Drones are making their way into every aspect of the business world

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- Drones are finding their way into almost every aspect of the business world, including agriculture, and Mississippi State University is leading the way in research.

The unmanned craft comes in many shapes and sizes, largely depending on their application.

More of them are being employed to do jobs formerly handled by manned aircraft, such as cropdusting.

But they are also used in mapping fields and observing crops and cattle.

In recent years, some of the regulations on the use of drones have been eased. Some of that is thanks to research done by Mississippi State University.

Their finidings have prompted the FAA to review and revise some rules. And the evolution of the craft is ongoing.

“Drones present a tremendous variety of opportunities, and there is something that is still very very new and very cool, and it gets kids excited about the technology, and there are great areas that can be found in this technology. It presents tremendous economic opportunitiesfor the stae, becasue of all the different industries drones can play a valuable role in. So, great economic opportunities. Great workforce opportunities, great career opportunities for individual Mississippians, and the last thing I would say is that Mississippi State University is, in my opinion, the national leader in drone research. We lead the FAA Center of Excellence for Drone Research in all of these great things that are possible with drones, now and in the future. There are a lot of researchers, staff memebers, and administrators that are working really hard to make all of that come to friuition.”

Mississippi State has a long history of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle research and that research has even spawned private companies.