Different types of drones

For surveying applications, we primarily use multirotor drones or occasionally fixed-wing aircraft.

Types of Drones

There are more types of drones than those we regularly hear about or see in stores.

These include:

Aircraft-type drones: with fixed wings
- Fixed-wing aircraft: RPAS without a tail, featuring a very small fin at the tip of each wing and a wingspan of approximately 0.8m to 1.2m. These are mainly used for professional purposes and model building. The advantage is that a larger area can be covered. Well-known brands in this category include eBee, Delair, Wingtra, and Atmos UAV.
- Conventional Fuselage Designs: These are RPAS with a tail and a fin. Recognizable by a slightly larger wingspan and therefore a higher payload capacity.
Helicopter-type drones: these utilize rotating propellers or props
- Single-rotor and coaxial rotor: these are aircraft with only one axis, featuring a single rotor or two counter-rotating rotors.
- Multirotor: These are aircraft with three or more rotors on different axes. Some well-known brands in this category include Parrot, DJI, and Yuneec.
Other: Aircraft such as zeppelins also fall into this category.

For measurements and inspections, we primarily use multirotor drones with 4 to 8 motors.

Atmos UAV VTOL Drone Marlyn
A Fixed Wing drone from manufacturer Atmos UAV with vertical take-off and landing functionality.

Advantages and disadvantages

Some advantages of multirotor drones are that they can take off and land vertically, are versatile in use, and can hover. However, there are exceptions.

Compared to fixed-wing aircraft, they are less stable and more sensitive to wind and vibrations. However, aircraft are now available with precise IMU sensors that address this quite effectively.

Multirotor drones can be powered in various ways. We see aircraft that operate on a battery or on gasoline. For surveying applications such as volume calculations, we find that a battery is always used because of its stability.
Additionally, there are options to connect the aircraft with a cable; this allows it to stay in the air longer, but the aircraft’s movement is limited. This solution is almost exclusively used for security purposes.

Multirotors with a battery can generally stay in the air for a maximum of about 45 minutes, depending on weather conditions, temperature, and wind.

With some fixed-wing aircraft, this duration is significantly longer, which is certainly an advantage for specific applications.

Questions regarding drone services?