Drone Use for COVID‐19 Related Problems: Techno‐solutionism and its Societal Implications

Abstract

Drones have been widely used by public authorities during the COVID‐19 pandemic for pandemic‐related problems. As an innovative tool with a wide range of potentialities, they have been deemed suitable for an exceptional situation marked by the persistence of social distance. Yet, the turn to new technology to solve complex problems is a political decision that has broad societal implications, especially in the context of declared states of emergency. In the article we argue that the extensive use of drones by national authorities during the COVID‐19 pandemic has generated a new socio‐technical assemblage of actors, technologies and practices. Building on the three main uses of drones as responses to specific pandemic‐related challenges (disinfection, delivery, and surveillance), we analyse the actors and the practices involved in this new socio‐technical assemblage. From the empirical material, we explore potential effects of drone uses on key issues such as the technology regulatory processes, public acceptance, and security and safety concerns.

A Socio-Analytical Approach to the Integration of Drones into Health Care Systems

“…The development of drones in health care will migrate from technological and medical environments into institutional applications for various purposes and may thus have an impact on the entire health care sector. The broad perspective of applications is illustrated by the span ranging from drone delivery of medications [74], emergency transports of blood products in maternal health care [76], and not least the extensive use of drone services to combat the COVID pandemic [75,84]. The scientific articles in our study indicate that it is necessary to build a cross-cultural approach and establish a discourse across several stakeholders to develop a sustainable future health care system.…”

“…During our analysis of the documents and development of the discussion, we supplemented our literature review with further publications where appropriate, following a deductive identification of relevant articles. We included five additional recently published review articles [72][73][74][75][76], one essay [77], two online sources [78,79], and five research articles [80][81][82][83][84].…”

“…The aforementioned interactions should also include evaluation of the acceptance of drone integration because assuming such acceptance by default may lead to a later rejection, which in the long run may impact the broader integration process and invalidate all the previous regulatory work done to ensure smooth integration [84].…”

A Novel Design For A COVID-19 Diagnosis System Using Machine Learning And Drone Technology (COVIDRONE-20)

“…In conclusion, early identification of disease is vital for the prevention of possible future outbreaks, however current techniques and methods being used to monitor and diagnose potential patients in realtime lack versatility, efficiency, and accuracy [23,24]. Therefore a new system was needed, hence the development of COVIDRONE -20, a more efficient, more accurate, and more versatile diagnosis or monitoring system [25][26][27][28][29][30].…”

Service-Oriented Architecture for Drone-based Multi-Package Delivery

“…The key sectors include agriculture, surveillance, healthcare, shipping, and shopping [3]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, drones have been widely used to monitor social distancing, perform aerial spraying, and deliver goods [4]. Several countries have used drones for safe and contactless deliveries during lockdowns [5].…”