Drones are nothing new. But they are in the list of tech to look out for in 2023 because a tipping point is approaching fast.
A few years ago it was almost impossible to run a viable business based upon drones. The rules around how and where you could fly, whose permission was needed, and the qualifications required, were onerous.
But this is changing. We have reached the point at which drone usage, and therefore the number of opportunities for businesses to benefit from drones, is gathering momentum.
A number of good business cases for drone usage have made the difference, along with the development of technology that will make the safe operation of drones on a large scale possible.
E.g. a new project in Milton Keynes will see drones fly across the city's skies carrying cargo, including vital medicines. The trial is part of a partnership with the City Council, Cranfield University and the Satellite Applications Catapult.
This project will dovetail neatly with the development of a drone highway that will extend 165-miles above Reading, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Coventry, and Rugby.
This has been made possible by technology that will allow drones to share airspace with crewed aviation in a safe and secure way.
With these breakthroughs coming along, the value of the drone service industry is going to be big – potentially as much as £45billion by 2030.
And with restrictions loosening and opportunities growing, drone services are springing up across the region. This means that local businesses can use drones to perform tasks that might otherwise be out of reach, or time consuming and expensive to perform.
Traditional applications include:
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Promotional and entertainment photography – from every angle and completely stable.
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Agriculture, landscape gardening and woodland management - to spot problems with crops, detect signs of disease in trees, identify irrigation sources, map boundaries.
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Construction, housing, insurance – inspection, accurate measurement, surveys, 3D tours.
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Warehousing, Inventory, Delivery - auditing inventory, misplaced items, inventory condition, layout planning, targeted straight line delivery.
However, the range of applications is being extended through the use of accompanying technology e.g. the ability to process data from the drone in real time, and use it in AI algorithms that can predict events in real time.
This might include aerial surveillance of large crowds where the ability to track individuals within a crowd could provide early warning of someone requiring help, or a prediction about the movement of people that might necessitate a safety intervention.
Also, the ability to work with specialist onboard tech that can calculate carbon emissions, detect air quality levels, and correlate those with the timing and position of machinery and vehicles.
There is then the ability to ‘find home’ and recharge autonomously – permitting drones to operate from moving vehicles surveying terrain, looking for missing people and animals, all without the need for operator control.
So, have a think about ways in which a drone might transform your business operations. There will be soon be a drone close by that can help.
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