“A drone is called an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), or an unmanned aircraft system (UAS).” (Alley-Young, 2024, p. 1)
This is how Alley-Young describes a drone. The etymology of the word ‘drone’
“…derives principally from … the word drone {which} describes a male bee whose sole function is to impregnate the queen bee.” (Miah, 2020, p.1)
The origins of drones goes back to the use of balloons to transport and drop bombs in the nineteenth century (Alley-Young, 2024; Miah, 2020). However, the word now refers to a huge range of devices that serve an enormous number of purposes. These drones have developed especially in the last 20 years as Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and computing/digital technology have advanced at an exponential rate (Miah, 2020).
Drones can range enormously in size and shape. They can move through the air, on land, and underwater. Combine this with advanced technology that enables precision navigation and remote control, the scope for creative design of drones is enormous. Therefore, drones have been applied to many different situations and for many different uses (see Figure 1).
Figure 1 Drone Uses (Miah, 2020)
This figure illustrates some of the uses of drones. These are identified in the light, orange-coloured ellipses. The image in the centre is of lampshades controlled by drones swirling around a room. These drones were used by Cirque du Soleil in their SPARKED act (Miah, 2020; Cirque du Soleil, 2024). The Cirque du Soleil act illustrates how drones can be used creatively in choreographed entertainment. Another application of creativity to the world of drones is illustrated in the designs of so many types of drone for so many different purposes (see Figure 1). Tellingly, Miah (2020, p. 142) said:
“The naïve view of AI is to speak of it as a reduction of creativity when, actually, it is a catalyst for changing the nature of the creative act.”
The same could be said of drones whether they use AI or not. This article gives a small glimpse of an area of creativity that has been combined with drone technology.
Dr Peter Sharp 17th April 2024
References
Alley-Young, G. (2024) Drone (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), Salem Press Encyclopaedia, 2024 {accessed from https://research.ebsco.com/c/moxwj2/search/details/ail2oz2m3v?q=Drones on 17th April 2024}
Miah, A. (2020) Drones: the Brilliant, the Bad and the Beautiful, Society Now, Emerald Publishing Limited, Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK {e vision book accessed from ebsco.host on 16th April 2024} Online ISBN: 978 1 83867 985 9.
Cirque du Soleil (2024) SPARKED: A Live Interaction between Humans and Quadcopters {accessed from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C8OJsHfmpI on 17th April 2024}
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