The Uses of Drones by Maya

 When people think of drones, most people think of planes with bombs and people being killed. It's true that’s part of the story, but drones have many uses besides the military that are very helpful.

What are drones?

UAV’s (unmanned aerial vehicle) commonly known as drones, are flying robots that can be as small as a dragon fly or as big as a house. Drones are like planes except the pilots can be thousands of miles away! People are currently making drones that can move around without pilots! There are many types of drones. Some are in the air force armed with bombs while others are bringing medical supplies to areas in disasters. 

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Hurricane Hunters

Drones can be used as hurricane hunters. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) began using drones in 2006. The drone the NOAA uses are about 35 pounds, which can fly into a hurricane and communicate near-real-time data. People use drones as hurricane hunters so they don't have to risk lives. Drones report on temperature, pressure, humidity, and location could help scientist understand the forces of wind and water inside hurricanes by going with the flow in ways humans never could.

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Forest Fires

Drones can be used for prevention and early detection of forest fires. People have developed drones that provide real time emergency service, including information about the location of the outbreak of fire as well as many factors (wind speed, temperature, humidity, etc.) that are helpful for fire crews to stop fires. The most popular drone of this type is FT-ALTEA, developed by Flightech System. 

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Medicine Transportation

Many developing countries don't have good roads. That means that medicine can't get to the people that need medicine quickly. But people have found an answer to that problem, drones. Drone can fly over bad roads. Also, trucks might take days to get medicine, but drones might take an hour or two. These drones use three main technologies. The first is the electric flying vehicles. The second is the ground landing stations where the drones can come to swap batteries and deliver medicine. And the third is the operating system which manages the whole network.

In conclusion, even though drones can kill people, they can also save people. Drones will change the world in unexpected ways, bad and good.

Sources

Wikipedia "unmanned aerial vehicles" n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle
Retrieved on Feb. 9, 2014

TED Talks "no roads there's drones a drone for that"  
 http://new.ted.com/talks/andreas_raptopoulos_no_roads_there_s_a_drone_for_that  
Retrieved on Feb. 12, 2014

PBS Nova "How Dumb are Drones" http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/how-dumb-are-drones.html  
Retrieved on Feb. 9, 2014

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