In recent years, drones are approaching us as the realistic technology utilized in the ordinary life of the general public from the level of science fiction. As a photographer and remote sensing practitioner, I began to intensively occupy myself with drone by the revolutionary prospect of being able to take aerial photograph at any time or any place. Over time, a great deal of enthusiasm for this technology let me publish several technical articles about drones. I am currently working as an Editorin-Chief of Spatial Information Research (Springer Nature) and share my interest about the drone by maintaining strong links with the international editorial boards, authors, and reviewer communities.

Emergence of CPS (Cyber-Physical System) such as a self-driving car naturally raises the question for learning goals fundamentally different from the Third Industrial Revolution era. I have taught CPS, known as a core technology of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, by utilizing drones as a learning tool in the university. This course is offered as a distant and online course for undergraduate students to introduce the larger picture of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The CPS is associated with a wide range of technologies and disciplines from sensor-related disciplines to mechanical technology that manufactures actuators. Since most of the textbooks published on CPS focused on the technical aspects, there was a limitation to use them as teaching materials for liberal arts courses. Students can be a good driver, even if they do not know the detailed structure of the vehicle hardware, such as the engine, the accelerator, and the cooling system. Students can efficiently utilize computers for applications such as word processing, graphics, presentation materials, and Internet search without knowing the detailed technical aspects of hardware such as CPU, memory, and graphics card. The same principle can be applied to learning the CPS.