Research conducted by Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, estimates that by 2020, UAV technology will reach a market scale of $100 billion in military, consumer and commercial fields. According to Gartner’s data, the military sector accounts for 70% of the total market size. According to the number of shipments, drones used in the consumer market dominate, accounting for 94% of the total shipments, but their market size only accounts for a small part of the actual income, mainly because entry-level drone products are usually low in price, only a few hundred euros. At the same time, commercial drones may only account for 6% of the market shipments, but their prices are high (usually from several thousand euros to tens of thousands of euros for many professional applications). It is expected that commercial drones will account for more than 60% of the market revenue in the non-military field.
Although the sales of drones for ordinary consumers are still growing at a healthy rate, the biggest opportunity lies in the commercial market (the number of shipments is growing faster and the average sales price is higher). It is estimated that by 2020, the sales of drones in the commercial market will reach 13 billion US dollars. With the development of UAV technology, some striking new applications are emerging in the commercial market, which will help push the market forward.
Drones can be used to replace many traditional working methods, which can reduce time and cost by reducing human participation and ensuring safer infrastructure. Aerial photography and video recording are the two most common uses of drones, which can make real estate companies, event organizers and hotel operators easily and cheaply produce works with professional visual effects. In addition, drones are also expected to be used in the daily operations of various industries such as private security and monitoring, logistics, insurance, agriculture and news. According to the report of PwC, the most promising industry is infrastructure, with a potential global market value of 45 billion US dollars, followed by agriculture and transportation.
Drones can also enhance data analysis capabilities, enable companies to better understand and predict operational performance, and in some industries, even realize brand-new business models and opportunities. BCG, a management consulting company, estimates that by 2050, the number of industrial drones in Europe and the United States will exceed 1 million, worth 50 billion US dollars, most of which are related businesses such as drone service and data collection. Companies can subcontract the operation, management and maintenance of drones to third parties, and telecom operators can also provide data communication services to guide drones and forward the data they collect. In fact, BCG predicts that value-added services will account for nearly half of the total $50 billion market.
When talking about drones, many people may think of military or consumer applications. If they consider commercial applications, many people will think of the possibility of delivering goods by drones, which is indeed an application that is often reported by the media in high profile. However, it should be admitted that this application still faces great logistical and regulatory obstacles. Commercial drones are becoming more and more diverse, and their application scope is expanding, far beyond the potential market of delivering goods.
Mapping and inspection-Facility managers are turning to drones to inspect roofs, cell phone towers, offshore platforms, solar panels, wind turbines, oil and gas pipelines, power lines, railways, highways and bridges. Using cameras equipped with high-definition or infrared imaging sensors can improve safety and efficiency. On-site survey and construction planning also benefit from drones equipped with LIDAR sensors, which can draw the construction site to the centimeter level. Archaeologists no longer need to rely on light aircraft or rigid satellite images when studying possible excavation sites. UAVs can enable them to obtain high-quality close-range images, so they can better plan excavation sites and save on-site working time. In addition, when there are new discoveries, images can also be used to record these discoveries.
Agriculture and infrastructure-Agriculture is taking the lead in using drone technology to increase production, save time and reduce costs. The netted drone group can be used to sow, fertilize and kill insects, and can also be used to monitor crops or livestock. Another emerging use of UAV is to provide airborne wireless access points, which may be very useful in some situations, including disaster relief and reconstruction, live concerts or sports events attended by a large number of people, and in some underdeveloped areas of the world, if traditional telecommunications infrastructure is installed, its cost will be very high.
Emergency and medical assistance-UAVs have been deployed in countries and regions that lack adequate medical facilities, and can provide life-saving drugs, blood transfusions and special medical equipment for victims in remote areas. At the same time, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has begun to approve the provision of such services in the United States, with the initial goal of helping rural or remote areas. Search and rescue operations are also using drones, which can not only find the missing people, but also provide them with necessary materials (such as food, water, first aid kit and communication equipment, etc.) before the rescuers arrive. Drones are also being used for fire fighting (including special materials and design to resist high temperature). Using drones to undertake exploration tasks can reduce security risks and enable people to focus on more important activities such as rescuing victims and containing fires themselves. With the help of altimeter, laser scanner and inertial management unit (IMU), UAV can fly safely in buildings with poor GPS signal.
The Drone Racing League, a sports and entertainment-drone league, recently reached a multi-year agreement with the TV network for the live broadcast of new games. Drone contestants themselves have a wide variety that is not common in traditional sports, which can help drone competitions break down geographical barriers and attract young audiences, which is very important for traditional media to attract and maintain user groups. Uavs can also be used as an alternative to fireworks in SPAXEL "space pixel" system, and the UAV group with LED lighting system can be dynamically combined into a beautiful and natural dazzling display in the air.
A wide range and a huge number of UAV applications are increasing the demand for customized functions for specific use cases. At present, there are a variety of UAV development platforms in the market, which can help design engineers achieve the best balance in minimizing the time to market, integrating proven professional-level functions, and achieving maximum configurability and customization functions.
Stmicroelectronics’s STEVAL-FCU001V1 evaluation board is a compact flight controller unit (FCU), which is suitable for the design of small and medium-sized four-axis UAVs (using brushed or brushless DC motors). The FCU is scalable and efficient, and can provide sample firmware to accelerate product development and help designers evaluate the performance of IMU sensors under flight conditions. The board adopts 32-bit microcontroller, which can be controlled by standard external RF remote controller or Bluetooth technology through smart phone/tablet computer. It also includes a battery charger chip, an inertial module with a low-power digital accelerometer and gyroscope, and an embedded magnetometer and pressure sensor to support 3D navigation applications. The board has SWD, I2C and USART connectors, which can be used for firmware development and debugging, and supports other external sensors or RF modules.
Figure 1: STEVAL-FCU001V1 evaluation board in stmicroelectronics.
The development platform of DFRobot UAV V3 is equipped with 16-bit DCS, 3-axis accelerometer and 2-axis gyroscope, which can be used to develop 3-axis IMU controller. If a GPS receiver is added, a basic UAV controller can be formed. The platform has self-checking software, which can be used to develop its own control and navigation firmware. It also provides fully functional open source autopilot firmware.
Intel’s Aero UAV platform provides a complete platform for designers, which integrates sensor, computing and communication technologies for intelligent UAV applications. In order to facilitate commercial UAV developers, university researchers and students to build complex UAV applications, Aero Ready-to-Fly UAV component is a fully assembled and flight-tested four-axis UAV, which aims to quickly realize the application flight of UAV. The platform is built with the powerful Aero Compute Board, which has Intel’s RealSense depth and visual functions (enabling developers to develop advanced algorithms such as collision avoidance) and can run the open source Linux operating system. PX4 Autopilot software is pre-installed on FCU (with 32-bit microcontroller, IMU, magnetometer and altitude sensor), which can provide an open source and fully functional flight stack. Developers can also build their own drones by combining the computing, storage, communication and flexible I/O functions of Aero Compute Board with three-camera Vision Accessory Kit and Enclosure Kit. The Enclosure Kit is a two-piece plastic package, which is designed to accommodate two components and has the installation function.It can be easily installed on most UAV fuselage.
Figure 2: Intel’s Aero UAV platform.