Usefulness of Drones Across Many Industries

Drones, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s), first came to prominence in the early 1980’s. The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of a drone is ‘A remote-controlled pilotless aircraft or missile.’ Primarily they were used for military purposes for surveillance and reconnaissance but over the last 10 or so years, they have been more commercially adapted by business and are now almost an everyday part of our lives. ‘The emergence of drones challenges traditional notions of safety, security, privacy, ownership, liability, and regulation and with their ability to collect data and transport loads, drones are re-shaping the way we think and feel about our physical environment’ (Rao, Gopi and Maione, 2016, pp.83). The adaptation of commercial drones has led to many benefits for different companies across several industries but there have also been some obstacles associated with these drones, which I will discuss later in this assignment.

Main Body

Many businesses recognised the potential of drones and have since implemented them in various ways, which have greatly aided them. As a result of their versatility in their differing abilities and potential such as potential drone delivery systems in the future (which at one point in time it was rumoured Amazon was going to introduce), the value of drone activity has greatly risen over the last few years. This can be seen from the US market where the value of drone activity rose from $40 million in 2012 to about $1 billion in 2017 (McKinsey & Company, 2017). Also according to a Teal Group report in 2014 it is believed over the next 10 years the drone market will generate over 91 billion dollars in revenue. It is a rapidly growing market that is showing absolutely no signs of slowing down in the future. As with any growing technology, trend modifications and improvements are introduced very often. For drones, these modifications or improvements can be seen with drones being developed with arms to grab things and then transport them from one place to another.

Generally, the drone industry is thought of having three groups: military, commercial and hobby. However, there are a couple of other groups that I believe should also be included as they are big groups in their own right and more examples of drone usage. These are the professional and toy groups. The toy group is mainly for recreational use of the drones by kids or young people who are the main target of this market. The drones here are cheap and affordable (around $100) and give young people their first experience of drones. Often time’s manufacturers in this sector use different selling channels such as Amazon in order to get their product to the market. For the professional market, the main clients are those who use drones for filming, surveying or photography in their line of work. For these clients the drones are usually more sophisticated with high definition cameras etc. and therefore more expensive ($10000 or less). In this market, Chinese companies such as DJI tend to be the market leader over the other competing European companies and US. When drones are talked about in a commercial sense it is meant that they are used in sectors such as infrastructure, transport, insurance, media and entertainment, telecommunications, agriculture, security, and mining (PwC, 2016). It is expected that the most growth in the drone industry will take place in the commercial area over the next few years. According to de Miguel Molina and Oña (2018, pp. 31) the commercial segment has a bright future and is currently the most interesting segment in which to compete.

I will now discuss the commercial drone market and the some of the different business in the market. In this area of the market, both North American and European companies are the largest and the market leaders. This is different to others sectors of the market such as professional where large Chinese companies such as DJI are the market leaders. However, Chinese companies are beginning to expand in the commercial sector and could soon be market leaders. This is because the market is relatively easy to enter into for large companies. These companies then set their prices lower than other companies and under cut them in order to create more business for them. This then causes the other companies to react and lower their own prices. ‘Companies are also responding to this threat with a value increase of their products, based on their associated software, which has been developed for specific industries (agriculture, mining, etc.). Therefore, products have become solutions and cooperation between drone manufacturers and software firms has been the trend during the last years’ (de Miguel Molina and Oña, 2018, pp. 31). Although it is, a growing industry with a lot of promise for the future there are some barriers that can prevent is expansion. The biggest barrier of the industry is regulation, which is mainly based around two areas: security and safety. These regulations cause the use of drones to be limited. If Europe wants to continue to compete in the market it must with the other two big players (the USA and China) it must resolve these issues quickly as if it takes a long time the other large markets could have made advancements much greater than that of Europe which would lead to a huge gap in quality and innovation in the global market for Europe.

