Engineering the future of drone-powered solutions
Innovation comes from trust. The story of Skylark Drones is a personification of this fact. Our conversation with Mughilan Thiru Ramasamy brought out the power of trust when invested with talent and determination to make an impact.
Q. What is Skylark Drones all about?
A. Skylark Drones has developed drone based data analytics solution for the B2B legacy industries such as mining, utilities, infrastructure and agriculture bringing in:
- The much needed transparency in compliance and governance
- Reducing time for decision making
As a use case, extensive large scale surveys is a pre-requisite before establishing mining operations through a dense area. Surveying through the dense and diverse areas can be hazardous to human lives. Unmanned drone based solutions help in visualisation and data collection that bridge the safety gaps and offers improved accessibility to collect actionable data.
Drone based solutions also fulfils the monitoring and benchmarking analytics that are needed to build the roadways and the railways infrastructure. Skylark Drone’s data analytics platform is efficient, productive and unlocks the much needed information through interpretation of aerial data.
Q. What problems does Skylark Drones solve?
A. Skylark Drones resolves issues at two levels:
- At the data level, we extend the reach, increase the productivity and enhance security for legacy sectors.
- At an analytical level, this brings in transparency in governance and expedites decision making.
Q. No story is every complete without the challenges. What were yours and how did you deal with them?
A. I would rather term them as untapped opportunities. We built our solutions for the B2B legacy sector. Our first stepping stone was to win the trust of our B2B patrons who, traditionally, had a very rigid policy of working with specific vendors. We are now experiencing a shift in the thought process in this legacy segment, a phenomena which was so far prevalent in the B2C sectors. The B2B sector is using and building marketplaces, adopting digital data by using drone data solutions and more.
As a technology provider we cater to a significant chunk of the B2B value chain. This is a new technology and we take it upon us to translate the benefits of drone data solutions unlocking real business value throughout the chain, to all our clients’ key stakeholders.
Q. Where did you get the inspiration?
A. Skylark Drones is passionate about unravelling the possibilities of drone analytics, applications and solutions. We have been building drones since 2010. We developed a yearning to know how drones can be used to have a more meaningful impact to the society and lives of the people above which they fly and this lead us to exploring drone based solutions that can change the way the engines of the economy such as the legacy sectors operate. We are trying to break through the misnomers that drones can only capture pictures and videos.
Q. So what lies next?
A. There is a lot to be done, but for now we want to reach out to customers in India, Europe and South East Asia in the coming 12–24 months. In the course of our journey we want our customers to realise the true potential of drone technology. We have taken the initiative to train drone pilots as part of our initiative to give momentum to the ecosystem as a sustainable sector. In the long run, when drone technology becomes mainstream it can fuel job avenues in sectors like mining, agriculture, utilities and infrastructure.
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