Drone News & Articles

The fast-growing global drone industry has not sat back waiting for government policy to be hammered out before pouring investment and effort into opening up this all-new hardware and computing market. 

A growing ecosystem of drone software and hardware vendors is already catering to a long list of clients in agriculture, land management, energy, and construction. Many of the vendors are smallish private companies and startups — although large defense-focused companies and industrial conglomerates are beginning to invest in drone technology, too. 

In a report from BI Intelligence, we take a deep dive into the various levels of the growing global industry for commercial drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This report provides forecasts for the business opportunity in commercial drone technology, looks at advances and persistent barriers, highlights the top business-to-business markets in terms of applications and end users, and provides an exclusive list of dozens of notable companies already active in the space. Finally, it digs into the current state of US regulation of commercial drones, recently upended by the issuing of the Federal Aviation Administration's draft rules for commercial drone flights. Few people know that many companies are already authorized to fly small drones commercially under a US government "exemption" program. 

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

We project revenues form drones sales to top $12 billion in 2021, up form just over $8 billion last year.

Shipments of consumer drones will more than quadruple over the next five years, fueled by increasing price competition and new technologies that make flying drones easier for beginners.

Growth in the enterprise sector will outpace the consumer sector in both shipments and revenues as regulations open up new use cases in the US and EU, the two biggest potential markets for enterprise drones.

Technologies like geo-fencing and collision avoidance will make flying drones safer and make regulators feel more comfortable with larger numbers of drones taking to the skies.

Right now FAA regulations have limited commercial drones to a select few industries and applications like aerial surveying in the agriculture, mining, and oil and gas sectors.

The military sector will continue to lead all other sectors in drone spending during our forecast period thanks to the high cost of military drones and the growing number of countries seeking to acquire them.

Whether they’re hovering round difficult to reach parts of a building to inspect storm damage or taking photos for use in glossy brochures, drones are slowly but steadily gaining in prominence within real estate.

In fact, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has predicted that there will be over 7 million drones in the air by 2020, with 19 percent of those being used for real estate and aerial photography purposes.

For now drones are usually seen as a “nice to have” rather than an essential, yet Gina Kacamburas, JLL’s Director of Marketing Technology, believes that drone photography is poised to become a must-have in the real estate industry.

“I would put money on the fact that this is not going away,” says Kacamburas. “It will become a core way of viewing properties or assets. A lot of residential agents have their own drones, and people will come to expect it on the commercial side as well. But in order to do that right, it’s critical to use third-party vendors that are FAA regulated.”

Getting the bird’s eye view

FAA guidelines and the skills needed to efficiently pilot drones are currently the barrier to every realtor having a high-powered drone on call. Any drone over 0.55 pounds must be registered online with the FAA and privacy concerns still abound over their use around buildings. But Kacamburas believes that these concerns will dissipate as people see how useful drones can be.

“When drones were first introduced outside of the private sector, there were virtually no restrictions, and then the pendulum quickly swung to the other side of the spectrum and the FAA put a number of stringent rules in place for “Unmanned Aircraft Systems” (UAS) to address the risks involved,” says Kacamburas. “Naturally, the pendulum will swing back to the other side and we’ll land somewhere in the middle with fewer restrictions in the future, as drones become more mainstream and the FAA, corporations and individual users alike become more comfortable with the technology.”

The rules may change, but for now, that means following the letter to a tee, either by securing the permit and other requirements directly, or working only with vendors that meet all the same requirements.

Erik Vik, Senior Vice President, Engineering Services at JLL is an enthusiastic amateur drone pilot and his use of the technology has given him great insight into their use in the industry, especially in facilities management.

“I fly a DJI Phantom 3, which is a popular mid-range drone,” says Vik. “You can get a 360-degree viewpoint of a building, if you want to look at the roof or difficult to reach spot.”

He believes that drones have huge potential in leasing decisions, as well as in maintenance.

“We had one high tech client looking for office space in Atlanta and they had very sophisticated demands, in terms of what the site contained,” he says. “They were interested in lakes, baseball fields, where staff could go for a little workout. It would have been great to fly a drone up and show off the amenities, as well as show them what the community looks like.”

Troubleshooting from the sky

It’s not just a case of showing a building at its best. “I’ve more recently had a site in the area with a troublesome roof leak,” says Vik. “It’s great that you don’t necessarily have to put on safety equipment, climb up there and look at the issue when you can just fly the drone, view it in real time and take pictures to send to the repair contractor.”

Drones could be used for site management or to plan delivery routes for construction projects, detailing a forthcoming stadium build as an example of how drone photos could aid the logistics of installing thousands of seats. Detroit-based Sachse Construction have already utilized drones in the construction of a Nike store and apartment blocks.

