Drone Technologies

A Wall Street Journal report claims widespread drone use began in 2006 when the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency introduced UAVs to monitor the the U.S. and Mexico border.

In late 2012, Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine, retired to dedicate himself to his drones company, 3D Robotics, Inc. (3DR). The company, which started off specializing in hobbyist personal drones, now markets its UAVs to aerial photography and film companies, construction, utilities and telecom businesses, and public safety companies, among others.

In late 2013, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced a plan to use commercial drones for delivery activities. However, in July 2016, Reno-based startup Flirtey beat Amazon to the punch, successfully delivering a package to a resident in Nevada via a commercial drone. Other companies have since followed suit. For example, in September 2016, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University began a test with Project Wing, a unit of Google owner Alphabet, Inc., to make deliveries, starting with burritos produced at a local Chipotle restaurant. Then in December 2016, Amazon delivered its first Prime Air package in Cambridge, England. In March of 2017, it demonstrated a Prime Air drone delivery in California.

Drone education is also expanding; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, long a training ground for the aviation industry, now offers a Bachelor of Science in unmanned systems applications, a Master of Science in unmanned systems and an undergraduate minor in unmanned aerial systems.

Drones can be controlled remotely, often from a smartphone or tablet. Wireless connectivity lets pilots view the drone and its surroundings from a birds-eye perspective. Users can also leverage apps to pre-program specific GPS coordinates and create an automated flight path for the drone. Another handy wirelessly-enabled feature is the ability to track battery charge in real time, an important consideration since drones use smaller batteries to keep their weight low.

The use of drones outside the military has grown tremendously over the past decade. Beyond surveillance and delivery applications, UAVs are used in drone journalism, search and rescue, disaster response, asset protection, wildlife monitoring, firefighting, communications relay, healthcare and agriculture.

The integration of drones and internet of things (IoT) technology has created numerous enterprise use cases. Drones working with on-ground IoT sensor networks can help agricultural companies monitor land and crops; energy companies survey power lines and operational equipment; and insurance companies monitor properties for claims and policies.

A 2015 experiment in Austin, Texas, showed how drones can potentially "connect the dots" using IoT. A security tech company teamed up with a drone startup to hunt for Zigbee beacons to try to provide an overview of what IoT networks were present in residential and business areas of the city. The companies reported that the results were quick and instructive.

he new Drone Rules 2021 are here, and make for a major boost to the private and commercial drone ownership ecosystem of India. The new Drone Rules 2021 have largely liberalised what was so far a tightly regulated space, and show clear intent from the government to have more individuals own and operate drones for private and commercial usage in India. The key takeaways of the new Drone Rules 2021 include reducing the number of hoops one was previously required to jump through in order to obtain a permission, and the new rules is both easing the procedure of obtaining a licence, and also the fees involved in doing so.

ABOLISHING OLD DRONE APPROVALS : To begin with, the Drone Rules 2021 are abolishing a number of approvals that were previously mandated before an individual could apply for a drone licence. As a result, an applicant for a drone licence will no longer need to supply a drone’s unique authorisation number, unique prototype identification number, certificate of conformance and certificate of maintenance before applying for a permission and licence to own and operate a drone in the Indian airspace.

Applicants will also no longer be required to produce operator permit approval, and other documents such as letter of approval of the respective drone R&D organisation, student remote pilot licenses, remote pilot instructor authorisations, drone port authorisations and any further documents for import permits of drone components, in order to own and operate a drone in India.

Mandatory to Register Drones Under New Rules; Will Help Identify Rouge Drones: Officials

EASING DRONE APPLICATION PROCESS : The new Drone Rules 2021 crucially claim to ease the entire drone application process. To this end, the new Rules clarify that the total number of forms and permissions required to obtain a drone licence in India are being reduced from 25 to five. Applicants will not be required to obtain additional security clearances prior to drone registration and issuance of a drone pilot’s licence. The new Rules also claim that the permission fee for a drone will be reduced to “nominal levels”, going forward.

SETTING UP FOR COMMERCIAL DRONE USAGE : Alongside relaxing the multiple complex approvals that were previously required, the new Drone Rules 2021 also bring drones with payload capacity of up to 500kg under its fold. The new Rules therefore include heavy payload drones, and as the new Rules specifically mention, ‘drone taxis’. This move shows clear intent from the central government to increase commercial usage of drones in India, especially in areas such as unmanned e-commerce deliveries to usual as well as previously unserviced areas.

PROMOTED CONTENT By : The Rules also explicitly propose the creation of a dedicated drone corridor for cargo deliveries, affirming the central government’s intent in this space. Businesses are also being catered for under the new Rules, which states that a new Unmanned Aircraft Systems Promotion Council will be set up in order to frame a “business friendly” regulatory regime, which will support the use of drones in freight transit.

ENCOURAGING PRIVATE DRONE USERS : The Indian government is clearly seeking to encourage more individuals to use drones, and to this end, the maximum penalty for violation of any of the new Drone Rules 2021 has been capped at Rs 1 lakh. The procedures for transferring and deregistering drones in India is also being eased, and the process to regularise existing drones in India is also being eased. For non-commercial usage, the new Drone Rules 2021 state that no pilot licences will be required for recreational or casual users, to own and operate nano- or micro-drones.
For such private drone users, the new Rules state, “Safety features like ‘No permission – no take-off’ (NPNT), real-time tracking beacon, geo-fencing etc. to be notified in future. A minimum six-month lead time will be provided for compliance.”
Aiming primarily at private users, the government has established a new platform, called the Digital Sky Platform. The latter will display an interactive airspace map, divided into red (no-fly), yellow (intermediate) and green (permissible) airspace zones. The yellow zone here has been reduced, from a previous parameter of 45km from a nearby airport, to within 12km of the airport now.
This move should further facilitate drone usage among private, creative and casual users. The platform will also work as a portal for online registration of all drones, further easing the application process for all users.

TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION CONTROL OF DRONES : Going forward, the new Rules state that all drone training and examinations for pilots applying for licences will be issued by an authorised drone school. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has been tasked with establishing training requirements, overseeing the performance of these drone schools and provide the drone pilot licences, which will be issued online.
The new rules further state that the Quality Council of India and its authorised certification entities are being tasked with issuing drone type certification, which will help users establish differences between nano-drones, micro-drones and more. This will be crucial to understand which drone pilots require licences to operate, which qualify as casual and recreational drones, and which fall under the commercial and regulated areas.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade will regulate the import of drones in India, and finally, the new Drone Rules 2021 state that research entities looking to use drones for their projects will not be required to obtain drone type certificate, unique identification number, remote pilot licences or any other prior permission – hence liberalising the use of drones in India to a large extent.

The Medicine from the Sky' is an initiative of Telangana in partnership with World Economic Forum, NITI Aayog, and HealthNet Global (Apollo Hospitals).

The project was launched on experimental Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flights for delivery of vaccines using the identified airspace of the Vikarabad district.

BVLOS drone flights are those that go beyond 500-700 metres from the eye's vision or beyond the visual line of sight.

Tech startup Skye Air is part of a consortium for the project. It has joined hands with BlueDart Express to provide drone based-delivery and drone flights to conduct these trials.

Telangana Minister for IT and Industries KT Rama Rao requested the Union Minister to establish an Aviation University or Centre of excellence at Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad.

Blue Dart, in a regulatory filing, said it is proud to be given the first opportunity amongst various consortiums to initiate the drone trials.