With all of the new capabilities of drones, they are constantly being used for more and more things every single year. It can be hard to keep up in this industry as it is changing rapidly.

Whether it is by small tech startups, large corporations, or government institutions, there is a lot of great innovation happening in the drone space. Here are five new drone services that are starting to gain traction in 2017 that you should definitely know about.

1. Advertising

If you think about it, this one makes a lot of sense and it’s kind of a wonder why it wasn’t implemented sooner. People have been advertising with aerial vehicles for the past decades, mostly with planes and blimps. Advertising with drones offers several huge advantages over those.

To start off, they are much cheaper as they require no fuel and just one operator. They also can fly much closer to the ground, allowing greater visibility and ability to navigate through high traffic areas. Places like concerts or fairs are great for drone advertising, as they get the most exposure. They also can display things other than banners, like videos or photos. Drone advertising is so low cost and can be highly effective, so it may be a technology you’ll see more and more.

2. Entertainment

This technology is mostly being tested and developed by the engineers at the Disney Amusement Parks. They too are jumping on the drone bandwagon, trying to maximise this technology and see what they can get out of it to help their business.

For them, it is in their shows. Starting in late 2016, Disney started using several hundred drones as a light display in their late night shows.  [Source] Disney seems to love this new technology that makes light displays that were once impossible to set up now relatively easy. They also have stated they want to incorporate them more in firework shows and possibly used them around the parks to stream videos.

3. Herding Animals

One complaint some people have about drones is the somewhat annoying high-pitched sound they emit. Well, farmers in Tanzania are using this to their benefit.

In a country where thousands of animals like elephants are killed each year for damaging farmlands, drones are now being used to get these animals off the land. The animals are afraid of the sound of the drones, so they are now being used to herd them away from the farmlands. It’s truly a win-win, as now the farmlands are intact and the animals aren’t being killed.

4. Rescuing People

No, these drones aren’t coming and physically rescuing people by picking them up and dragging them to safety (although that’d be really cool if they could). However, they assist rescue workers in finding people so they can be rescued.

Drones are perfect for this job because they can cover a large amount of area in a short amount of time. They can also manoeuvre into small places and can fly low to the ground. At night, simply attach a light to the drones and they get the job done just as well. There have already been countless stories of drones aiding in rescuing people during times of flooding or other natural disasters, where it is difficult for rescue workers to get to most people. It is something you’ll probably start to hear about more often

5. Studying the Environment

Although this has been going on for several years, many people are unaware that NASA has ben sending specially equipped drones into the stratosphere to monitor the ozone layer. Drone technology is helping scientists monitor the ozone much more effectively and at a lower cost. It just might help us determine more precisely just how fast climate change is happening.