Drones/UAV: Propelling into the Future | Symmetry Blog
About Savannah Cuthbert
Symmetry Electronics is a global electronic component distributor that partners with industry-leading suppliers to offer engineers comprehensive design-phase support, available-to-ship inventory, and a unique e-commerce experience. One of the many applications that we support, is the development of drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV).
Drone Industry Growth Opportunities
Drones are defined as unmanned aircrafts that are operated remotely or autonomously. At their inception, drones were most commonly used in the military, or for recreational use. Today, new use cases have been established in the business sector, with growth opportunities being seen in the following categories (source: Comptia):
- Mapping and surveys
- Inspections
- Security, surveillance, or monitoring
- Data/analytics
- Solutions (i.e. combining elements of drone hardware, software, infrastructure, and services)
- Commercial photos/video
- Emergency services
- Military-related services
- Managed services/Drones-as-a-Service
- Delivery of goods
Current Drone Use Cases
Drones are continuing to benefit businesses and consumers in addressing safety and security, while offering opportunities for cost savings, process efficiencies and overall convenience. Currently, drones are being adopted in the insurance, real estate, construction, mining, agriculture, transportation, entertainment and media, oil/gas, government, and telecommunications industries (source: Comptia). The following are a few use cases in action:
- Agricultural Drones: The agriculture industry is utilizing drones to effectively monitor crops and livestock, manage irrigation and lay down fertilizer across several acres of land. The use of drones has allowed farmers to save time and money in addressing key operations.
- Construction Drones: Builders, general contractors and inspectors are utilizing drones to address employee safety laws, in addition to accessing a “birds-eye-view” of the progress of a construction site. Furthermore, inspectors are utilizing drones to capture photos and videos of hard-to-reach areas such as roofs, with the ability to upload data straight to the cloud and deliver reports in near real-time.
- Insurance Drones: Drones are being used to capture cohesive property assessments to address natural disaster insurance claims. Insurance adjusters are utilizing drones to capture photos and videos in hard to reach or unsafe areas that can be uploaded to the cloud and easily shared with clients.
Develop Your Own Drone
According to Business Insider, the drone services market size is expected to hit $63.6 billion by 2025, with consumer drone shipments predicted to reach 29 million by 2021 (source: Business Insider). Interested in tapping into this growing market? Take a look at our Drone/UAV Technology Teardown (PDF) that outlines the components you need to take your idea from concept to reality.
We support many other applications. Check out our other Tech Teardown’s for additional inspiration and technical guidance.