As time has gone on and drones have developed, the commercial usage of drones has grown and evolved. A variety of industries have learned to adapt drones for usage in their particular fields:

• MIT Technology Review has noted that drones can be employed throughout the crop cycle to provide solutions. From providing 3-D mapping for early soil analysis before a seed has been planted, to automated crop spraying; with easy and regular crop monitoring and health assessment, drones can ease the workload of farmers, making them more efficient.
• For security usage, drones can cover more ground, faster, and without endangering a human security guard in order to investigate perimeter breaches or gauging disasters to deploy first responders. Software is being developed so that drones can identify intruders, and follow thermal images until intruders can be responded to.
• Just as in agriculture and security, the speed and accuracy of drones makes them appealing to the construction sector. When paired with sensors and the proper computing tools, drones can take data that can be transformed into 3D structural models, topographical maps, volumetric measurements, and more. This ability to cut cost while improving accuracy is incredibly valuable.

The telecommunications sector is starting to see great applications for drones as well. They have great potential to cut down time, money, and danger to employees. As PwC noted in their recent report, T-Mobile has already demonstrated the advantages – using drones, they were able to conduct a pilot test of antenna masts at a stadium in Utrecht, a test that took roughly 15 minutes. Conversely, traditional methods would have taken roughly a week.

In addition to maintenance, drones also can reduce the expense and improve the accuracy of planning and network optimization. They can be deployed for radio-planning and line-of-site testing between radio towers to help select the right frequencies, appropriate antenna heights, and site locations. Drones can also help to test network strength, an idea already being tested by Nokia.

Our metal fabrication abilities and water jet cutting services at Red River Precision allow us to service a wide variety of industries, including the telecommunications, construction, and semiconductor industries. Drones will not only be a big part of the industries we work with, but also a part of our business as well, with the potential to produce components for these cutting-edge machines. Contact us and let us know about your metal fabrication or water jet cutting needs – we’ll be happy to see what we can do for you. Make sure to keep up with us on LinkedIn and Twitter as well!