...
Cargo drones are used by stations with piers and by L and XL ships to transfer wares between stations and these large ships. Note that you seem to need at least one cargo drone on . If an L or XL ship to be able to transfer any wares to or from a station and that you may also need cargo drones on the station (needs verification). For example, if you use L mining ships to supply your stations, do not make the mistake of equipping them is docked to a station's pier, for example, you can watch the Cargo drones fly back and forth between a special bay in the pier and the front of the ship. The time needed to transfer the wares is goverend by the amount of drones the station and the ship own between them, and the drones will return to their original owners after all wares have been transfered.
Consequently, your L mining ships shouldn't be equipped solely with Gas collectors or Ore collectors - include at least one Cargo drone to be certain you're able to exchange resources with any station you encounter.
2. Construction drones
Building drones are used by XL Builder-type ships to construct stations. Construction speed of stations depends on the number of Construction drones the Builder ship has, so choose NPC builder ships carefully with this in mind, and maximize pick one carrying the maximum number of Construction drones in your own Builder ships to maximize station construction speedusable at the same time when building a station module (30).
3. Defense drones
Defense drones are auto-launched by stations and ships which come under attack (or launch an attack themselves) and can be set to attack or defend their bases. They are essentially small ships with a laser attached which they use to fight. After release it usually takes some time for them to return to docking storage on recall, therefore it can be prudent to disable their launch in the ship settings until you really need them in ships manned by yourself.
4. Gas collectors
Gas collectors are used on L gas mining ships to collect gases (Helium, Hydrogen, Methane).
...