Measure, a provider of drone services to enterprise customers, has added turnkey wind-farm inspection capabilities to its portfolio of aerial data collection solutions. Wind-farm operators can now outsource preventive maintenance inspections to Measure’s drone pilots and data analysts for fast, accurate, safe, and timely problem identification. The service is designed to help avert critical turbine failures and efficiency losses while reducing repair downtime and its associated revenue impact.

“Many wind-farm owners don’t inspect their turbines on a preventive maintenance basis, and those that do use ground crews with conventional cameras and zoom lenses. Under both conditions, there is a risk of failing to detect turbine damage or structural defects on blades that can worsen over time and lead to a catastrophic failure,” said Harjeet Johal, Measure VP of Energy Infrastructure and a 10-year veteran of the renewable energy industry with a PhD in electrical engineering.

“Our drone-based inspections provide multiple advantages that can help wind farm operators operate at peak capacity,” Johal added.

Measure’s package spans all inspection and reporting functions, including state-of-the-art drone equipment, safe and insured flights by experienced drone pilots, efficient data processing that pinpoints blade damage and severity, and damage reports and analytics available through a secure online portal.

Benefits of Measure’s drone-based blade and tower inspections include:

• About 75% faster inspections than other methods, averaging 30 minutes or less per turbine compared to as much as two hours for manned inspections. This reduces excessive time commitments and allows large wind farms to be inspected more frequently. It also reduces labor costs for inspection and frees employees for other tasks.
• Decreased injury risk in the field, with no threat of falls to inspectors climbing turbine structures or blades.
• Better defect and damage detection because drones get closer to turbine blades than ground cameras, capturing clearer images. Undetected defects on the blades can result in continuous efficiency losses as high as 6% and associated revenue loss of up to $10,000 annually per turbine.
• Maximized turbine availability and revenue generation through early problem detection that helps prevent critical failures and associated downtime for repairs.
• Actionable data, including classified damage reports and historical portfolio analysis documenting turbine defects, failure rates and efficiency losses over time. Damage reports can be customized to display only the information needed by blade repair technicians with a few clicks.

Drones are increasingly being used to map, survey and explore Australia’s many operational and abandoned mines. Japan-based specialist unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) manufacturer, Terra Drone, has opened its first office in the country and is hoping to take the mining market by storm. Terra’s Tsuyoshi Honda discusses how the company’s technology can access Australia’s mines.

Australia is home to some of the world’s largest open-pit and underground mines and has thousands of abandoned mine sites. In recent years, both the government and operators have been keen to exploit the benefits of drone technology to safely collect data and explore abandoned, or legacy, mines. In the Northern Territory, for example, where mining dates back to the1860s, legacy mines are a major problem with estimated liability costs of more than A$1bn. The government has started using drones to inspect these abandoned mines to help aid remediation efforts.

In January, Minister for Primary Industries and Resources, Ken Vowles, said that drone technology can reach otherwise inaccessible areas of the mine, producing digital terrain models that give operators a better perspective of the site. Despite advances, drones still have their limitations, such as the number of sensors they can carry and low in-flight battery time.

Utilising LiDAR technology

Terra Drone has one of the most advanced UAVs to date, says Tsuyoshi Honda, the branch chief of the company’s first office in Australia, adding that it is ideal for supporting Australian mining operations. The firm is the number one drone provider in Japan, according to Honda, and is a spin-off of Japanese electrical scooter manufacturer, Terra Motors.   

Terra Drone’s Laser Drone model is equipped with light detection and ranging (LiDAR) laser technology. It can perform surveying, data capture, and 2D and 3D mapping. Honda says , the drone, which can carry up to 10kg of payload and fly for two hours continuously, is the only UAV hardware that can integrate the Riegl LiDAR, what he calls the highest quality LiDAR system in the world “The LiDAR is heavy but because the drone can carry a larger than normal payload it can be integrated into our special hardware,” says Honda. “We can then collect all the data and reduce time and costs compared to the traditional way of doing things.”

Furthermore, it is usually hard to collect relief data from steep surfaces, but, compared with a ground laser scanner, the LiDAR can effectively do this using the UAV. The Laser Drone is also equipped with Terra UTM software, enabling an operator to manage multiple UAV missions simultaneously or to control the UAV, if needed.  

Greater range and flexibility of drones  

The UAV can travel 100ha per trip, says Honda, come back, refuel and be sent out again, to cover a total of more than 700 ha in one day. The technology was used to explore and survey areas of the Fukushima nuclear power plant left inaccessible to humans after the 2011 disaster.

