Drones—the bird of technology is flying higher than ever, finding its purpose in different sectors. Previously, used for aerial surveillance, the technology is now popular in industries like agriculture, construction, insurance, mining and aggregates, public safety and first responders, oil and gas, survey engineering, telecommunications, and utilities. The drone industry is ready to witness a rapid expansion this year as drone use would increase in select sectors like agriculture, mining, construction, exploration of resources, and surveying.
This year, many drone companies have began expanding their area of operations and determining the viability of a drone program by revamping their workflows and managing data. The companies are expected to buckle up on their company strategies and avail the benefits of beyond visual line of sight operation. Some big news by the end of 2019 could be workflow integration of drone data into predictive maintenance as well as enterprise assets management systems such as those from IBM, INFOR, Oracle and SAP. Capabilities could include documentation, tracking, and GIS data integration. Drones have a wide range of applications in a number of fields, ranging from precision agriculture to aerial mapping. Drones are expected to play a bigger role in logistics and e-commerce sectors in the years to come.
Combining physics with artificial intelligence, drone technology solution companies are working on producing everything that helps better and ease the life of the public; UTM—Unmanned Traffic Management systems and more such highly beneficial inventions are on the way. In addition to the same, the present generation of drones is capable of supporting weather forecasting by collecting relevant data, defense and navigation services, surveillance, and more. Along with the new imaging sensor integration announcements in 2019 (such as smaller, more lightweight LiDAR), imaging software solutions are expected to advance as companies seek to combine RGB, thermal imaging, orthomosaic, and data from IoT sensors. More aerial imaging and mapping software firms will likely announce artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Right now, most of this is cloud-based machine learning (a.k.a. deep learning and predictive analytics), where datasets are trained by specialized teams. Already, there are some drone-based AI solutions for image recognition/machine vision, but it is still early in the technology development cycle and AI is near peak hype. By collaborating with the right drone technology solution providing companies, businesses can change the way to address conventional problems.
To help companies navigate through the best-breed drone technology solution provider, APAC CIO Outlook has compiled this edition on leading-edge drone technology solution providers. Through a distinguished panel comprised of CIOs, VCs, industry analysts, and APAC CIO Outlook’s editorial panel, we have evaluated and shortlisted organizations that have significantly stood out as some of the most prominent players in the drone technology for the year 2019. The organizations featured in this issue through their business knowledge and industry prowess have established their eminence in the drone technology sector.
We present to you APAC CIO Outlook’s, “Top 10 Drone Technology Solution Providers – 2019.”
