The drone industry is going to witness a rapid expansion this year as drone use would increase in sectors like agriculture, mining, construction, exploration of resources and surveying.
In 2018 drone companies began expanding their area of operations and determining the viability of a drone program by revamping their workflows and managing data. This year companies are expected to buckle up on their strategies to avail the benefits of beyond visual line of sight operations. Let’s look at some of the drone industry trends for 2019.
Consistent Growth
Drones require ground station drone operators and the requirements for becoming an operator are quite stringent in most parts of the world. Most countries have enacted drone laws that stipulate minimum one pilot per drone operation. So the number of certified remote drone operators is an indicator of where the industry is heading and whether or not people find it promising. In the last one year, the number of FAA registered and certified drone operators increased around twofold, reaching more than 100,000.
The increase has been mainly as a result of operators who organizations employ with their drone programs and not with amateur drone providers. This is indicative of the wider mainstreaming of the commercial drone industry and it is the main engine of growth in the drone sector. Though it is speculated that the growth in the number of pilots is slow and if more companies do not make profits, it wouldn’t rise fast. But there would be a consistency in growth patterns. And slow and steady wins the race, isn’t it? Big drone companies would continue exploring new sources of revenue generation and this would naturally boost growth.
Also Read: Drones to boost agricultural production and help maintain food security
Regulations
Drone regulations are a contentious debate, with many industry stakeholders and big companies offering different narratives. But they all agree on one thing: drone regulations would ensure quality and boost competitiveness, provided the regulatory mechanism is not stifling. The increasing use of drones’ world over for civilian purposes has posed a challenge for regulations. The regulations are important so as to ensure public safety and standardizing the emerging industry. It is widely anticipated that in 2019 FAA will make remote identification of all drones flying in the USA mandatory. A new rule for small drones could also be implemented. Now whether the proposal takes the shape of legislation or not still remains to be seen.
Debates over the specifics of Drone ID are raging within the FAA. Though, whatever the outcome of the official deliberations, Drone ID would be crucial for Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) to see the light of the day. UTM would help dispel some of the skepticism about drone, make people feel more secure and confident about drones and act as an enabler for futuristic drone-based projects like drone taxis and a network of drone package delivery.
Power of AI and sensors
AI, Virtual Reality and LiDAR sensors are some of the technologies that are will radically transform the drone industry. AI assists in analyzing the huge amount of data captured by drones. Convergence of drone technology with Machine learning and AI helps infrastructure managers identify quality defects, malfunctions, or inventory shortages much faster than any other method. This would require AI-based analysis. GIS data integration is also an interesting area to look for in 2019. Workflow integration of drone data and devising new enterprise asset management system is also something that we are expecting.
Preeminence of DJI to continue
The Chinese drone manufacturer DJI has emerged as the leading drone maker and has the lion’s share of the drone market. DJI has a vast portfolio of drones of every category and functionality. In Drone aircraft purchases DJI is ahead of its competitors by a huge margin – staggering 75% market share. DJI owes its spectacular success to its focus on technological advancement, innovation, and assertive product development. This year DJI would emphasize on research and development of enterprise products and its dominance in the drone market would remain unrivaled and unchallenged in 2019 as well.
Also Read: Drones to propel new innovations in the construction industry