The UAV can also operate adequately without GPS.

“Drones usually need GPS assistance to be stabilised during flight, but in certain places this is not always possible; for example, under a bridge, inside of a building or in an underground mine,” says Honda

New Agricultural Drone Multispectral Mapping Solution From Icaros and Agrowing

Icaros, a provider of aerial imaging software, and Agrowing, a supplier of multispectral sensors and analytics software, have announced an integrated drone product that bundles Icaros’ OneButton software into Agrowing’s solution stack, automating the entire workflow from image capture through a generation of fully indexed orthomosaic maps for agriculture.

As part of the agreement between the companies, Agrowing will offer an exclusive product bundle that includes Agrowing’s multispectral sensor, Icaros’ OneButton Standard Edition, and Agrowing’s agriculture solution. The combined features enable Agrowing users to process imagery into high-fidelity fully indexed orthomosaic maps for agriculture – which are crucial for professional precision analytics.

Agrowing’s sensor technology represents a unique multispectral solution to capture four 8MP or 10MP bands each, for NDVI and all other vegetation indices on a single sensor. The technology turns DSLR cameras into high-end multispectral cameras. The current offering is compatible with modified (full spectrum) Sony cameras coupled with Near IR and Red-edge lenses. Based on the NEX5, Alpha 5xxx, ILCE QX1, and UMC-R10C, Agrowing’s solution provides 8MP per band, and based on the Alpha 6xxx cameras it provides 10MP perfectly aligned color channels. E-mount lenses are of 25mm focal length and <1% distortion. An additional wide angle, low distortion lens, of 62 degrees HFOV is currently under development.

“There is no other company in the agriculture market with this capability. Compared to the other leading multispectral sensor brands that offer 1 to 1.3 megapixels and lens distortion exceeding 15%, Agrowing‘s 10 megapixels, or 1 to 8 scale versus others, means you can collect almost 5 times the field area, at much higher resolution, with far less distortion, in the same time using the same drone,“ said Tom Bosanko, CEO at Icaros.

Icaros and Agrowing are working closely together to include a correction matrix for the distortion per sensor/lens combination that will be part of the OneButton processing.

Icaros’ OneButton family for drone image processing, lets end users easily and automatically generate geospatially precise, fully orthorectified 2D maps and 3D models from frame-based aerial imaging systems. Originally engineered for manned aircraft sensors, the OneButton software has been modified to accommodate the unique collection conditions of unmanned aerial systems (UAS).

Version 5.1 of OneButton Standard and Professional image processing software for unmanned aerial systems (drones) contains advanced algorithms to process images from Agrowing’s high-end multispectral sensors.

Agrowing’s Complete Solution Now Available to OEMs and End Customers

The product bundle, available through Agrowing, is now being offered to drone manufacturers that want to offer a complete solution for the agriculture market. 

This fall, a product that combines the sensor/software bundle with a drone specifically designed for the precision farm market will be available from Walkera (www.walkera.com) through their worldwide channels.  “We are combining the extraordinary Agrowing multispectral sensor and agriculture software solution with our new high-end AgroVoyager drone specifically targeting the agriculture market. AgroVoyager is the first complete hi-resolution drone solution specifically designed for agricultural use,” said Robert Luo, CEO at Walkera.

Service providers and farmers with existing drones can also purchase the bundle for adaptation to existing drones they are flying using Agrowing’s sensor gimble mount.

A new standard defined for multispectral mapping with drone technology

“Our long-term experience in large scale multispectral remote sensing and mapping projects has been incorporated into our photogrammetric software to provide a professional and enterprise scale multispectral solution,” said Tom Bosanko, CEO at Icaros.

OneButton creates a complete image processing workflow for aerial image data and can front-end both GIS and analyt

 Drones have come a long ways since the era of ambiguous rules and unthinkable price tags. These days, they’re regulated, affordable and offer a wide array of uses—especially when it comes to event marketing. From content-capture to competitions, we offer four ways to give your drone strategy wings.

1. Highlight Your Technology

Intel incorporated a 22-foot diameter drones cage into its booth at the Consumer Electronics Show. The drones were flown live using Intel’s RealSense, offering attendees an engaging and relevant look at how the technology works.

2. Take Content-Capture to the Next Level

Anheuser-Busch’s second Whatever, USA program on Catalina Island put drones at the center of its content-capture toolbox. Throughout the three-day event, video drones could be seen hovering at all hours, capturing exclusive content for TV spots and the brand’s social media channels.

