An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS); which include a UAV, a ground-based controller, and a system of communications between the two. The flight of UAVs may operate with various degrees of autonomy: either under remote control by a human operator or autonomously by onboard computers.

Everyone has heard the term “drone.” It’s becoming an increasingly popular way to refer to the small (usually) helicopter-like devices that are being flown by millions of people around the globe. However, there’s a host of other terms used to describe them, which can make things a bit confusing.

It does seem a bit strange to have the word “drone” used to not only cover a $30 hobby aircraft that a child can fly, but to also describe a high-tech $10 million weapon used on a battlefield. Those devices don’t exactly serve the same purpose. So why don’t they have different names?

In 2005, I was embedded as an independent journalist with a platoon of Marines with an attachment of Afghan security forces in the Hindu Kush, just a few miles from the Pakistani border. I was about to step into a possible death trap, and I’d never felt more scared in my life. “There are 50 Taliban massed behind that ridge,” said “Sultan,” our Afghan interpreter (his real name is being withheld for security reasons). He had picked up chatter from his hand-held radio. “They know we’re here,” he continued, “and that we have to cross that field.”

 “Time to get moving,” a nearby Marine said.

Drones have been around for years, and they are used for different purposes and can be of help in numerous occasions. However, these devices have become more popular in recent times and their application increases rapidly in various fields. But first of all, let’s answer the main question: “what is a drone and how we can define it”. 

The word “drone” has several different meanings and it origins from old English word drān, drǣn, which means ‘male bee’. When talking about a drone as an electric device, we thinking of missile or a remote-controlled pilotless aircraft.

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