Drones in different industries:

Defense:

It is clear that today and by 2030 Defence and Enterprise will be the two sectors most heavily involved with drones. According to Levitate Capital this is due to a global increase in defence spending, most of it stemming from the United States of America. In 2019, the USA made up 39% of drone spending globally.

Enterprise:

Drones for consumers have been available since 2013, but it has only been illegal for drones to fly for commercial reasons since 2016. There is a large amount of regulation regarding drones today, such as flying within visual line of sight and only being permitted to fly in specific areas. This makes it difficult for companies to fully adopt a drone program – alongside costs with procurement, training and data collection.

Construction:

Drones can change the architecture, engineering and construction industry in the following ways:

• Allows for remote site monitoring and progress reports
• Software can construct accurate twins of the project to be compared against 3D models and expected progress
• Drones can map out terrain to determine feasibility
• Using thermal sensors, drones can detect leaks, electrical issues and other anomalies
• Monitor sites and increase security to protect equipment.

Agriculture:

Precision agriculture can be defined as “the application of modern information technologies to provide, process and analyse multisource data of high spatial and temporal resolution for decision making and operations in the management of crop production.” Essentially it is the science of improving crop yields. It refers to the way farmers manage their crops to ensure the efficiency of their inputs such as water and fertiliser as well as minimising unwanted flooding, pests, and disease. This helps the farmer to maximise the productivity, quality, and yield of his crop.

Drones can change the world of precision agriculture in the following ways:

• Plant or irrigate crops
• Soil and crop monitoring
• Health assessments
• Data can inform farmers when to plant, treat and harvest crops.

Logistics

This refers to the possibilities of drone delivery, which has the possibility to become the largest drone market in the economy. At the moment, routine autonomous delivery is unlikely to occur before 2023 – but significant progress has been made. UPS and Matternet, a provider of drone-based logistics services in urban environments, have joined forces to deliver medicine from WakeMed’s hospital in Raleigh and recently announced to expand it to the University of California San Diego health system. Wing, a subsidiary of Alphabet, has also been granted approval to commence its delivery service in Canberra.

Why invest in the Drone industry?

1. By 2025 more than 250,000 of the 570 million farms in the world will be using drones in some capacity.
2. The market for drones in smart or precision agriculture is expected to reach 8 billion dollars by 2024.
3. ARK predicts that in the next 5 years drones will deliver nearly 20% of all parcels.
4. Global food delivery revenue will reach $116 billion by 2030, according to ARK.

What might make investing risky?

1. Job loss due to drones replacing workers in agriculture.
2. Drone regulation not being implemented fast enough to allow for increased use.
3. Restrictions on where drones are allowed to fly and at what times.