3. Deliver the Goods

Leveraging drones at your event can be as simple as using the devices to swiftly deliver products to attendees. Salesforce ceo Marc Benioff spiced up his keynote at Dreamforce with a Coke-delivery drone, while Anheuser-Busch delivered cold Bud Lights to attendees of its original Whatever, USA program.

Fresh off the back of its role in advising on the use of drones on the set of Transformers: The Last Knight, Consortiq will appear at the Interdrone exhibition in Las Vegas from 6-8 September to discuss its wealth of experience in overseeing drone use in cinematography.

Drones are now commonplace on filmsets, collecting shots that other assets previously could not necessarily capture so cost effectively. However, a shift in the way they are being used has become apparent, and as a result, a need for filmmakers to consider the regulatory and safety criteria required is now evident.

While it was previously the case that drones allowed a quick transition between shots that had not been seen before, it is now not necessarily down to cost or trying to please an audience that drones are being used, but rather whether or not they will make the movie-making process quicker in comparison to using other tools.

“The creative reason for using a drone is still there, but I feel it is now shifting towards production reasons more so,” says Ben Keene, Chief Development Officer at Consortiq.

However, there are production issues generated by their use, so Consortiq wants to eliminate this responsibility on behalf of the filmmakers, taking on the role of dealing with the aviation authorities to ensure that the correct permissions to fly are in place by acting as a middle man.

“Now, everybody is very well versed in using drones on a filmset, and they are aware that they have a responsibility legally,” Keene notes. “They need to know they are protected; it’s not a fad anymore.”

The flights are not carried out by Consortiq itself, but it oversees all flying conducted by the third-party operator. The company is able to use an operator selected by the film company, or it has a trusted number of drone and payload companies that it can source on the production’s behalf.

In addition to the recent Transformers instalment, Consortiq has also advised on the of use drones during the filming of London has Fallen and Criminal. The latter saw a UAV legally operated over the streets of Central London for the first time, and started a precedent in this type of operation to support cinematography.

When you consider the sun, and its powerful ability to light up the world, it’s not that far of a stretch to imagine the world where we harness light to enhance our experiences in the world. We’ve harnessed light with the invention of the light bulb. We have advanced with light into laser technology. And now we have moved forward into laser pulses that map our world in new and creative ways.  This laser pulse mapping advancement has meant that companies looking to increase efficiencies of operation now have a solution that just might elevate results exponentially.

How it works

Imagine being able to fly over a remote location and immediately see its potential for a real estate development project by mapping the terrain with exact precision. 

Imagine capturing the full width, scope, and scale of an iceberg headed straight for your oil rig giving you all the information you need to change its course. Imagine using LiDAR information to help identify potential mineral deposits. Imagine assessing an environmental crisis by seeing it from a unique vantage point and being able to mitigate damages as a result.  Imagine the freedom of being able to evaluate operations on a rig that would be otherwise daunting to humans because of variables like height and location.

Imagine being able to monitor pipelines with unprecedented accuracy. (See Video here)

Imagine building an oil platform, GBS or topsides, and having drone photo-progress and LiDAR reports on a regular basis that optimize efficiencies of operation.

It’s now all possible…

Drones with LiDAR

Mapping, measuring, manipulating and modifying, that’s what the “light inventors” had in mind when they created LiDAR for drones.

LiDAR on drones is a new technology that uses a laser light scanner to replicate the landscape that it measures. A laser scanner attached to a drone (or UAV) uses light pulses to observe, measure, picture and reproduce a scene. This is the fundamental principle behind LiDAR, but the applications are truly limitless.

Quickly being adopted by world leaders in oil and gas and engineering sectors, drones equipped with LiDAR have become one of the “next best things” for harnessing efficiencies and reducing projects costs all the while addressing safety measures at an entirely new level.

With Drones and LiDAR, the oil and gas industry can fly over an iceberg and measure with accuracy its height and full composition making it super easy to track, move or assess the best course of action to take with that iceberg. Because Drones are Unmanned, projects are less risky, more profitable and safer.

LiDAR can support global projects such as the construction of the West White Rose gravity base structure. This advanced technology would permit site location analysis, project development efficiencies, identify possible safety hazards, advance progress and processes, be an essential tool in situational monitoring, support asset management, enhance environmental assessment, as well as offer a critical vantage point for safety.

The applications of LiDAR are unlimited, and it depends on the ingenuity and creativity of a team to adapt the technology to its highest function and user-ability. Engineering teams who seek to architect, build and execute projects will utilize LiDAR in new and unique ways, ultimately saving time, money and lives.

