Drone operators face a lot of challenges in an industry where technological changes are frequent and numerous, as are the demands of the market. One thing is for sure, interest in drone services isn’t going away anytime soon - though it may be evolving.
A Market as Big as the Sky
Remember your first encounter with a drone? How great did it feel to hold one? To watch one in the air? Then, finally, to actually get to fly one yourself. That wow factor was there from the start with drones, and the truth is it never went away. For those who proudly call themselves drone operators, this is a field that can remind one of being a professional athlete – they really pay me to play all day?
Of course, drones aren’t just fun and games anymore. They’re still fun, perhaps more fun than ever, but today drones are not just a game. Drones are used to do everything from inspecting facilities and precisely spraying agriculture, to making Amazon deliveries in under thirty minutes. The market for drone services is vast, and this huge industry is growing at a blistering pace. The market for drones in the power and utilities industry alone will continue to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 23.6%, reaching $515 million by 2030.
Yet, there is a big bottleneck that anyone in the commercial drone industry can tell you about. A sky filled with useful drones necessitates a command center filled with swarms of pilots. This presents a big problem in scaling any drone operations business. The solution, as in many other fields, lies in cutting edge technology. In leveraging automation so that one pilot can safely and reliably be tasked with overseeing dozens of drones at the same time, instead of just one. High Lander’s technology paves the way, empowering drone operators to quickly scale their business.
All Aboard the Automated Flights
Let’s take a step back first. Perhaps your drone operations business is doing just fine already. More than fine - you’re as busy as ever! Every day you get calls from potential customers in a myriad of industries, all of which need drone operators to help them. Yet, you’re limited in how much work you can take on. More projects mean you need more drone pilots. They’ll need to be recruited, trained, and trusted to stick around as you invest resources into growing your business. Even so, you could never keep up with the pace of demand by simply hiring more pilots.
It’s simply impossible to scale in this way. Not only is hiring more and more pilots a risk for your business, it makes large projects prohibitively expensive for your clients. This is the point where they start looking for the most cost-effective solutions, and these days they will be quick to find a drone operator that is leveraging automation - not only to scale, but to undercut the market. When you have a reliable drone fleet automation platform at your side, you can do a lot more with less.
Automation solves the manpower problem, and makes it possible to be as competitive as possible so you can win more contracts - and larger ones too. Where you would previously need 10 pilots for a large mission, you can now safely and reliably get by with one. This is a game changer for drone operators. Offering larger scale, complex drone operations without increasing your manpower requirements is the only way service providers can keep pace with the massive demand of a growing market - and improve their bottom line.
Navigating Automation is Easier Than You Think
This may not be news to you as a drone operator. Perhaps you’ve surveyed the field and understood already where this industry is headed, but you’re still hesitant. Onboarding a new platform seems risky. You’ll have to devote a lot of time to educate yourself and your staff. You’ll need to buy more drones, and that can be an expensive investment. You may wonder how safe autonomous drone flights are. Plus, what do you do about your pilots?
Rest assured, while these fears are understandable, High Lander’s Mission Control platform was built to make this decision easy for you. For one, the technical know-how needed has been cut down to a minimum. In just two clicks of a mouse, you can send a drone to exactly the location you want to get to and right on target with what you want to see. That drone will also be as safe as can be. With automated take off and precision landing, along with AI-powered collision avoidance, there’s nowhere a drone can’t safely go - and with just a click.
Your pilots will be as invaluable as ever. They simply won’t be stuck with mundane tasks any longer. Pilots can oversee many drones at once, and quickly take over any drone for manual flight as necessary. High Lander is software-only, so you can create a fleet of expensive custom drones or one of inexpensive off-the-shelf drones - or a combination of both! Keep your fleet lean and flexible by only purchasing the drones you need, and connecting them to the Mission Control platform in under 10 minutes. Plus, High Lander supports drone-in-a-box systems to further enhance your fleet options.
Empowering Drone Operators
Autonomous drone fleet management has ushered in a new era for drone operators, empowering them to do more. High Lander’s technology distributor, Cando Drones, can now fly multiple and simultaneous missions daily, and for many different clients as they operate, establish, and manage autonomous drone fleets. Cando Drones can choose to employ any or all of the 18 different types of drones in their fleet, from DJI to Parrot, Skydio to Autel, or even Pixhawk-based models – all from one easy-to-use dashboard.
“High Lander’s solution, at the end of the day, gives us the ability to scale our business. With it we can service more customers, meet their wide range of needs, and provide them with more value,” explained Alon Kloss, COO for Cando Drones.
High Lander-equipped drone operators service customers around the globe, using Mission Control to manage drones for robotic aerial security, public safety, precision agriculture, facilities inspections, drone delivery networks, border patrol operations, and much much more!
Want to hear what High Lander can do for your drone operations business? Contact us today!