[consideranon]

Land surveying.

Maybe a farmer uses them to monitor the state of his crops and even spot treat unhealthy areas without installing a huge static sensor network.

Could also be used for intrusion detection on a large property. A small group of drones could detect and instantly let you know when somebody trespasses on your land. Again, without installing static cameras/sensors.

Search and rescue could be made more effective.

Package delivery.

[fit2rule]

I'm currently consulting on a project which, if all goes well, involves putting a fleet of drones in a box and having them go detect methane gas in certain high-methane-gas regions of the world..

[votingprawn]

Can you share any more on this project?

We're currently working on a project for an environment agency to determine viability / produce a proof of concept for monitoring methane levels over landfills using UAVs.

[fit2rule]

I can't really say much more than that its in the planning stages, and the software challenge I'm going to solve is principally dealing with fleet management .. 'drone is low power, return to base', 'replacement 2-of-3', &etc. The hardware guys have all the fun challenges: field-buildable/replaceable parts, autodocks for charging, etc. I'm just making a pizza app, basically. ;)