Drone Technology
Making the Business Case for Your Drone Program
I am happy to announce the release of Making a Successful Business Case for Drone Technology – a blueprint for enterprises to develop a successful business case for a drone-based technology program. Produced in partnership with PrecisionHawk, this reference guide offers enterprise leaders a clear, step-by-step process to analyze, evaluate, and communicate key objectives of … Read more
Drones Are Doing More In U.S. Than You May Know, As These 3 Companies Show
Five years ago, the pundits predicted that by now we would be seeing tens of thousands of drones buzzing over our heads delivering everything from pizzas and burritos to the latest “must-have” item from Amazon. So what happened? Where are they? In a nutshell, they are here, but the general public doesn’t see them—at least … Read more
Seven Trends That Will Shape the Commercial Drone Industry in 2019
[This post first appeared in Forbes] In many ways, 2019 will be another big year for the commercial drone industry. Last year saw a wider rollout of the FAA’s LAANC program (the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability that provides access to controlled airspace near airports), the launch of the UAS Integration Pilot Program from … Read more
Four Commercial Drone Trends to Watch in 2018
In my last post, Five Biggest Commercial Drone Trends of 2017 and the Challenges Ahead, I used data from our 2017 Drone Market Sector Report to illustrate the major trends of the past year and describe the major challenges ahead for the drone industry. That post looked back, but this one looks forward, offering our … Read more
Who Benefits from Airmap and its Digital Certificates for Drones?
Airmap, with its low-altitude airspace management platform for drones, continues to garner international market share and new investment, but some uses for its digital certificates raise questions about their role in future airspace regulation. THE FACTS: AirMap provides low-altitude navigational data and communication tools to the drone industry. In February 2017, they announced $26 … Read more
Can AeroVironment Compete in the Commercial Drone Market?
AeroVironment’s new drone and cloud-based analytics platform squarely targets the commercial sector, but are they targeting the wrong vertical, too late in the game? THE FACTS: Earlier this month, the military and tactical unmanned aircraft systems manufacturer AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) proudly unveiled its new QuantixTM drone and a cloud-based analytics platform called the AeroVironment Decision Support … Read more
Sense and Avoid for Drones is No Easy Feat
But development is vibrant, and you’ll see it work first in prosumer drones THE FACTS: “Sense and avoid” for drones is a popular topic in the press right now, but the phrase can mean different things in different contexts and for different people. To clarify, there is a difference between solving the problem of “sense” … Read more
Can PrecisionHawk Tame Drone Traffic in the Sky?
PrecisionHawk’s LATAS delivers an innovative air traffic control system for drones, but it’s one of several that depends on the not-so-imminent success of all aircraft using ADS-B. THE FACTS: This past week (August 29, 2016), the FAA granted PrecisionHawk a waiver from Part 107.31’s visual line of sight (VLOS) limitations, which gives them the ability … Read more
Six Trends Driving the Commercial Drone Market in 2016 and Beyond
“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” – attributed to Yogi Berra I was recently asked in an interview to discuss four or five trends that I see as major drivers in the commercial drone industry today and what manufacturers and service providers might focus on in the future. That sounds simple enough … Read more
Commercial Drone Markets: 2015 Year in Review
What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time, I reflected back on the news and trends of the commercial drone markets of 2014 and wrote about the mixed state of affairs in the U.S. Back then, drones got considerable media hype and you would have thought that drones could do anything from … Read more