Over the period of last four years, BIS Research has dived into the realms of the drone industry from its origin and have concluded that the industry is evolving beyond the limit of military applications to become a powerful tool for a myriad of operations. The world is witnessing excellent examples of the use of drones in countering rhino poachers in Malawi, delivering blood to remote clinics in Rwanda, orchestrated performances in Las Vegas and mapping archaeological sites in Turkey. All these buzz around the drones and their prospective functions led to the Webinar, held on 28th June 2018, with Guest Speaker, Mr. Thomas Haun, EVP at PrecisionHawk.

Entertainment and media industry have been the forerunners in adopting commercial drones, following which industries like construction, energy, and agriculture are expected to drive commercial drone demand in the coming years. The leap of commercial drones from media and entertainment to the mainstream consumer market has resulted in their application for commercial and civil government works ranging from firefighting to farming. This leap has created a wide range of opportunity for the commercial drone market.

The coming together of technologies like blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet of Things has revolutionized the daily lives of the people worldwide, and it has no less impact on the drone industry. Companies in the commercial drone sector are incorporating blockchain to effectively solve various problems like delivery, real-time communication, and geofencing & traffic control, among others.

According to our analyst, Gaurav Shukla, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) could help the drones to overcome human limitations in the future. Currently, the operations of drones are majorly controlled by humans, but with the integration of AI in the drone, many drone program, whether it’s hardware, data gathering, data analysis or decision making, all of these will be automated.” Companies like Uber and Airbus are working on the concept of urban air mobility, which is touted to revolutionize the way people travel.

Drones as a tool are gradually becoming the primary source for data collection. Mr. Thomas Haun added during the webinar, “the drone is much more than the drone itself. We work with flight software, sensors, data processing and safety technology to enable different use cases of drones…This is the time in the drone industry. The ability for this technology to significantly improve businesses and our lives, in general, makes it an incredibly exciting space to watch.”

The drone industry is undeniably becoming a futuristic problem-solving tool despite the current challenges faced by the industry such as the absence of traffic management system, improper regulations, lack of trust on current technologies like sense and avoid system. Players from across the value chain in the drone industry are present in North America. Be it component suppliers, software providers, drone manufacturers, service providers, etc.  Asia-Pacific is the next in line, with the declining cost of drones, which is one of the prime reason behind their wide acceptance in price sensitive countries of the region.

Listen to the full webinar to gain more insights into the future of the commercial drones.

Webinar Link: https://youtu.be/yV4iPUfsNyw