Aug 12 2016
DroneDeploy, the leading cloud software platform for commercial drones, is making the power of aerial data accessible and productive for everyone. Today, just months after DroneDeploy revealed that its users had mapped 2 million acres, the company announced that its users have now mapped over 5 million acres (more than 2 million hectares) across 130 countries. To celebrate the explosive growth DroneDeploy is releasing its second Commercial Drone Industry Trends report.
The original report, released in March of this year provided the first global commercial drone insight based on real-world mapping data. The March 2016 report covered 2 million drone mapped acres, which took DroneDeploy users 16 months to accrue. Now just 4 months later DroneDeploy users have more than doubled the mapped area in a quarter of the time.
"It's amazing to see the growth and evolution of the commercial drone industry," said Mike Winn, CEO and co-founder, DroneDeploy. "In just a matter of months we've seen a notable increase in the number of businesses integrating drones more deeply into their workflows, namely in the Agriculture, Construction and Service Provider sectors. Equally exciting, is the emergence of new rapidly growing sectors, such as Inspection and Oil & Gas."
DroneDeploy's industry insights reveal that commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are quickly establishing themselves as indispensable tools across industries and geographies. From North America and Europe to Asia and Africa, drones are making inroads against traditional methods of capturing aerial data, which include satellite and airplane imagery, and ground-based surveys. The fastest growing industry is Mining, in which monitoring site progress, measuring aggregate volumes and ensuring regulatory compliance over large areas can more efficiently and safely be achieved with drones. Oil & Gas, a rapidly emerging sector for drones, has the largest average drone map at 178 acres (72 hectares), which is largely driven by mapping pipeline installations.
The latest report finds that DJI, the world's largest drone maker, remains the dominant player but SenseFly, 3DR, GoPro and others are actively jockeying for second place in terms of drones and cameras. Other interesting findings, such as increased usage of drone map measurements and exports, suggests that businesses are starting to dig deeper and extract more value from drone maps. The complimentary full Commercial Drone Industry Trends report can be downloaded here.
The on-demand and rapid nature of drones, their low cost, accuracy and ease of use are fueling rapid adoption. Timing is also a factor in the United States where the government is actively clarifying and streamlining UAV regulation. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's recent Part 107 ruling, which goes into effect on August 29, 2016, removes significant commercial barriers and paves the way for even faster enterprise adoption.
Drone aerial mapping is transforming industries and DroneDeploy is leading the revolution. Their cloud-based software puts aerial imagery and insights into the hands of businesses in a way that is more user-friendly and cost-effective than ever before. With just two taps on a mobile device, anyone with a DJI drone and DroneDeploy's free iOS and Android apps can automatically fly and capture images, and make professional-grade maps for analysis, 3D modeling and more.
Source: https://www.dronedeploy.com/