From sport to shopping: how drones will soon be part of our everyday lives

The UK Government is currently running a consultation on the safe use of drones, which can range from tiny machines as small as a hand to the size of a small plane.

Richard Elliott, an aerial filmmaker, photographer and chartered surveyor based near Aviemore and member of the Association of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems UK, who qualified as a drone pilot three years ago, said the technology was progressing at “warp speed”.

“The industry is changing incredibly quickly. I started my training three years ago and that is now the Dark Ages in terms of how quickly things have moved," he said. .

“At that time I was told the stage where drones were was a bit like manned aviation at the time of the First World War. The instructor then suggested over the next three to five years it would be the equivalent of moving manned aviation from the First World War into the jet age and that is exactly what has happened.”

Elliot said issues such as managing collision avoidance would have to be addressed but he added: “In the next 20 to 30 years I imagine we will be looking at a situation where, particularly in cities, looking out of an office window you would watch drones buzzing around ‘Bladerunner-style' as a matter of course.”

Here we look at the rise of drones in our everyday lives and how they may be used in the future:

FROM WILDLIFE TO WILD MUSHROOMS: THE DRONES OF TODAY

One of the most visible ways drones has been used in recent years is in the field of photography and television making, with the technology enabling the capture of amazing scenes. British geographer William Lindesay recently used a drone to capture the Great Wall of China from the air, while the recent BBC series Planet Earth II used a jungle-adapted drone to film wildlife hundreds of feet up in the trees.

Elliott said: “A photograph at 10 or 20 feet above the ground but in the middle of a river or something, which would be almost impossible to achieve before, is available with drones – so it gives this whole new perspective on looking at things from the air.”

But drones are already being deployed in many other more mundane areas of life, such as surveying buildings. Heritage body Historic Environment Scotland uses drones as a cost-efficient way to inspect the condition of properties and monuments.

Drones have also been used in search operations and mountain rescue teams in Scotland said they are “actively looking” at the benefits of using them in their operations.

An unusual use was showcased on the Channel 4 show Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast when an unmanned aircraft was used to identify the locations of wild mushrooms.

DELIVERIES FROM THE SKY AND PASSENGER SHIPS: TOMORROW’S DRONES

Retail giant Amazon made its first commercial delivery using a drone in the UK in December last year, with a package which was delivered in Cambridge 13 minutes after being ordered. A trial of this delivery system is expected to be expanded in the coming months and the retail giant also recently filed a patent for massive flying warehouses carried by an airship which are envisaged will be able to hold fleets of drones to deliver packages to key locations.

Passenger drones are also being developed by Israeli and Chinese companies, which could be used for transporting people at low altitudes.

Bryce Allcorn, solutions implementation manager at ConsortiQ, which offers drone consultancy and training courses, including in Perth and Inverness, said drones could be also used in the field of healthcare more extensively in the future.

He said: “There have been trials in Europe where they were sending defibrillators out by drone – so that is one example. In Africa, they are using drones to deploy blood and medicines. In many ways, in that sense the future is already here, it will just an expansion of it – it is looking at what is going and how that can be expanded further.”

He added: “I think in the next couple of years we are going to see drones becoming much more accepted as part of everyday life.”

However drones are, of course, not without controversy – with reports of close encounters with aircraft and the machines being used to drop drugs into prisons in recent years.

A new ‘counter-drone’ industry is also springing up, with one company in the Netherlands even training eagles to intercept and bring down drones which are being used illegally.

70MPH OBSTACLE COURSES AND $250,000 PRIZES: THE WORLD OF DRONE RACING

Forget old-fashioned horse racing or watching Formula One, the new sport in town is drone racing. Participants don first person view (FPV) headsets to skilfully guide a drone round a course of obstacles such as hoops, gates and flags, with the help of a video feed from tiny cameras attached to the machine to guide them.

There are currently around six clubs in Scotland which have sprung up in the past couple of years and a dedicated organisation FPV Scotland, which held the first national competition last year.

Allan Sneddon, event organiser for FPV Scotland and owner of drone shop KoolToyz.co.uk, said most of the ‘pilots’ who took part in racing built their own drones.

“Most of the time there are no two drones the same,” he said. “It is a head-to-head race, but you can only ever race maximum six drones in one race because of the frequencies – any more than that and your video feed bleeds into your competitors.

“They last three or four minutes due to limitations on batteries – but these things are superfast, they will probably do 70mph plus and get to that speed in under three seconds.”

Drone racing became the newest sport to be shown by US channel ESPN last year, while Sky Sports has also broadcast races. And for the top pilots, there can be big money involved – 15-year-old Luke Bannister from Somerset led a team to victory in the World Drone Prix in Dubai last March, picking up $250,000 of prize money.

But Sneddon said the sport was not so commercialised in Scotland. “With us it is just guys in a field, with some old gates and whatever we can muster for obstacles,” he said.