Drones are not only useful for consumer purposes or for military missions. There is a new industry that uses drones in industrial settings like construction, mining, and real estate.  The technology of industrial drones is captivating and comprises of components like GPS, sensors, rugged bodies, and LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). These industrial drones merge different data collection sources with advanced image technologies including AI (artificial intelligence).

Kespry is an industrial drones supplier and provides a comprehensive platform for industrial drones that comprises of software, hardware, and rich data analytics. The CEO, George Mathew took part in a CXOTalk series (episode 277) in conversation with the world’s topmost innovators.  During the talk, Mathew explains industrial drone tech and speaks about varied topics like LIDAR on drones, 3D ortho-mosaic image processing, the volumetric analysis in mining, and photogrammetry.

Here are some recent topics covered in his talk:

How Industrial Drones Can Be Used

Industrial drones fly seamlessly over worksites to easily collect data. These drones can collect data in an efficient, simple, affordable, and safe way. The drones are also used to transmit data.

What Do Industrial Drones Have That’s New?

3D ortho-mosaic and digital surface models are two changes that were introduced into the drone market. Basically, if you’re getting data from a map, it’s two dimensional. With industrial drones, you can now get a 3D view. These drones can understand elevation, topology, and the volumetrics associated with materials that can be dug out of the ground giving a brand new perspective.

Sensors Included in the Drones

The industrial drones are outfitted with visual sensors and cameras that can take images on worksites. Along with the visual imagery, comes a 1D forward-facing LIDAR.

The LIDAR, is a sensor that can help prevent a collision, and detect any obstacles as well as a terrain map. When drones are flown on a worksite, images can be autonomously taken to show any obstruction making it easy to avoid them in real time.

What’s the Difference Between Commercial and Industrial Drones?

The Kespry drones introduce industrial capabilities for rugged work areas like construction or mining sites. You can probably fly a consumer drone, the problem is that this type of drone will have operational issues on a mine site that’s about 8,000 feet high.

The consumer drone will have some difficulty flying in 25-mile-an-hour winds. Also, expect some more issues if you plan to fly it for more than 15 minutes. Kespry’s industrial drones can fly for almost 25-30-minutes, covering 150 acres when flown at about 150-200-feet in the air.

What Kind of Analytics is Used to Collect Data?

Mathews stated that the company cares a lot about how a worksite and its assets are interpreted from an analytical perspective. The drones use a method called photogrammetry, which is a process of taking 2D images that are converted into three-dimensional models.  Industries need better automation, reliable data processing, higher-grade capabilities etc., to get insights into their performance. Kespry’s industrial drone solution has autonomous capabilities. All you need to do is input the coordinates, hit the start button, and the drone automatically does the work for you.  It is this natural automation that sustains the data that’s coming off the drone. When compared to manually flying drones, industries using these new drones will be much more efficient.