From Dronelife on October 20, 2016
Photo Credit: DRONELIFE
Getting the General Public to Begin Thinking
It took a tease and a bold prediction from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to get the general public to begin thinking a couple of years ago about the ways in which drones might change the business landscape forever. But commercial drone companies were already far ahead of the game by that time, taking the new technology beyond familiar military and hobbyist uses.
Bezos, of course, was focused on the idea of using the unmanned devices as couriers of a sort, an efficient and economical way to deliver packages for his retail behemoth. Meanwhile, others were on a different path, envisioning and actualizing a wide array of uses for drones across industries, and developing a wide range of business models to make drones an integral part of industrial practices.
How commercial drone companies are changing the way business is done
Just how varied the uses of the technology have become – and just how rapidly the new sector of commercial drone manufacturers has taken flight – is chronicled in a recent report from Tracxn, the world’s largest startup research platform. In addition to the retail and e-commerce applications Amazon is developing, drones are now being utilized in a variety of industries, including but not limited to:
- Agriculture– increasing crop yield by providing precisely targeted monitoring and pest control
- Mining– being integrated into every facet of operations from mapping to equipment and road inspections to blast analysis and stockpile evaluations
- Critical infrastructure – providing real-time perimeter surveillance and facility inspections, as well as early detection of hazards such as gas leaks.
- Insurance companiesare even putting drones to work, to collect images and data about claims sites without the time and expense of sending adjusters to the scene.
To accomplish these tasks, and many more, commercial drone companies and commercial drone manufacturers have devised a range of business models to put the technology into the hands of the end-users, as the Tracxn report spells out in detail.
With the emersion of this breakthrough technology, large industrial facilities are beginning to comprehend the many possibilities and applications that automated drones provide. The business impact of their long-lasting benefits are on a clear path to becoming the industry standard.
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