The most commonly asked question I get when talking about drones to other people is: "What exactly are you going to do with that?" They usually say it with a look of worry on their face, that expresses they are worried about my future because they believe I am majoring in toy building. I have to explain to them that drones are being used for more than just recreation, but for the amazing tool that they actually are. Above I made a Drone Nexus with the center being UAS applications. I wanted to express how many applications there actually are but I only included a few.

Drones have been a huge helping hand when it come to making tasks that before took long hours and a lot of man power, into tasks that now take a few minutes with one drone. Construction is one of the best examples I give to people who ask about drones. Before drones, construction workers sometimes had to scale very high heights to look and inspect things like electric towers, factories, or even windmills. Now with the use of drone technology, there is no risk during these inspections, and we can still receive pin-point accuracy data. Drones also help with preventative measures making sure that electric lines and other construction pipes are working properly while keeping a safe distance and keeping out of harms way.

When it comes to flying drones, our main purpose and mission is always keeping people safe. I like working with drones because I want to help people, and keeping people safe is part of that. Search and Rescue has been a huge part of drones since thermal camera payloads have been around. Last semester I did a research project on drones and search and rescue which went really well! I tested out different scenarios comparing people searching for people and drones searching for people, and the drones found the target faster almost ever time. There are several studies and instances where drones have found missing people that were lost for multiple days that were already covered by search parties and even dogs! Drones are good for all types of environments, being able to see under snowdrifts, to spotting people lost in the woods when there isn't much light, to helping guide firefighters out of a sticky situation.

Mapping is a huge part of drone technology that a lot of people don't know about. You can map out almost anything and examine it with 3D technology! Something cool that you can map is a flooded area of land! You can map the area before rainfall and after rainfall and compare the difference.  You can also map out golf courses, wooded areas, a plot of land you plan to build on, and basically anything! You can receive a lot of different types of data, depending on the mapping that you do.

Transportation. From our drone, to your front door. Drones are soon going to be delivering every day packages to the public! Amazon, Google, FedEx, and many other transportation experts are investing in drone technology to take their business to the next level.  Drones can find a way to transport anything that you need carried where you cant actually get to.

Drones have been advancing agriculture in ways unimaginable. Mapping out fields that have flooded and looking at data that drones can collect in crucial in getting the best outcome from a specific crop. Drones have even been used to spread pesticides that are harmful for humans to be around, once again removing humans from harms way. There is plenty of other data that drones can get on a field as well, using different sensors and cameras.

Cinematography has always been used drones to help get that amazing shot. Drones have been being used in the movie industry for awhile now, enhancing shots, and making camera work easy for crews. With special drone tracking systems, you can get fluid, high quality video for movies. Drones make that impossible shot from 10 years ago, just one flight away.

As you can see there are many amazing uses for these tools that the average person just doesn't know about. I wanted a simple visual that people could look at to really tell what kinda of applications drones have. Drones have been making life easier and safe for humans since they have really been used as tools, and they will only continue to make life better!

My first experience with drones through Purdue was with an fixed wing, called the Night Vapor. This was used in an introductory class and basically was to teach me how a fix wing would fly. We used these for a few labs, but most of them crashed and were obsolete by the second week of class. We were responsible for fixing our aircraft throughout the semester which was good experience. The next semester I was given a kit to build a quadcopter.  The quad I received was the x525 quadcopter. We didn't have very good instruction of how to properly build this drone, so for those of us who's first time it was building and programming one, it was extremely difficult. Through the first semester the only task we had was to build these drones and make them fly properly. It was a tough class but at the end of it, my x525 would at least fly to an extent. It wasn't calibrated very well but it was good enough to pass. Throughout the next semester I figured out how to calibrate this drone and started really building some flight time with quadcopters. For our next class we used the same x525 quadcopters that we built and put together, but this time we attached an autopilot. We used the pixhawk 4d for our autopilot which gave me some great experience on both that and mission planner. I think this would have been great experience if the drone we used was better for the program. Half the time if something malfunctioned we couldn't tell if it was the drone not being calibrated or the autopilot acting up. I was happy to get rid of the x525 quadcopters and upgrade to the 3DR solos. These were equipped with autopilot and GoPro Cameras. This gave us a chance to better enhance our autopilot skills and also work on some camera work with video editing. We did several missions on mapping using manual and autopilot flight. I feel like this last semester working with the 3DR Solo was the first time I received experience with a tool rather than just a toy.

A Post About Me

Thomas Gonya

Education
I am currently enrolled at Purdue University, studying about drone technology. This will be my 5th year at Purdue. I originally came here to be an airplane pilot, but figured out that was not for me. I did however receive my private pilots license and got some great experience in a field that is closely related to drones. After the drone major here at Purdue was formed I decided that this was what I wanted to focus on for the rest of my college career. From being in the drone program so far, I have received experience with mostly quad-copters and a few fix winged aircraft. I have a little Pixhawk 4D experience and some other auto pilot experience as well.

Interests
I became interested in flying drones when the major at Purdue was formed. I took one class to figure out if I enjoyed it, and I feel in love with the technology. Before Purdue I had no experience with drones. I enjoy the different functionality that drones have, and the endless uses and possibilities that drones can be used for. I am not sure what exactly I want to use drones for in my future, but I know I want to help people. I would love to find a new application for drones and start my own business but I know that goal is for a long way in my future. I am interested in learning more about drones so that someday I can use them to help others in a way that no one has thought of yet!