Here are 4 ways drones are benefitting society

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted drone companies to develop new uses for their technology, delivering vaccines in Africa and flying consumer goods to families stuck at home during lockdowns.

And drones are fast becoming a common feature of the supply chain.

Operators are developing heavy lifting systems capable of carrying up to 500kg. These drones have the potential to be more efficient and cost-effective than helicopters, trucks or ferries for delivering some types of goods, its proponents say.

This will be good news for people living long distances from the main transport networks, making it much easier for them to get food deliveries, medicines and industrial supplies. Even in countries with excellent transport links there is strong interest in using heavy-lift drones to reach people living in mountainous or desert areas.

Here are four companies attempting to take the technology to new heights.

Some of the biggest breakthroughs are in healthcare. One US medical drone company has been using drones to fly medical supplies to people living in rural parts of Rwanda and Ghana. Zipline’s lightweight drones can deliver packages from its distribution centres to clinics up to 85 kilometres away, cutting journey times and ensuring perishable supplies such as blood do not expire before they get to where they are needed.

Zipline’s system was adapted quickly to support the struggle against COVID-19, helping Ghana to deliver 13% of its initial supply of the vaccine in just three days.

In the US, Zipline is delivering health products direct to consumers’ homes as part of a partnership with retail giant Walmart, CNBC reports. In Pea Ridge, Arkansas, residents can place orders online and have them flown in by drone on the same day.

The idea has also taken off in Japan, where the company is flying medical supplies to pharmacies and clinics in the Goto Islands off the western coast of Kyushu. “You can totally transform the way you react to pandemics, treat patients and do things like home healthcare delivery,” said Zipline Chief Executive Keller Rinaudo.

It’s not only in healthcare that drones are making a big difference. Farmers are putting drones into the sky as part of the modernization of agriculture. The Dutch company Corvus Drones has developed a system which allows crops to be monitored from seedlings right through to harvest. Instead of a farm worker manually inspecting crops, the drones continuously fly overhead checking leaf size, each stage of growth and providing early warning of possible pest attacks.

The drones can carry different sensors or cameras, so they can be used to monitor many different crops. The data they collect as they buzz through greenhouses is then sent as a table or a graph to the farmer’s inbox, revealing how the crop is growing, and whether there are any signs of disease or stress.

Corvus Drones says the measurements are many times more accurate and consistent than would be possible with the human eye, and the use of aerial surveillance saves farmers huge amounts of time.

While heavy lifting drones are taking care of the big stuff, smaller drones are also proving their worth. MIT Assistant Professor Kevin Yufeng Chen has built tiny, insect-sized drones which could get to places impossible for more traditional designs to reach.

The mini drones weigh in at just 0.6g – about the mass of a bumble bee. They use carbon nanotube technology which allows them to flap their ‘wings’ at nearly 500 times a second. Chen hopes the robots could one day be used to pollinate crops or carry out inspections inside machines: “Think about the inspection of a turbine engine. You’d want a drone to move around [an enclosed space] with a small camera to check for cracks on the turbine plates,” he told MIT News.

The bee-sized drones could save lives, too. They might one day be used to help the rescue services after a disaster, capable of searching for casualties in locations which larger drones would find impossible to reach.

In the US, Drone Amplified is an app-based technology that integrates with drones to support firefighters in remote and rough terrain.

The drones carry small balls - roughly the size of table tennis balls - in a hopper. Around 30-60 seconds after they are released, these balls, which contain potassium permanganate, ignite, creating controlled fires.

These aid firefighters by making defensive lines in areas that might be difficult to navigate by plane or helicopter, much less by road or foot.