Drone-based Technology

By

Programme title Master of Information Technology

Course code and title ITPG8.600 Advanced mobile and wireless technologies

Lecturer name MD Akbar Hossain

Assessment title ITPG8.600 - Assignment 1

Due date 03 March 2025

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Abstract
It is not sci-fi anymore, drone-based technology rapidly changing and expanding into more
applications such as agriculture, healthcare, logistics, construction, and military operations. This report
will explore the key components such as sensors, communication systems, and power sources currently
being used to function a drone while addressing some of the challenges of security and privacy
problematic for its growth in the industry. By analyzing the last 5 years of academic research articles,
this study lays out different applications of drones, their technical specifications, and the commercial
drivers carrying away their adoption. Studies have found that these drones offer significant benefits,
including cost efficiency, improved productivity, and enhanced data collection, but also some of the
risks involved such as GPS spoofing and privacy violations. In conclusion, drone technology has a
promising future with its new innovations. However, some of the security-related concerns highlighted
in this report may be a potential for its future growth.

Keywords: UAV (Unmanned aerial vehicles), GPS (Global Positioning System), Precision
Agriculture, 3D (Three-dimensional), LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), IMU (Inertial
Measurement Unit), AI (Artificial Intelligence), ML (Machine Learning)
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 4
2. Example applications in a range of industries/contexts ........................................................... 6
3. The technical specifications or discussion of the key components facilitating the working of
the technology ................................................................................................................................... 8
4. Security and/or privacy related threats affecting the personal adoption or commercial uptake
of the technology ............................................................................................................................... 9
5. Commercial drivers and business opportunities enabling the adoption and use of the
technology ....................................................................................................................................... 10
6. Discuss the potential future of the technology and the impact ............................................... 11
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 12
Reference ......................................................................................................................................... 13
1. Introduction
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, have expanded over numerous applications
such as Farming, military, healthcare, logistics, and construction (Mohsan et al., 2022). These flying
contraptions are also referred to as pilotless aircraft since an onboarded operator presence is not
required whilst being cost-effective and more efficient in critical operations which are usually too risky
for human beings (Mohsan et al., 2022). These drones function with equipment such as a physical
model, Ground Control Station (GCS), modern sensors along with a communication platform to
interact with one another (Ahmed et al., 2022). Before the use cases of drones expanded, they were
used mainly for military operations (search and rescue, surveillance) and weather forecasting and
climate monitoring (Ahmed et al., 2022). With the popularity of online shopping, customers
demanding faster delivery services and leading electronic retailers (e-tailers) such as Walmart, Google,
Amazone and DHL focused their attention towards drones as they are looking for faster and more
efficient ways to deliver items (Mohsan et al., 2022).

Since the demand from the military continues to grow in UAVs, their potential in other fields can be
further explored to broaden the numerous benefits of drone technology (Mohsan et al., 2022). Drones
capable of providing real-time aril imagery in farming where people cannot easily reach (Ayamga et
al., 2021). While there are more use cases of drones in the agriculture industry, in healthcare, drones
are used to deliver medical-related services to rural areas where the road conditions are poor and cannot
be reached easily (Ayamga et al., 2021). As Ahmed et al. (2022) had said, drones are being used in
evacuation situations caused by natural forces such as storms, floods, wildfires, etc. More details of
drone-based technology applications will be elaborated in section 2.

According to Mohsan et al.(2022) and Ahmed (2022), drones can be further classified into sub-
categories i.e., Fixed-Wing Drones, Rotor Drones (Multirotor), Flapping-Wing Drones, Hybrid
Drones, Lightweight Drones (Blimps, Gliders, Kites). There are two ways to control drones: (i) an
operator controls remotely from the ground and (ii) an automated drone hard coded with specific
destinations (Ayamga et al., 2021). Due to their aerodynamic shape, UAVs are categorized by their
flying principle (Ahmed et al., 2022). Drones can be found with different wing and engine structures
(Mohsan et al., 2022). There are two types of drone technologies known as rotors where the required
thrust is produced by multiple rotors and propellers to boost upwards and wing type where the required
thrust is produced by attached wings (Ahmed et al., 2022). As shown in Table 1, multiple-rotor drones
are further classified as tricopters, quadcopters, hexacopters and octocopters (Mohsan et al., 2022).

