IEEE Electrification - December 2020 - 109

Commercial UAVs
are usually driven by
private parties with
economic objectives,
such as crop
management,
shipping and delivery,
entertainment, and
infrastructure
inspection, to
name a few.

including pre-event inspections,
during-event interactions, postevent rescues, damage evaluations,
and service restoration. Thermal
imaging devices mounted on UAVs
can be tailored to monitor forest
wildfires, enabling the early detection of fire threats in dense and
vast forests. In disaster areas, larger
UAVs can deliver sizable and critical
loads to increase survival rates for
local inhabitants.
A UAV's aerial reconnaissance and
patrolling functions can support the
detection of illicit trafficking and
smuggling across borders. In these
cases, a UAV's photography and
recording capabilities become decisive for collecting evidence at crime
scenes. Ironically, there is also potential for traffickers to exploit UAV technologies for their own benefit.
A UAV's image processing capabilities enable wildlife
preservation as well as conservation of ecosystems that
support human lives. They are helpful with constant monitoring of fauna, particularly the tracking of animal movements and counts on a long-term basis. It is important
that an animal's natural lifestyle and habitats are not distorted by UAV missions.
UAV technology is increasingly used in the agriculture
industry to make quick and credible crop management
decisions. In the farming industry, UAVs can identify deficits in crops, irrigation, and soil so that timely action can
be taken. UAVs can also help predict harvests using farm
data analytics. Pattern recognition and imaging methods
can be applied to UAV farm data to distinguish healthy
and unhealthy crops and farm products. The use of UAV
data analytics for harvest optimization is one of the most
fundamental ways to advance agricultural technology. In
addition to monitoring, agricultural UAVs can also facilitate aerial seeding and pesticide spraying; in fact, these
two duties can be fully transferred to UAVs. However,
UAVs can also collect proprietary data on competitors in
unregulated areas, posing ethical concerns and requiring
strict regulations.
UAV technology can be used in large infrastructures to inspect devices remotely, enabling preventive maintenance and real-time hardware setting
adjustments. On-board high-resolution and thermal
cameras along with other mission-oriented sensors
enable a UAV to perform precise inspections of power
distribution and transmission lines, telecommunication towers, railroads, roadways, oil and gas pipelines
and platforms, piers, skyscrapers, bridges, mines,
wind turbines, and storage tanks. Compared to traditional inspections, these inspections are cost

effective and avoid risks of injury/
death to on-site crew.
This article assesses various
aspects of UAV applications in electricity networks, which are of value as
the deployment of UAVs continues to
grow. We provide thorough discussions and elaborate on the following:
1) the emergence of UAVs, including
their development processes and
milestones
2) UAV technology types, characteristics, and benefits to various
applications
3) a wide range of power system
UAV use cases, ranging from condition monitoring and well-being
inspection of power system components, laser technology-enabled
3D mapping, post-disaster damage assessment and functioning
to supporting operation and maintenance tasks
4) opportunities and future insights for UAV applications
including autonomous functioning, networked UAVs,
real-time condition-based maintenance, cost-effective
meter reading, collection of nontechnical loss testimonial data, future demand analysis, and mining discovery supports
5) technical, regulatory, and socioeconomic challenges of
vast UAV deployment.
An extended version of this article with a complete set of
references is available at http://motor.ece.iit.edu/ms/
Extended%20Version%20of%20Drone%20Paper.pdf.

UAV Technologies
UAV technologies can be classified by various criteria,
including by application, structural design type, intelligence and autonomy class, size and weight, payload
capacity, powering type, endurance, flight altitude and
range, hovering capability, takeoff and landing direction,
or launching mechanism. They can be used for military,
civil, commercial, or entertainment purposes. Commonly tailored for public safety and logistics, civil applications include police surveillance, delivery of health-care
supplies, environment protection, forest/wildlife monitoring, disaster prediction/tracking, law enforcement,
and aerial border patrol. Commercial UAVs are usually
driven by private parties with economic objectives, such
as crop management, shipping and delivery, entertainment, and infrastructure inspection, to name a few. This
commercial class of UAVs has the steepest market
growth and employment opportunities. In the United
States alone, the commercial UAV market has escalated
from US$40 million in 2012 to about US$1 billion in 2017,
and it is predicted to account for US$31-US$46 billion of
the country's GDP by 2026. The entertainment industry

IEEE Elec trific ation Magazine / D EC EM BE R 2 0 2 0

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IEEE Electrification - December 2020

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