Explore how flying Drones are used in a range of commercial applications.
- Explore the nature of drones in order to work more effectively with them
- Broaden and deepen your awareness of drone technologies to improve your capacity to innovate.
Course Content
This course is divided into nine lessons.
Lesson 1: Scope and Nature of Drone Technology
- What is a Drone?
- History of Drones
- Types of Drones
- Multi rotor, Single rotor, Fixed wing drones
- Fixed wing hybrid, airship and other drone types
- Connectivity - radio frequency, wi-fi, LTE
- Purpose of Drones
- Remote sensing, aerial surveillance, video applications
- Other applications - disaster relief, construction, geo survey, recreation, military, aquatic and space applications.
Lesson 2: Drone Features and Operation
- Main Features of Drones
- Camera and media storage
- Flight time and speed
- Hover accuracy
- Components - battery, gyroscope, accelerometer, altimeter, sensors, antenna
- Controllers - flight controller, electronic speed controller, gps
- Camera
- Payload
- How to build a Drone in 6 steps
- Operation of Drones - vertical motion, rotating
Lesson 3: Benefits, Risks and Legalities
- Ethical Concerns - individual rights, data protection, accountability of autonomous
- Legal Considerations
- Safety
- Air space
- Environmental law
- Spying
- Stalking
- Data collection
- Data breach
- Smuggling
- Drones as weapons
- Cyberweapons
Lesson 4: Environmental Applications
- Land Management
- Reforestation
- Sustainable Agriculture and Crop Monitoring
- Monitoring & Inspection of Renewable Energy Sources, Pipelines, and Oil Rigs
- Wildlife Conservation - detecting poachers, collecting samples
- Transport & Delivery
Lesson 5: Exploratory and Discovery Applications
- Drones in Exploration
- Oceanic Exploration
- Space Exploration
- Drones in Mining Applications
- Sampling and data collection
- Volumetrics and LiDar
- Stability and safety monitoring
- Security monitoring
Lesson 6: Retail and Service Applications
- Drones in Real Estate
- Photography
- Drones for Online Services
- Drones in Security
- Drones in Behavioural Economics
Lesson 7: Agronomic and Horticulture Applications
- Horticulture
- Agronomy
- Viticulture
- Livestock
- Precision Agriculture
- Applications
- Marketing and sales
- Surveying
- Crop monitoring
- Pesticide and fertiliser application
- Crop inventory and insurance
- Monitoring livestock
- Asset management
- Challenges of using drones in Agriculture: Types of aircraft, Sensors, BIG data, Flight regulations, Liability
Lesson 8: Construction and Industry Applications
- Construction Drones
- Mapping and Land Surveys
- Data and Scheduling
- Track and Inventory Equipment
- Progress Reports and Collaboration
- Safety and Inspections
- Security and Surveillance
- Limitations of Drones in Construction
Lesson 9: Telecommunication Applications
- Drone Technology in Telecommunications
- Inspections and Asset Management
- Line of sight testing
- Temporary networks and Airborne relays
- Network measurement
- Internet of things connectivity
- Data provision and processing
- Flight paths and corridors
- Unmanned aircraft systems
- Tethered systems
Course Duration - 100 hours
What is a Drone?
A drone is an unmanned aircraft. They are also referred to as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) and sometimes as Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS’s). Traditionally, UAVs were developed and largely deployed for military missions. Today their use is far wider than that though. They are increasingly being utilized in everything from firefighting and law enforcement, to farming, land use planning ( and monitoring), telecommunications and mining.
Drones can look quite different from one another based on the type of drone being examined. Excluding differences in propulsion and method of lift there are a number of common features. All drones require a power supply, antenna, receiver, flight control instruments and sensors. This course investigates all these components with reference to the layout of a common multi rotor drone, and in doing so provides a foundation for understanding and working with any type of drone.