Table 1: Categories of Drones as per their Propellers

Types of UAVs Number of Propellers

Octocopter 8
Hexacopter 6
Quadcopter 4
Tricopter 3

Note. Categories of UAVs based on number of propellers. From "Towards the Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles (UAVs): A Comprehensive Review," by (Mohsan et al., (2022)., MDPI. Copyright 2022 by
MDPI,.
Drones use both short and long-range wireless technologies such as nano, micro or (Mohsan et al.,
2022). Integration of Global Positioning System (GPS) and customizable apps for smartphones have
enhanced flight duration, reliability, and ease of manoeuvring (Ayamga et al., 2021). Communication
methods have evolved from the first generation (1G) with zero data capabilities to end-to-end
connectivity and IP networking with the fifth generation (5G) (Ahmed et al., 2022). UAVs are highly
studied when combined with wireless technologies and already demonstrated the possibility of
improving the energy and spectrum efficiencies of 5G wireless networks since they provide a
continuous flexible platform to arial base station installation (Mohsan et al., 2022). More details of
drone-based technologies will be elaborated in section 3. Section 4 will discuss the challenges to
security and privacy-related threats affecting the personal adoption or commercial uptake of the
technology. Section 5 will analyse commercial drivers enabling the adoption and use of drone-based
technology. Section 6 will discuss the future of drone-based technology and its impact on society.
2. Example applications in a range of industries/contexts
Technology is the main aspect of globalization and drone technology is such technology which is
showing rapid growth in areas such as agriculture, health and military (Ayamga et al., 2021).
Figure 1

Usage of Drone-Technology in Different Applications

Note. Distribution of UAV Market Value by Industry. From "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Communications for Civil Applications: A Review," by M. Ghamari et al., 2022, IEEE Access.
Copyright 2022 by IEEE.
A. Drone Usage in Wildlife Tracking
Drones have increasingly been featured in scientific research for aerial animal detection and
have recently expanded to advanced methods for monitoring natural animal behaviours,
gathering biological data, and even collecting samples or intentionally deterring animals from
agricultural areas (Mo & Bonatakis, 2022). Optical or radar-based monitoring is usually used
to track wildlife using drones (Marzioli et al., 2024). Drones are being used in some countries
in operations to monitor wildlife reserves and detect illegal activities, such as poaching or
trespassing (Ayamga et al., 2021)

B. Drone Usage in Agriculture

UAVs play a huge role in precision agriculture by gathering data from ground sensors (quality
of water, soil status, moisture, etc.), weed and pesticide spraying, identifying deceases, and
controlling the level of water (Mohsan et al., 2022). There are new possibilities with drone-
based technology to capture the state information of crops with frequent visits and high spatial
resolution and similarly useful for difficult tasks like weed mapping as the captured images
have proven the convenience of early weed detection in farms (Rejeb et al., 2022). Infrared,
NVDI, and multispectral sensors are used in drones to capture crop health imaging which helps
 farmers to better track crop health, transpiration rates, sunlight absorption rates etc (Puri et al.,
2017). It is possible to ease the difficult field work and increase efficiency by using drones for
3D mapping (Rejeb et al., 2022). One of the most fascinating uses is agricultural surveillance
where drones can fix the limitation of satellite and aircraft imaging by providing high-
resolution near real-time images by reducing fuel and manpower costs (Rejeb et al., 2022). It
is difficult and time-consuming to monitor each corner of the land especially since it is
relatively large in size. Drones can do this without any setbacks and maybe a few times per
day (Puri et al., 2017).

C. Drone Usage in Logistics

Even though there are advantages and disadvantages in truck-based deliveries and drone-based
deliveries mainly due to the size of each, there is an example of drone-assisted truck delivery
where a truck will deliver commodities to a centralized location and drones can be used to
deliver items to rural areas where it is difficult for a truck to maneuver (Kim et al., 2024).
Speaking of default or harder-to-reach areas, drones can be used to deliver essential supplies,
medicines and other resources to an area where a disaster has been struck or a place where
transportation is not safe (Zrelli et al., 2024). Another combination of UAV-driven logistics is
drone-based maritime logistics where ships carry large amounts of freight and travel numerous
days but are difficult to deliver to coastal or remote areas and drones step up to navigate tight
spaces to deliver goods efficiently (Kim et al., 2024).

D. Drone Usage in Construction

Drone applications are used in Surveying, progress monitoring, mapping, asset maintenance
and safety monitoring (Nwaogu et al., 2023). This will help to enhance safety performance,
minimize the cost of inspections, and enrich communication between stakeholders (Nwaogu
et al., 2023). Progress of the project can be observed using high-quality aerial footage and data
(Nwaogu et al., 2023). As a vital component of virtual design and construction (VDC), UAVs
are providing architects and engineers an efficient ways to picture the structural requirements
from scratch (Elghaish et al., 2021). Usually, post-disaster inspections such as cracks
evaluation, movements of bearings, ground shifts etc. of infrastructure are done by using
terrestrial LiDAR surveys (Elghaish et al., 2021). As per Elghaish et al. (2021), surveys can
be done based on the collected images from drone footage of areas unreachable to the
terrestrial LiDAR scan.

