Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Drones and its applications

Drones remained an alien word for a long time, however drone technology has become a significant part of our modern lives. Drones or Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) may have seen initial usage only in military applications but it is now being used for various purposes such as photography, videography, security surveillance, agriculture and even delivery.? While in the earlier times, drones were controlled via remote by operators, the latest technological advancements have equipped them to fly autonomously. From being considered a recreational toy or a tool for smart photography, it is now picking up to be a consumer and commercial technology offering a vast number of advantages.

AI in Drone Technology

The latest technological marvel - Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for some time now and is?slowly becoming a part of our everyday lives. Right from understanding shopping behaviour to powering self-driven cars and screening several kinds of cancers - AI has been revolutionary and holds immense promise in the future with endless possibilities.?

AI has played a vital role in making machines more capable of completing tasks without human intervention and drones are one among the many that have evolved using this tech . While drones use computer vision technology to fly in the air without colliding with objects, AI makes these flying drones even smarter! AI-powered drones are crucial when human intervention is riskier - for instance war zones or disaster areas. They can also cover more ground than humans can and can also be programmed to make faster decisions and act accordingly.

Use Cases of AI-powered Drones in India

Some of the use cases of drones that are now being popularly used in India are below:

1. Agriculture and Farming

Drones are being widely used in the field of agriculture for a variety of purposes - spraying pesticides and fertilizers, managing locust infestation and even accessing crop damage. Based on the requirements, drones are either mounted with sensors for analyzing crops or spraying mechanisms.

2. Construction

Drone applications in the construction industry have helped companies save a whole lot of time, along with bringing in accuracy and reducing the scope of errors. AI drones are used to scan and map the construction terrain in a span of few minutes! With technological advancements happening with each passing hour, AI in drones presents a world of possibilities in this sector.

3. Military?

AI is revolutionizing warfare and combat in the military. Drones are being highly used for information gathering, carrying payloads, urban surveillance, disaster response, rescue operations in forests, mines and even for monitoring poaching activities.?

Opportunities

AI-enabled drones have a long list of possible applications yet to be explored in our country. With the onset of more innovative technologies, these intelligent drones are likely to see a lot more application in a wide range of fields. Some of the fields that would highly benefit from AI-drones are Healthcare where the possibility of delivering medicines at doorstep via drones especially in an emergency, can be revolutionizing in this sector. These AI-driven drones can also be used to transport organs, samples, blood, etc., saving ample amounts of time. Drones have also been proposed to take control of traffic on busy roads and help manoeuvre ambulances in emergencies through heavy traffic scenarios. Environment authorities in India are also looking at AI drones to help in monitoring pollution and detect areas from where excess smoke, garbage etc. are being generated.

While the drone market is still in its infancy in India, it is expected to make big strides owing to the increasing demand for AI-powered drones in emerging fields such as wildlife preservation, search and rescue, and precision agriculture. The demand in AI-powered drones has also been catapulted by economical data acquisition, therefore making them essential in agriculture, real estate, oil and gas, and mining.