Even though drones are a rapidly growing industry with massive potential for the future, there are some pitfalls associated with them, which could stunt their growth and development over the foreseeable future. As I have already touched on in this assignment industry regulation could see the usage of drones fall. The extent to which drone usage could be affected would depend on the region as in some regions regulation is ready to be introduced whereas in others drones are simply put in the same rule set as that of any other remote controlled flying vehicle. Regulation of drone use can cover different aspects. These aspects would include a height restriction, a distance restriction from the actual person flying the drone and even an introduction of ‘no fly’ zones such as airports where the use of drones would be deemed to be dangerous. There is basic regulation in place when it comes to flying commercial drones. What I mean by ‘basic’ regulation is simply that there in order to fly a drone commercially a person must first obtain a license to do so. Acquiring this license means taking a physical test in which their flight capabilities are put to the test and then also taking a theory test. It is much like trying to get a license for a car. Although there is basic regulation there needs to be more introduced as drones can be very dangerous if not operated correctly. For example, according to a report by Deloitte (2015) in the US between June and November 2014, there were 25 reported near misses between drones and piloted planes at heights of several thousand feet with some of those involving large passenger planets. The majority of the drones involved in these near misses were hobbyist drones, which don’t contain anti-collision technology in them as these are more expensive for the manufacturers. There were also two recent cases where drones were in the news as they were the reason why both Gatwick airport in London and Dublin airport were shut down. Due to the danger of potential drones and the cases that I have mentioned it is quite likely that regulations of drone usage will be introduced in most markets.

Another pitfall of drones is one shared with any aerial vehicle is that there is always the possibility of them crashing. Whether it is someone who has just assembled a drone and is flying it for the first time or an experienced pilot drones tend to have a likely chance of crashing. Due to their design they are lightweight and a strong gust of wind could easily imbalance them and cause them to crash. There is also the chance of a mechanical problem with the technology leading to a drone crashing. Even drone manufacturers acknowledge that there is a good chance of a drone crashing as most drones come with a spare set of blades in the event the first set need to be changed after they have been damaged which would most likely be caused by a crash. If given the choice for a new piece of technology I believe someone would choose a new phone or laptop over a drone as most people are aware that drones have a high risk of crashing.

I will now discuss in greater detail the different industries in which commercial drones are used widely in and are of great value. The first sector they are growing in use in is agriculture. In this sector drones are used to detect potential diseases in crops, to be an aerial and more threatening scarecrow than the traditional kind to any potential unwanted birds looking to eat some crops and also in order to more accurately estimate precise harvest quality. Agriculture is an industry that is becoming more and more data driven and therefore it is believed that the usage of drones will continue to increase as they can be of great use to farmers in data collection which would help farmers increase their output and then their profits. The next industry I will look at in which drone usage is growing is entertainment and media. Drone usage in this industry especially has taken off as drones allow new angles and perspectives to be captured when filming that are seen as creative and cutting edge. Drones are able to give an aerial view of a situation quite easily whereas in the past this shot could only be captured from a high building, a crane or a helicopter. Drones in this case are a significantly cheaper way to get an aerial shot than the ways I have just mentioned. Drones also require minimal setup whereas operating a crane or helicopter would be a lot more challenging to do. Drones could also lead to more innovative marketing campaigns for companies where the drone itself could have a major role say distributing a product from one person to another over a large scale. When it comes to media and entertainment the possibilities for drones are endless and with them innovation and creativity in this industry will no doubt continue to increase.

Conclusion

Drones have endless potential and are seemingly becoming more and more useful for many industries including infrastructure, insurance, media, agriculture and security. Their value and usage is expected to continue to grow over the next few years with no signs of slowing down in the near future. However, there is uncertainty-surrounding drones which could lead to their usage falling. Uncertain events such as possible regulations being introduced has led to some speculation that drones will not be as used as many people believe in the future. As an unbiased outsider who is taking a close look at the commercial drone industry for the first time I believe that drones are a useful new technology which will be a large part of many industries going forward in the future even though there are uncertainties I believe this will not affect drone usage very much in the future but again this is only my opinion and it may well have a large affect but it will mainly depend on the extent to which regulations are introduced and in what markets they are introduced into.