The possible benefits to drone technology are staggering. Once people get over the fear and unknown of drones, they’ll soon realize there are many amazing ways humanity and even the planet can benefit. One such possible way is via replanting deforested areas. An article in Gizmodo features a company that proposes to plant one BILLION trees per year via drones.

Drones could be used to map the deforested area.  Then drones would deploy the seeds.

This idea by BioCarbon Engineering are just the tip of the iceberg. Drone technology and innovation is advancing at an incredibly rapid pace.  Embrace it.

Here’s a great article citing drones doing good, from Gizmag.  The article talks about how drones can reduce the cost of forest conservation.   I love seeing articles like this to help counterbalance the complete paranoia there is regarding drones.

I especially liked the part where they say that a $1500 drone could be used to replace LiDAR (short for light detection and ranging) flights, which can cost $20,000 PER FLIGHT!

A couple of nights ago my doorbell rang.  It was after dark and I wasn’t expecting anyone.  Before I could get five feet closer to the door the doorbell rang again.  Someone was in a rush.  When I opened the door it was two neighborhood kids, one about 8 years old and the other perhaps 6.  He had one of those tiny mini-quads which, as you can see below, had some battery connectivity issues.

“Can you fix it mister?”

“Can you fix it mister?” the kid asked… I told him I could probably fix it, but it would take me a couple of days because I was busy. So he left his quad and went home.

After dinner I decided to to my best Scotty from Star Trek and fix the thing in a fraction of 1/1000th of the estimated time. “I can’t fix the warp engines for 2 days, but I can get you warp speed in 2 minutes.”

I looked closely at the circuit board and could see markings for + and – battery connections. I re-stripped the leads, soldered them on, and the bird powered up perfectly. The kid was blown away when I rang his doorbell some 30 minutes after he rang mine. He was thrilled to have his bird up and running again. His parents asked me if I would mind “teaching” him some stuff about drones.

Sounds fun.