In recent years, drones have garnered a lot of traction as more and more businesses across diverse industries are using it or planning to leverage across monitoring activities. For industries like mining, building, forestry, and utility with extensive assets on the ground, keeping track of inspection and maintenance is very time-consuming, costly and perilous. Thus, the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are impactful here which enables aerial photography. Also, they have several uses, ranging from aerial images, videos and mapping to improving the environment and even saving lives.

However, combining big data technology with drones will become viable to get detailed imagery and automated object detection and analysis that can significantly improve the speed, extent and precision of asset monitoring and maintenance.

The combination of these technologies can assist businesses to effectively draw insights by leveraging data that drones capture. This is very effective in agriculture as the sector deals with plenty of impediments to conquer in its own right, particularly in producing enough food to support an increasing population.

The use of Drones for Data Collection

Drones can be armed with an array of digital imaging and spectral sensors that capture data over extensive physical assets. They offer businesses the opportunity to merge more data into their current processes. Real Estate companies, for instance, make use of drones in order to promote properties they are selling and garner the attention of a larger customer base.

Drones can also be equipped with monitoring devices that are able to measure moisture content along with other vital characteristics for farming. This gives agriculturists to detect when a crop is struggling, so they can take abrupt action. Today, the unmanned aerial vehicles can also glean data about emissions, geodetic information for land inspection, and radio signals.

Combination of Drones and Big Data for Disasters

As leveraging big data analytics can deliver more accurate outcomes for energy, utilities, agriculture and forestry, it also helps improve disaster management. By combining drones and big data for disasters can give precise data about affected areas, allowing to make effective decisions and take immediate action.

Monitoring of possible disasters and fast identification of their occurrence are crucial for easing their effects on the physical environment or to humans. Drones can be effective in disaster monitoring, with having various benefits like small size, low cost of operation, exposure to dangerous environments and high probability of mission success without the risk of loss of aircrew resources. UAVs have been effectively and successfully used in scenarios of detecting oil spills and flooding in Luo, Nightingale, Asemota, and Grecos, in 2015, for instance.

Every year, drone technology along with its associated data analysis capabilities have been significantly expanding. Looking at the recent instance, Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) reportedly began a trial run of drones to inspect Dubai metro tunnels extending 14km on both red and green lines. Officials said drones will enable an accurate and fast inspection of the condition of assets, saving inspection time, exposing complex spots and creating highly precise reports regarding the tunnels’ condition.

In one another instance, by combining drone and computer vision technology, cloud computing, and big data, an Israeli startup, Datumate, has developed automated and cost-effective solutions that can digitally transform the current civil engineering processes used in construction, surveying, and infrastructure markets. With offices in the US and northern Israel, the company has built software and services that leverage big data analytics, machine learning, computer vision, and drone and camera technologies to significantly lessen the amount of time crew spend in the field.

So, the potentials of drones and big data are massive, saving huge amounts of companies spend into surveying and inspecting their assets, and delivering accuracy and insights unprecedented for businesses.