E. Drone Usage in Military

In military applications, compared to regular aircraft with a pilot, drones are capable of
minimizing costs and risks to personnel as they are/or can be used for lethal surveillance and
target killings (Ayamga et al., 2021). Apart from that, there is a wider range of possible uses
in military applications such as intelligence collection, and anti-terrorism investigation
(Ahmed et al., 2022). Drones’ military applications are precious for each operation and provide
intelligence about the combat and use a swarm of UAVs to collect data related to military
operations (Laghari et al., 2023). As per Emimi et al. (2023), some of the major applications
of drones in the military domain are, surveillance and reconnaissance, targeted strikes, force
 protection, battlefield damage assessment, communication and relaying information and
battlefield support.

3. The technical specifications or discussion of the key components facilitating the

working of the technology
A drone can be remotely operated whilst the ground-based station (BS) provides necessary
commands to manoeuvre remotely (Mohsan et al., 2022). These devices are also capable of
manoeuvring themselves using autopilot and different sensors such as global positioning system
(GPS) and inertial measurement units (IMU) (Mohsan et al., 2022). Electronic speed controllers
(ESC) are being used to supply the required power and high frequency (ESC converts Direct current
to 3-phase Alternative current) to UAV motors (Ahmed et al., 2022). Since drones carry different
types of payloads, usually carry batteries that can hold a high density of energy such as lithium
batteries which allow drones to fly up to 20-40 minutes (Mohsan et al., 2022). The type of lithium
batteries which are used to power components of a drone are called Lithium-ion Polymer batteries
(LiPo) (Ahmed et al., 2022). Charging can be done by using either a wired or wireless power transfer
(WPT) system (Mohsan et al., 2022). Flight radio controller plays a crucial part in UAVs while
hovering mid-air as if the incorrect calibration could lead to crashes or unstable in the flight of the
drone (Ahmed et al., 2022).

To inspect solar panels, power transmission lines or in agriculture, to detect disease and plant
breeding, drones are using thermal cameras combined with a gimble not just to rotate the camera in
x, y and z directions but to stabilise the footage (Ahmed et al., 2022).

There are numerous amount of sensors attached to a drone which allow image capturing, measuring
distance, identifying changes in the environment and manoeuvre through different types of obstacles
autonomously (Emimi et al., 2023).

Below is the list of key sensors currently used in drones:

- GPS (Global Positioning System) Sensor: One of important sensor which allows a drone to
navigate precisely during flight time (Emimi et al., 2023).

- Imaging Sensors: Drones are commonly included with different imaging sensors to collect
aerial visual data. Standard colour images are captured using RGB cameras, whilst multispectral
cameras record information across multiple narrow bands of the electromagnetic spectrum
(Emimi et al., 2023).

- Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) Sensor: LiDAR sensors emit laser pulses and calculate
the time taken for the reflected light to return to the drone. This information helps produce
precise 3D maps of landscapes, structures, and other ground features (Emimi et al., 2023).

- Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU): The IMU is a collection of accelerometers and gyroscopes
which uses to measure drone’s orientation, angular velocity and acceleration (Emimi et al.,
2023).

- Ultrasonic Sensors: Send out a sound wave and measure the how long it’ll take the sound to
bounce back after hitting an object under the drone (Emimi et al., 2023).
 - Barometer: Measures changes in air pressure, which is directly related to changes in altitude
(Emimi et al., 2023).

- Magnetometer: which detects the changes of earth magnetic field and providing data on the
drone’s direction and orientation relative to the Earth’s magnetic north (Emimi et al., 2023).

- Gas and Chemical Sensors: this is something that comes with specialized drones which
detects gases or hazardous substances in the environmental (Emimi et al., 2023).

4. Security and/or privacy related threats affecting the personal adoption or

commercial uptake of the technology

Spying on individuals or streaming footage using drones has become a threat to privacy these days and
one of the issues that troubles many people (Nassi et al., 2021). Drones can be used to carry spying
devices and it has been identified that drones equipped with radio transceivers can be used to track
individuals across the city by identifying the MAC address of their own devices an MITM (Man-in-
the-Middle) attack to mobile by downgrading 4G to 2G (Nassi et al., 2021).
Commercial drones used for healthcare-related transportation to deliver organs to hospitals for
transplantation are uncovered to severe attacks such as GPS Spoofing performed by using simply
manufactured equipment (Nassi et al., 2021). Attackers can spoof GPS signals to mislead drones
which will alter the course of the drone and redirect them to attackers' desired paths (Emimi et al.,
2023).
Drones have been used by criminals to provide weapons to prisoners by ditching them from above into
prison yards (Nassi et al., 2021). Since drones are being used to collide with aeroplanes and explode
during landing and take-off, airports also facing threats from drone-based technology which led to the
cancellation of numerous flights at Gatwick Airport near London (Nassi et al., 2021).
5. Commercial drivers and business opportunities enabling the adoption and use of
the technology

