Volocopter’s heavy-duty drone

It is not a toy, a surveillance or information-gathering device, nor is it a military-industrial development: it is a serious working machine. At this year’s World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS World Congress) in Hamburg, the German-developed Volodrone was unveiled to the public at the Port of Hamburg.

Four-rotor special drone

Researchers at the University of Zurich have built an autonomous flying device that is sure to change the way we think about drones. An autonomous drone from researchers at the University of Zurich zips through the trees of a forest at high speeds with the ease of a large dragonfly dodging reeds.

Applications of drones

If we look at the areas where drones are being considered, we can see that it is the cheap and easily accessible aerial, or rather aerial photography – the possibilities offered by a drone-mounted camera – that makes unmanned aerial vehicles an attractive alternative. The areas in which this hardware (camera-equipped drone) can be deployed are determined by the software and services built around it.