By now, we’ve all heard stories of how commercial drones (UAVs) have been adopted by numerous industries for everything from bridge and highway inspections to monitoring and tending agricultural crops.

In a very short time, drones have gone from high-tech military hardware to a hobbyist’s play thing and, in just the last few years, have enhanced a wide range of commercial applications. Drones are now routinely used for inspections of bridges, pipelines, wind turbines, utility structures and roadways. They are serving numerous agricultural uses like monitoring crops, counting livestock, accurately deploying pesticides and addressing irrigation issues. Drones are showing up at search and rescue missions, border control surveillance operations, assessing storm damage for insurance companies, weather tracking and forecasting, and of course aerial photography for mapping, movies and news programs.

Remember that iconic opening scene in the 1965 film The Sound of Music? High above in a mountain meadow, Julie Andrews is seen walking in the field, first as a small dot, until the camera swoops in closer, closer, she twirls and suddenly she’s singing: “The hills are alive…”

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, are revolutionizing dangerous jobs that are expensive, time-consuming and carry great risk. For that reason, the mining and utilities sectors are exploring the benefits of UAS technology.

The constant beating of mosquito wings you hear this summer may soon include the buzzing of propellers from flying mosquito-killing machines, otherwise known as drones.

Could the same technology that’s currently being used for aerial pizza deliveries and capturing news coverage also be the solution to fixing America’s crumbling infrastructure?

That’s what researchers at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) are advocating.

Utilities spend millions of dollars inspecting infrastructure from power lines to pipelines, which are often in hard-to-reach, dangerous places. However, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, are set to revolutionize the way utilities industries solve inspection issues.

The use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, in the electric utility industry is set to take off. There are many potential benefits of UAS in utility operations, such as maintenance and inspections, accompanied by time and worker safety benefits.

Many utilities industries are experiencing significant growth, yet current inspection and maintenance methods are costly, time-consuming and even dangerous.

There is a better way: Drones.

Protecting our natural resources and wildlife habitats is mission number one for millions of scientists and concerned citizens across the globe. And technology that has been making news for innovative deliveries is making a dramatic impact in how nature conservation efforts are carried out and measured.