As this paper discussed in earlier sections, even though there are ways to accomplish tasks in fields
such as wildlife tracking, agriculture, logistics, construction and military, drone technology has key
factors or forces over the traditional ways which motivate companies and industries to choose drone-
based technologies. Below are some of the key factors which drive industries to adopt drone-based
technologies.
i. Cost Efficiency
Cost efficiency and ease of control make drones the best solution for different commercial
applications (Mohsan et al., 2022). Farmers can mitigate their costs by making precious
decisions on the usage of farm inputs using the real-time data provided by drones (Ayamga et
al., 2021). In construction, among other advantages, drones help to minimize inspection costs
(Nwaogu et al., 2023).

ii. Improved Efficiency and Productivity

One of the examples of enhancement of efficiency and productivity is assisting the field of
agriculture to meet the future increasing demand by monitoring the crops, managing the stock,
crop spraying and irrigation mapping using drone-based technology (Ayamga et al., 2021).

iii. Enhanced Data Collection and Analysis

With the sensors attached, drones can provide high-resolution information to industries such
as agriculture, disaster management and environment monitoring (Mohsan et al., 2022).
Drones can observe the conditions of infrastructure, identify anomalies or possible bottlenecks
in the supply chain and ensure sure smooth and efficient movement of goods (Zrelli et al.,
2024)

iv. Safety Improvements

In construction industry, UAVs can be used to detect possible points of accidents during site
examination as well as to provide real-time access to footage or images from the programmed
paths around the job site to observe compliance with safety regulations (Nwaogu et al., 2023)
and (Elghaish et al., 2021).

v. Environmental Benefits
In precision agriculture, usage of drones can reduce the usage of water fertilizers as well as
pesticides (Ayamga et al., 2021). It can decrease the emission of carbon in last-mile delivery
rather than using conventional methods (Mohsan et al., 2022).
6. Discuss the potential future of the technology and the impact

The rapid growth of drone-based technology has made a positive impact in different sectors such as
agriculture, healthcare, logistics and delivery, disaster management, environmental monitoring etc
(Emini et al., 2023). With the combination of advanced technologies (reducing the size of chips,
batteries with higher capacity and enhancement in computational power, enabling self-balance, faster
networking and many more) manufacturers managed to reduce the cost and increase the consumer
market (Doornbos et al., 2024). Obstacle detection, accurate localization and mapping, and
understanding of semantic tasks are a few of Realtime use cases of drone flight enhanced by deep
learning (Doornbos et al., 2024). According to the global market report 2023-2030 by Drone Industry
Insights, it has been predicted that compound annual growth (CAGR) will go over 7% which will reach
USD 54.6 million by 2030 (Samawi et al., 2024).

Farmers are using drones to observe their corps using a cost-effective way that is capable of
recognizing the health of any corps and can alarm farmers using the built-in sensors (Laghari et al.,
2023). As mentioned by Laghari et al. (2023), a report shows that UAVs are being used to monitor
80% of agriculture. After reducing the necessity of human labour, since drones don’t require
infrastructure such as roads or transportation vehicles, it is less expensive since automate manoeuvring
(Samawi et al., 2024).
7. Conclusion
UAVs also known as drones come a long way from military applications to various industries such as
agriculture, healthcare, logistics, and construction. Advanced sensors, communication systems, and
efficient batteries enhance the capabilities of drone technology which allows them to perform certain
tasks more efficiently, and effectively compared to traditional methods. This advancement also holds
benefits such as improved productivity, advanced data collection and low cost and safety making
them the most suitable solution for companies and industries worldwide.

Even with such improvements, drone technology still facing challenges. As mentioned in Section 4,
GPS spoofing, unauthorized surveillance, and misuse in criminal activities could pose a serious threat
to the future growth of the industry which needs to be addressed. These issues could impact the
popularity of drones especially in sectors like healthcare, and logistics.

Even though there are challenges, there is also hope for the future of drone technology as AI and ML
technologies make it more efficient and show the capability of performing advanced complex tasks.
With the merge of AI, manual manure can be significantly reduced making them ideal for many
industries. There is a high probability that if drone technology could be merged with technologies
such as blockchain or IoT, the possibilities of the technology would be endless.

In conclusion, while drones already made their name in various industries, it hasn’t reached their full
potential yet. As technology evolves, it is the responsibility of the policymakers or governments to
make new policies which could also help to overcome the challenges in the drone industry.
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