When we talk about drones, most of us would most probably think about the military sort, where they swoop in on enemy territory, sometimes letting go of their payload to make sure that the enemy is killed – without having to send a single soldier to the battlefield. Well, a weapon of war would also come in handy during times of peace, as you can see with this drone from the Georgia Institute of Technology. In fact, it is said that drones could eventually assist human workers safeguard a whopping 4 million miles of U.S. highways that connect the entire country. These drones will do the “heavy lifting” of inspecting bridges and roads, while performing a survey of land using laser mapping. Heck, when the situation calls for it, the drone can even alert officials to traffic jams or accidents.
According to Javier Irizarry, director of the CONECTech Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology, “Drones could keep workers safer because they won’t be going into traffic or hanging off a bridge. It would help with physical limitations of the human when doing this kind of work. We’re going to look at the different divisions that [DOT] has and see how they do things like surveying, safety monitoring or using traffic cameras. Maybe they could be using drone technology for a similar purpose.”
Filed in . Read more about Drones.