By now, almost everybody knows what drones are and what you can do with them. After a few flights, some pilots get bored. They find new and bizarre ways to use their drones. I would not recommend imitating all these applications, as they can be quite dangerous.
Today, I want to show you the top 10 ways to use a drone that you probably do not know yet.
10. Deliver champagne with a drone
A great marketing gimmick of one particular hotel is the delivery of champagne bottles via a drone to the balcony of rooms. The hotel is located in Sausalito, California, and uses an X-shaped octocopter.
In this case, it is important that the drone suspends the bottles well and that it can be easily loaded and unloaded. The bottles should be as close as possible to the drone’s geometric center of gravity and should be firmly attached to the suspension during the flight so that they are not thrown back and forth.
9. Film fireworks with a drone
Spectacular shots can be taken with a drone flying through fireworks. Here are some fireworks in West Palm Beach, Florida. Jos Stiglingh took the recordings with a DJI Phantom 2 and a GoPro Hero 3.
When flying, there are some things to consider. For safety reasons, such recordings should only be made over water, because there is a very high risk that the drone will crash. The direction of the camera should be against the wind, with no dust clouds in the background, and ideally the city should have many lights.
There are two approaches you can take to filming:
- Fly right into the fireworks. To make it more impressive, rotate the drone, especially when individual fireworks fly right by the drone.
- Fly away from the fireworks. The drone should stay in motion so there is relative movement between the fireworks and the background. This shows the viewer that the video was not just shot from a mountain but actually right in front of the fireworks.
8. Snowboard with a drone
Now let’s move on to winter sports. Whether you’re on a mountain or not, an individual ski lift would always be practical. That’s what a few guys created with their own very professional drone. It’s an octocopter with two motors per arm (16 motors).
The drone is controlled by a pilot and pulls a snowboarder behind it. What is shown in the video is probably illegal in many countries, because you generally shouldn’t fly over crowds in cities with such a large drone.
In any case, you must be well trained to hold on with one hand as this snowboarder does at the end of the video. Maybe the adrenaline helps a bit, too? 😉
7. Paint with a drone
This is a project by Paul Kry at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. The idea was to paint big pictures with many single dots.
Paul Kry and his students realized this project with the help of palm-sized drones. On one of the arms they attached a small wire with an ink swab on the end. The drone flies against the wall with the ink swab, which leaves an ink stain. All the ink spots together then form a picture.
The drone is controlled by a movement-detection system. With the help of several cameras and reflectors on the wall and the drone, a computer records the position of the drone. Then it calculates the control movements to properly position the next point on the image.
The video looks very simple, but there is a lot of computing power and experience behind this simple picture. The biggest challenges during the project were low-battery performance and air turbulence.
6. Go fishing with a drone
Here is a video of two friends from the southwest coast of Australia. They go fishing for long-tailed tuna. With the help of a DJI Phantom 4 Pro and a boom that they developed, they fly the bait to the open sea.
Due to the refraction of light, it is easy to see the fish in the water from above. The pilot looks for a school of tuna and flies the bait directly into the middle of the school. Once one of the tuna has bitten, the connection between the bait and drone is severed and the fish is left hanging only on the fishing line.
The hard part for the fisherman is bringing the heavy fish ashore. The pilot can watch it all from above.
5. Play Pokemon Go with a drone
For those who are not familiar with the famous smartphone game Pokemon Go, here is a short introduction. In the game, players can catch and develop fantastical creatures (pokemon) and compete against each other in virtual battles. The game environment is based on augmented reality. With the help of real GPS data from the smartphone, the player moves through the virtual game world.
If you’re too lazy to walk, you can also use a drone. To mount the smartphone on the drone, you need a bracket, and you need to position it such that the onboard camera can look at the screen of the smartphone.
This allows the pilot and player to see a live image of the drone as the drone flies through the real world with the smartphone, simultaneously moving its pokemon through the game world.
4. Go balloon hunting with a drone
This game looks really fun, especially if you play it in a group. The goal of the game is to destroy two helium-filled balloons with a drone before they get too far away.
FPV (first person view) racing drones are best for this game, but any type of drone can be used.
A good video transmission is extremely important, preferably directly on a pair of data glasses.
Helium balloons don’t usually simply fly straight up but rather are blown back and forth by the wind. This makes this game really unpredictable and exciting.
3. Go wakeskating with a drone
Wakeskating is a water sport where you glide on a board over the water. A motorboat, a water ski lift, or even a drone pulls the driver.
Unlike wakeboarding, in wakeskating you are not tied to the board, which makes it even more difficult, but the potential tricks are more versatile.
It’s necessary for the drone to have a lot of power. This is why mostly large octocopters are used, like in the video.
Drones offer the advantages of both boats and lifts. On the one hand, they provide the flexible direction of a boat, and on the other hand, they also offer a calm water surface like a lift.
2. Cook with a drone
The idea to cook with a drone is highly creative. Why not? It could theoretically go four times faster than with a mixer, right? So, you can offer your girlfriend a helping hand in the kitchen.
But mixing is not the only thing a drone can do in the kitchen. It can also peel vegetables. For example, take a potato and carefully hold it up to a propeller. This will immediately tear the first pieces of the potato, and with a little skill, you can use this trick to peel the potato.
The next step is to use the drone as a knife. Similar to a circular saw, you can hold the drone vertically to cut up food. The only problem is that you have to hold both the drone and the food and operate the remote control at the same time.
Last but not least, you can replace the propellers with beaters and mix ingredients in four bowls at the same time.
If you want to try this at home, I would advise you to first determine who will clean up the kitchen afterward. 😉
1. Go base jumping with a drone
This list is topped by what is probably the most dangerous drone application, base jumping. This was achieved by Aerones in Latvia on May 12, 2017.
The drone is made up of 28 propellers with floating containers on the bottom. The drone started out in the water, and a rope attached to its center of gravity was used to hold up the base jumper.
The base jumper waited for the drone on a 120m-high transmission tower. The drone then flew the base jumper to a height of 330m. The base jumper just let go of the traverses and freefell for a few seconds. After he landed safely on the ground with a parachute, the team celebrated the first base jump with a drone.