Technology and the built world

Drone swarm attack

A drone swarm attack is an offensive operation in which multiple drones coordinate to saturate defenses and distribute strikes, ranging from timed salvos of pre-programmed drones to autonomous self-organizing networks.

Drone warfare

Drone warfare, also called UAV warfare, is the use of drones in pursuit of a conflict party's goals, with 113 countries and 65 non-state actors holding weaponized drones.

DroneCAN

DroneCAN, formerly known as UAVCAN v0 until its 2022 renaming, is an open software protocol for communication between flight controllers and CAN devices such as sensors and ESCs.

DroneDeploy

DroneDeploy is a San Francisco software company, founded in 2013, whose cloud platform turns drone, 360-camera, and robotic captures into maps, 3D models, and reports for construction.

DroneKit

DroneKit is an open-source Python API, launched by drone maker 3D Robotics in 2015, that lets developers read drone telemetry and control vehicles over the MAVLink protocol.

DroneSense

DroneSense is a software-as-a-service drone management platform built for public safety agencies such as law enforcement, fire services, and emergency management, acquired by Versaterm in 2025.

Oct 22, 2026

Droni

Droni (Georgian: დრონი) is the Georgian-language term for drone, the established Georgian word for an unmanned aircraft, also borne by a youth organization and a newspaper.

Droop control

Droop control is a decentralized control method in which parallel-connected inverters and generators share active and reactive power from local measurements alone, with no communication links, making it the most implemented approach for islanded microgrids.

Droop-nose

A droop nose is a hinged, movable forward fuselage section on supersonic aircraft, lowered during takeoff and landing so pilots can see the runway, and raised in flight.

Drop casting

Drop casting is a solution-based thin-film deposition method in which a drop of solution evaporates on a substrate, leaving a solid film; it requires no deposition apparatus and is standard for lab-scale materials fabrication.

Drop tank

A drop tank, also called a jettisonable or external fuel tank, is an auxiliary tank carried on an aircraft's hardpoints and dropped to extend range.

Drop test

A drop test is a reliability test in which a product or package is dropped from a set height to evaluate its resistance to impact and shock damage.

Drop-in biofuel

A drop-in biofuel is a bio-derived liquid fuel chemically interchangeable with the petroleum fuel it replaces, so it blends into existing engines and infrastructure without modification, chiefly as aviation fuel.

Drop-off system

The drop-off system, also called the marker system, is a navigation method for group motorcycle rides in which a rotating rider stops at each turn to point the way.

Dropbox

Dropbox, once incorporated as Evenflow, Inc., is a San Francisco cloud file storage service founded in 2007, public since 2018, with over 700 million registered users.

Droplet-based microfluidics

Droplet-based microfluidics is a method that generates and manipulates micron-scale droplets of one liquid inside an immiscible carrier fluid, enabling massively parallel, time-resolved experiments in isolated microreactors.

Dropout (neural networks)

Dropout is a regularization technique for training neural networks that randomly removes units and their connections at each step to reduce overfitting, introduced by Geoffrey Hinton and colleagues in 2012.

Dropped ceiling

A dropped ceiling, also known as a suspended or false ceiling, is a non-structural secondary ceiling hung below the structural slab, creating a void that hides wiring, ducts, and fixtures.

Drowsy driving

Drowsy driving is operating a vehicle while impaired by sleep loss, fatigue, or sleep disorders, which slows reaction time and can end in falling asleep at the wheel.

Drs. Jorg Schlaich

Jörg Schlaich (1934–2021) was a German civil engineer and University of Stuttgart professor who co-founded schlaich bergermann partner, engineered the Munich Olympic Park roof, and championed the solar updraft tower.

Drug recognition expert

A drug recognition expert, also called a drug recognition evaluator, is a police officer trained to recognize drivers impaired by drugs other than or in addition to alcohol.

DrugBank

DrugBank is a curated online database combining drug chemistry and clinical data with protein targets, interactions, and mechanisms, first released in 2006 by the University of Alberta.

Drugged driving

Drugged driving is operating a vehicle while impaired by illicit, prescription, or over-the-counter drugs besides or alongside alcohol, and it is illegal in all 50 US states.

Drum (container)

A drum, or oil drum, is a cylindrical steel, plastic, or fiberboard container for shipping liquids and solids in industrial quantities, the standard size holding 55 gallons.

Drum brake

A drum brake is a vehicle brake in which brake shoes press against the inside of a rotating drum; dominant through the 20th century, it remains common on rear axles and heavy trucks.

Drum magazine

A drum magazine is a firearm magazine that stores cartridges in a circular arrangement inside a drum-shaped housing, holding many more rounds than a box magazine.

Drum-buffer-rope

Drum-buffer-rope, also known as Synchronous Manufacturing, is a Theory of Constraints production scheduling method that paces a plant at its constraint's rate, protects it with buffers, and throttles material release.

Drumeo

Drumeo is an online drum-lesson platform launched in 2012 by Musora Media of Abbotsford, British Columbia, offering the ten-level Drumeo Method, thousands of video lessons, and more than 100 instructors.

Drummond Company

Drummond Company is a privately held coal mining and natural resources company founded in Alabama in 1935, best known as Colombia's largest coal producer and exporter.