2024-01-31
Industrial applications for drones have garnered increasing market attention, as a wide range of drone solutions have gained market acceptance and are driving rapid market growth of drone service sales. Simultaneously, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted countries and companies alike to accelerate R&D in drone technology, spurring a new phase of growth for the global drone market.
In spite of this new surge, some drone companies are already searching for the next wave of growth. Turning towards multi-machine collaboration and cross-UMV cooperation, companies hope to augment individual service units and leverage the advantages of unmanned vehicles to offer a wider array of application services.
UAV technology and applications have developed rapidly over the past decade, attracting the attention of many industries. When war broke out in Ukraine, many countries and enterprises ramped up R&D investments in drones. Trends in drone technology have also shifted, moving from single-drone operations to multi-drone or cross-vehicle collaborative applications. The next wave of drone technology is projected to be in drone swarms, collaborations with unmanned vehicles on land, or with unmanned vessels at sea.
Collaborative drones have diverse applications, allowing companies to provide cross-space service solutions. This in turn will also drive opportunities for unmanned vehicles. As such, the next wave of growth is also predicted for drones, unmanned vehicles, and unmanned surface or underwater vessels.
Patent application trends often reveal the direction of technological development and shifts in market demand. A patent search was conducted using keywords such as “drone swarm” or “drone collaboration with other unmanned vehicles.” Patents related to drone-to-drone collaboration outnumbered all other collaborations, showing a strong interest in developing collaborative models between drones. The second highest number of patents were filed for drones and ground-based unmanned vehicles. Currently, there are very few patent applications for collaborations between drones and unmanned surface or underwater vessels, which may be due to a high technical threshold or uncertain potential for commercial development. The following is a case study of an industrial patent application from Amazon Technologies.
Amazon Technologies
Amazon Technologies is a technology research organization owned by Amazon, and its patented technology focuses on the collaboration of drone swarms and ground-based unmanned vehicles, with applications primarily in logistics. For more details, please refer to the patent titled "Cooperative autonomous aerial and ground vehicles for item delivery" obtained by Amazon Technologies in December 2019. A brief summary is given below:
Collaborative drone applications are finding industrial uses in airports, aircraft inspection, agriculture, wind turbine inspection, bridge inspection, and urban construction sites. The following is a brief overview of current industrial applications.
In general, drones are prohibited from flying in or above airports. However, drones can be used to assist in airport and aircraft inspection. Airport runway and aircraft exterior inspections are traditionally assessed by the human eye, which carry inherent risks due to factors like visual acuity, time constraints, and the mental state of the inspecting personnel. In such instances, the use of drones equipped with precision optics can address shortcomings associated with human inspections.
Korean Air began testing drones for aircraft exterior inspections in December 2021. Four drones were used to inspect different sections of the fuselage to reduce inspection times and increase accuracy. In the event of a drone failure, the system will automatically redirect the other drones to complete the inspection. Inspections that would originally take 10 hours via traditional methods can be shortened to 4 hours, saving 60% of man hours and improving aircraft scheduling flexibility.
Traditional fruit harvesting is extremely labor intensive, which must take into account rest times and working hours. Some startups are therefore exploring the use of drones for fruit harvesting. Tevel Technologies, an Israeli startup, combines drones with unmanned agricultural machinery by employing AI technology to identify the maturation of fruit and then dispatch drones for harvesting. This innovative approach is currently applicable to the harvesting of apples, plums, pears, and various other fruits.
In order to carry out inspections without stopping the wind turbine, drone need real-time kinematic (RTK) precision positioning, and wind turbine blades must be marked to allow the drone to identify the relative position of the blades and itself. High-resolution cameras and infrared thermography sensors are needed to detect damage up to 0.5 inches deep in the blades. Wind energy companies can use drones to identify locations of damages, and then evaluate whether it is necessary to shut down for further inspection. If so, they can shut down the turbines and have human personnel access the blades to look for potential damage/defects/scars and repair them.
Collaborative drone applications integrate the functions and advantages of different types of unmanned vehicles, providing more diverse service solutions. There are many opportunities and challenges for the innovative development of collaborative technologies and services. Hardware development will be expanded to include unmanned vehicles, unmanned ships or unmanned underwater vessels, which can build upon Taiwan’s existing supply chains. Software on the other hand, includes multi-drone control system interfaces, unmanned vehicle control technology, AI application technology, and information security management. Taiwanese manufacturers are advised to accelerate strategic positioning and collaborative applications in pivotal technologies and patents, which will better position them to benefit from the upcoming surge of growth opportunities in the drone industry.
Source： Materialsnet, Metal Industry Intelligence of the Metal Industries Research & Development Centre (MIRDC)
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