Look up! It’s a commercial drone!
Jeff Bezos’ vision of drones delivering packages pronounced 6 years back is looking likely to find a place in our reality very soon. The FAA, USA awarded the first commercial drone flying rights to UPS (United Parcel Service, not your computer’s) on 2nd October 2019.
This event marks the first steps towards entry into the $127bn commercial drones market!
The Trump administration has been trying to speed up the rollout of drone technology (India’s lacking!). A few important details of the FAA regulations:
- Drones can now flow out of the pilot’s Line-of-Sight. This had been banned before in the US and is still banned in India. It is one of the major regulatory barriers that hinder the scaling of commercial drone delivery.
- Drones can now fly at night and carry a cargo weighing more than 25 kg.
- Drones are still not approved for flying over urban areas. Another major hurdle yet to be crossed.
How does a company get the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) approval to fly commercial drones?
Quick answer: There are a lot of pilot projects that need to be passed. UPS passed a pilot project after delivering 1,100 medical sample deliveries in a Raleigh, North Carolina hospital.
Wait, I had also mentioned that the commercial drones market is worth $127bn, right? Wondering where exactly would drones be used and how big the different market segments would be?
Let’s take a quick look at the top 4 commercial drone markets:
- Infrastructure: Capital intensive projects like energy, roads, railway, oil & gas can benefit from drones in all 3 stages of construction: pre-construction, in-construction, and post-construction. Drones have a tool-kit of solutions from site analysis, 3D modeling for design in the pre-construction phase, to performing precise and dangerous work of steel slabs placements in-construction phase, to monitoring maintenance requirements in the post-construction phase. Let’s also not forget the inventory management, progress reporting, and environmental impact monitoring that drones will perform alongside said functions. The Infrastructure market for drones is valued at $45.2bn.
- Agriculture: Drones have the power to transform agriculture into a high-tech industry for the first time. They have proven uses throughout the crop life-cycle, from soil analysis to seed planting to harvesting. Drones can even perform tedious physical tasks of seed planting and crop spraying. The Agriculture market is valued at $32.4bn.
- Transportation: Applications vary from e-commerce package delivery (Amazon Prime Air, Google Wing), to transport of medicines (UPS), spare-parts delivery, and hyperlocal food-delivery (Swiggy? Zomato?). Delivering medical supplies to remote rural areas is the most likely application for drones because the need is high and the risk is low. The Transportation market is valued at $13bn.
- Security: Security has always been manpower intensive. Drones can change this status quo by reducing staff numbers & costs. From monitoring highways and traffic signals to monitoring construction/industrial sites and residential complexes, drones can heavily automate the security market. This market is valued at $10.5bn.
Drones look so good, the future looks so bright. Sure? Read this.
//Utkarsh Sinha
