Reposted from IQS Directory

The world was formally introduced to the concept of “drones” through the use of unmanned, remote-control airplanes used in tactical military missions around the turn of the 21st Century. It seemed like science fiction, and much of how they worked was shrouded in controversial secrecy.

It wasn’t long until the first consumer drones hit the market, replacing spy photography gear or weapons with consumer-grade cameras that fit on tiny helicopter-looking contraptions that fly using a standalone remote control or a connected app via smartphones.

In the years since, Jeff Bezos has boldly claimed that Amazon will one day use an army of drones to deliver packages even faster than it already does, while virtually every Instagram photographer has started using drones to achieve a unique perspective on otherwise-common images.

In addition to the far-flung and the trivial, drones are already transforming many jobs and industries, with more to come in the near future.

HOW DRONES WORK

Almost everyone who looks at a consumer-grade drone will sum it up as something along the lines of “a remote control helicopter.” Drones and helicopters both use rotating blades to generate vertical lift, but the four diminutive blades on most drones act to provide a more stable flight with more potential for micro adjustments than a single blade would provide.

Plus, a set of two or three inch blades can’t inflict nearly as much damage as a single 12-inch blade might!

Like helicopters, the rotating blades generate lift through thrust. The faster the blades spin, the more thrust a drone generates. Thanks to the incredible amount of computing power packed into even the most entry-level drones, users can pilot a drone using a simple joystick interface while the software behind the scenes makes a staggering amount of calculations.

Want to tilt the whole drone a few degrees to change the camera angle, while still flying slowly forward? Two joysticks handle pitch, horizontal travel, and vertical climb or descent. But the four propellers are all playing off each other in incredibly complex ways, acting to generate differing amounts of lift fore and aft to create a suitable angle for the camera, then holding that angle while adhering to the user’s desired control inputs.

If you go to YouTube and watch any videos made by the latest round of drones, the stability is staggering; the videos often have an almost eerie quality to them because of drones’ unique ability to fly lower and maneuver more quickly than helicopters, all while the drone operator previews video footage in real time.

The four blades offer a surreal, stable, silent flight pattern that means drones have replaced helicopters for even the majority of professional and high budget film projects.

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