexpensive, especially when compared to shooting from a helicopter or a crane.

Farmers are using drones..

Probably the one place where you’d expect not to find drones is one where they may have a gigantic impact on efficiency: the farm field. Drones mounted with the right equipment can monitor all sorts of relevant agricultural data (such as weather, crop or soil condition) using just one person.

Everybody is using drones for something these days...

With all the applications for drone usage this is sure to be a growing industry so if you are thinking about investing in drone technology companies, there has never been a better time.

Here's an interesting article about some of the top drone companies to invest in this year:

http://www.businessinsider.com/top-drone-manufacturers-companies-invest-stocks-2017-07

Some of the names mentioned include:

AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV)

Ambarella (NASDAQ:AMBA)

Boeing (NYSE:BA)

GoPro (NASDAQ:GPRO)

Techblogger Wrap Up

As someone very interested in technology and how it will be applied in the future I've found that drone technology is right up there with robotics and AI in terms of growth and opportunity.

I'd like your thoughts on this topic, please leave opinions and feedback below.

Thanks for reading!

Sources:

The Value of Bringing Drones to the Classroom - The Atlantic

How are drones being used commercially in the US and how can they be used in Zimbabwe? - TechZim