Drones dominate everyday life with new applications

Jaen (Spain): Research, aerial pesticide application, surveillance, wildfire monitoring, advertising, radio and television and agriculture are some of the applications that drones have contributed to in the past five years. Francisco Mesas, an engineer of geodesy and cartography at the University of Cordoba, explained to EFE the "staggering" developments in this field.

Mesas has been working since 2012 with a multi-disciplinary group of professionals who investigate new technologies and tools applied to various disciplines. "Interest in this type of technology has exponentially increased since 2012," Mesas told EFE, adding that not only development of these platforms was astonishing, whether rotocrafts or fixed wing designs, but also the types of sensors these platforms can be equipped with.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect that aroused the curiosity of the group was the use of "thermo graphic sensors, multi-spectral, or conventional cameras" in diverse applications, such as determination of crop water stress, detection of harmful weeds, providing support and assistance in forests, flight altitude determination, civil engineering for calculating earthwork and highways as well as heritage and archaeology. The State Aviation Safety Agency, or EASA, has registered more than 500 drone flight operators in Spain, mostly related to photography, audiovisuals or research.