Drones for the Process Industries

The Drones for the Process Industries market research study delivers current market analysis plus a five-year market and technology forecast. The study is available in multiple editions including worldwide, all regions, and most major countries.

Drones Are Taking Off in the Process Industries

ARC’s new research on drones for the process industries covers unmanned aerial systems that are designed to operate in hard-to-reach areas and confined spaces and/or perform dangerous tasks to ensure employee safety, save time and money, and provide operational improvements via automation and digitalization. Enhancements such as advanced sensor payloads, more sophisticated cameras, and higher power on-board computing are enabling advanced applications like AI-enabled image processing and autonomous navigation and operations. Drones are increasingly able to tackle more sophisticated and challenging tasks like mobile inspection and automated data collection and analysis, all while helping to keep employees safe.

Drones for the Process Industries Strategic Issues

In addition to providing a five-year market forecast, the Drones for the Process Industries market research provides detailed quantitative current market data and addresses key strategic issues as follows.

Target Applications for Which Employee Safety Is Paramount

The main reasons most end users initially deploy drones is the need to keep employees from doing dangerous tasks or completing tasks in hazardous environments or hard-to-reach areas, so users are recommended to select such an application and “test drive” the drone to determine if it can perform the tasks required. If successful, the rollout of drones to serve a wider base of applications for which employee safety or safe access is also critical is recommended.

Automation of tasks by using drones may also provide additional benefits such as saving time and money from not deploying scaffolding or other equipment such as lifts or cranes. In addition, many companies can reduce reliance on more expensive helicopter or plane flights normally used to conduct long-distant inspections, surveillance, or other applications. The consistent and repeated data collection from drones is also expected to improve quality of inspections or mapping operations and reduce potential errors vs. traditional approaches.

Carefully Review Specific Operational Requirements – The Right Drone for the Right Application(s)

Users should fully understand what they need from a drone solution in terms of flight time; sensor payloads; level of autonomy desired or required; data collection and analytics capabilities, including AI and/or cloud computing capability; communications requirements such as WiFi, proprietary drone protocols, and 4G (or 5G pending); and drones’ ability to support. These are all important as they can help select the best drone solution to meet their current and future application(s) requirements. Ease of integration of the drone’s API into the user’s existing inspection or asset management system and/or ability to integrate third-party application software or AI and machine learning on the drone are also important considerations.

Depending on the complexity of the task, the drone may require AI and machine learning to ensure autonomous navigation and operations such as automated inspections capability, equipment condition monitoring, and other tasks for which advanced functionality may be needed. Users that may be deploying a fleet of drones will want to ensure their supplier offers sufficient tools and capabilities to provide fleet management remotely and with ability to scale its requirements as necessary. Effective flight control software and reliance on unmanned traffic management systems (UTM) are also important considerations.

Work Closely with Suppliers to Ensure Drone Performance

Since suppliers typically possess much greater expertise about drones but not necessarily industry-specific knowledge when it comes to harsh environments and the unique needs in oil & gas, end users should seek to select suppliers that will act as a partner that is flexible and willing to innovate and iterate drone design and functionality as needed as they begin their journey into deploying drones in their unique operations. Some suppliers offer drones that can be customized to meet a customer’s specific requirements in terms of sensor payloads deployed, advanced analytics and application software requirements, communications options such as 4G LTE (or soon 5G), WiFi, and cloud access via a docking station. Users are advised to work closely with their supplier to ensure the drone can meet their specific application requirements, today and possibly in the future. Suppliers are also recommended to expand their potential business opportunities by working with drone service providers as they have firsthand knowledge of specific requirements among the applications and markets they serve.

Consider Drone-as-a-Service as an Option

For those users that cannot afford to make the investment in a drone, or perhaps may be challenged to justify the investment and/or lack the internal resources to manage the integration and operations of inspection drones in the field, seeking out suppliers that offer Drone-as-a-Service (DaaS) is an option worth considering. DaaS can be a win-win for both the user and suppliers that have the necessary resources, R&D strength, and internal expertise (or a strong partner ecosystem) to fully support the user’s requirements. 

Users benefit as they save on the initial upfront investment, avoid having to deal with maintenance issues, get ongoing software updates and support, and can scale operations as demand and need warrant, within limits of the contract. Shifting from a CapEx to an OpEx budget can shorten purchasing cycle and typically simplify ROI criteria; there is no need to train or hire drone experts; the customer enjoys a close partnership relationship with the supplier who is incentivized to design robust and reliable drones (since they are responsible to repair and/or replace) and keeps evolving and improving their hardware and software capabilities faster and more precisely in order to maintain a competitive advantage.

Some suppliers offer a complete outsourcing service, including providing automated inspections or surveying and mapping by experienced pilots and inspectors using drones they manufacture themselves. The user simply pays for the data collected and reporting and any analysis that may be requested or required. Third-party drone inspection service providers that rely on a drone manufacturers’ drones will be covered in a separate study titled Drone Inspection Services.