^{The sale and use of drones, or unmanned aircraft vehicles [UAV's], has skyrocketed in the last few years in both the recreational and commercial space. Though drones are now widely used across the globe, the US is the main driver of that growth; in March, the Federal Aviation Administration projected that the number of small hobbyist drones will surge to more than 3.5 million by 2021, and that the commercial drone fleet will explode to 442,000, compared to 42,000 at the end of last year.}

^{“We’re talking about [unmanned] aircraft eclipsing – just completely outpacing, by huge factors – the manned aircraft space,” Van Meter says.}

^{While there is huge demand in markets like Europe and Africa – where Van Meter believes there is growing potential for drones to help with humanitarian missions, anti-poaching and infrastructure inspection – the inconsistent regulatory landscape across the globe is often a hindrance. The US is largely setting the trend for drone usage, thanks to its active aviation market and comparatively lenient regulatory environment.}

^{Many typically associate drones with the military, but the US commercial market is now using the aircraft across all kinds of industries, Van Meter says.}

^{“We see all sorts of uses that you can’t even imagine – from delivering cocktails to wildlife control to industrial inspection,” he says. “We are insuring drones in almost every single industry at this point.”}

^{Industry sectors with the highest drone usage include aerial photography – often for infrastructure inspection, especially in the energy and communications space – and construction, as well as media and production companies, says Chris Proudlove, senior vice president and manager of UAS risks at Global Aerospace.}

^{“The one area that has been predicted as being the largest of all – agriculture – has been slower to adopt drones,” Proudlove says, adding that this is primarily due to the quality of the end product versus the relatively high cost. “This gap will narrow significantly in the coming years, and agriculture still stands to be one of the dominant user industries,” he says, pointing to the fact that many companies are now outsourcing drone services rather than developing their own in-house capabilities.}

^{Accordingly, the insurance market for unmanned aircraft is expanding. “Insurers are keen to enter the sector, but the relatively low policy premiums and high administration costs are deterring many from entering,” Proudlove says.}

^{As a result, most operators, manufacturers and others in the drone industry rely on aviation insurance for broad policies that will cover their exposures. However, more insurers are beginning to look at the technology  and start developing products.}

^{“It’s definitely gotten more competitive,” Van Meter says. “We do see standard, traditionally non-aviation markets getting into this space.”}

^{In these cases, claims expertise can be a big issue, he adds.}

^{“These are aircraft,” he says. “This is a special field with special regulations, and it has the potential for catastrophic losses – both severe bodily injury and fatalities. If you’re a corporate user of drones, do you really want to have a claims adjuster who isn’t an expert, adjusting what could be a significant claim with prolonged litigation?}

With a constant stream of modern technology hitting the market, real estate agents and other professionals are finding new and innovative ways to take advantage of 21st century technology.

Whether it’s 360 video being used for virtual home tours, mobile apps that let you take on-the-go continuing education on your phone or new CRM platforms that keep you up-to-date on every single client interaction, there’s no shortage of tools at the industry’s disposal. One of the hottest trends in the tech field right now is the use of drones or unmanned aerial vehicles. The everyday uses for drones have been expansive — they’re being utilized for entertainment, surveillance, military programs, and most recently, real estate and home inspections.

I sat down with Brian Persons of Front Range Home Inspections to discuss the benefits and challenges of using drones in the real estate industry, and here’s what I learned.

What makes drones so popular

The possible uses of drones in real estate are endless for the creative mind. More well-known uses for agents and brokers include the ability to take aerial photos of properties for their clients and to survey landscapes and large acreage properties.

Drones can also aid agents in showing their clients a better view of the surrounding neighborhood and where their home lies in relation to local amenities.

In addition to client-facing visuals, drones can also be used for more thorough home inspections as they eliminate the need for inspectors to get on the roof to inspect tiling and other features.

“I had a few ladders slide off the gutter or on the surface below. I’ve had to disclaim roof inspections for safety reasons,” Parsons said.

Drones have been useful for Parsons’s business; they allow him to be safe and offer something his competitors can’t.

“Buyers get a more in-depth inspection, sellers get a unique view for marketing or pre-inspections,” Persons said. “I inspect a lot of rural properties as well and can get a better view of fence lines, grading, ponds, etc.”

As for future applications of this technology?

Persons said to look out for drones with up-and-coming features such as infrared thermal cameras that can sense energy loss and small drones with proximity sensors that can be used for indoor applications.

Learning to pilot a drone

Agents and brokers shouldn’t be intimidated by drones. If you’re interested in incorporating them into their business model, learning to pilot a drone is easier than one might think. “I’m 53 years old and not part of the video game generation, but the controls look similar, and with some practice in an open space, it doesn’t take long to get the basics down,” Persons said. He also noted how surprised he was at the quality of the footage he received after his first flight.