Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), have forged ahead in just a few years from something associated solely with the military to being widely adopted for commercial use. With a wide range of applications in several areas including police surveillance, fire mapping, disaster monitoring, and real estate photography, the UAVs and drones have become well known for commercial purposes in recent times. This has resulted in incredible growth for the commercial drones market 2017-2021, as shown in the graphic below
The global commercial drones industry is gaining altitude with several established vendors such as 3D Robotics, Aeryon Labs, DJI, Parrot, and PrecisionHawk. Along with these, It’s no wonder that enterprise vendors in other industries especially IT companies are seeking to get in on the action. Here are top ten players in the commercial drones market as identified by industry analysts at Technavio.
Leading Drone Manufacturers
Aeryon Labs
Aeryon Labs is a recognized technology and industry leader founded in 2007. The Canadian-controlled private company headquartered in Ontario is the trusted partner of civil and military customers, resellers and other commercial business associates around the world. Aeryon Labs provides small, unmanned aerial systems for a diverse range of military, public safety, and commercial applications.
3D Robotics
3D Robotics is a US-based company located in Berkeley, California. The company offers drone technology products such as solo, site scan, consumer drones and ready-to-fly quadcopters to several industries, including construction, mining, utilities, telecom, and surveying. The drones are primarily used for applications like data analytics, mapping, and 3D modeling. The company was founded in 2009 to primarily cater to hobbyists.
DJI
DJI is a Chinese technology company headquartered in Shenzhen. The company is a major player engaged in the manufacturing of drones and cameras for commercial and recreational purposes. DJI is focused on increasing the accessibility of aerial photography, filmmaking equipment and platforms. It operates across the world in around 100 countries spanning the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Sectors, including construction, agriculture, filmmaking, emergency response, conservation, and others, have widely adopted products by DJI.
Parrot
Parrot is a France-based company engaged in the field of telecommunications equipment. The company supplies advanced-technology wireless products to cater to both commercial and professional segments. Parrot’s acquisition of companies, such as senseFly, AIRINOV, MicaSense, and PIX4D, has contributed to making it one of the leading players in the drone hardware, software, and services market.
PrecisionHawk
PrecisionHawk is a company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The company offers end-to-end solutions in aerial data gathering, processing, and analysis for civilian industries by combining unmanned aerial systems, remote sensing technologies, and data analytics. PrecisionHawk is the owner of aerial data software, satellite imagery provider, and a low altitude traffic and airspace safety platform known as DataMapper, TerraServer, and LATAS, respectively.
DroneDeploy
DroneDeploy is a provider of cloud-control software solutions for drones which include real-time mapping and data processing, workflows and automated flight safety checks. The company is associated with leading drone manufacturers like DJI to offer its software to end users in a variety of industries, including, real estate, agriculture, construction, mining and many other commercial and consumer arenas.
Yuneec
Yuneec International Co. Ltd. is based in Shanghai, China with additional offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. The company offers a wide range of products including radio controlled drones, helicopter, microcopters, along with the manned electric aircraft, multicopters, and electric powered airplanes.
Cyberhawk Innovations
Cyberhawk Innovations is a UK-based company serving clients worldwide. The company provides industrial site aerial inspection and land surveying services for oil, gas, petrochemical, and utility companies. It offers industrial inspections including live flare, structural, thermal and emergency inspections along with other survey services to the utility sector.
Strat Aero
Strat Aero is another UK-based entity incorporated in 2014. This aerospace services company offers unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for law enforcement training, UAV military pilot training, and UAV commercial training and services. It also provides surveillance and reconnaissance services alongside the aerospace information management software which offers cloud-based enterprises with wide management solutions for a range of aerospace necessities.
Draganfly Innovations
Draganfly Innovations was founded in 1998 and is based in Saskatoon, Canada. As of 2015, the company operates as a subsidiary of Trace Live Network Inc. The company is well established with a wide range of products in its portfolio that are used in commercial fields for agricultural mapping, aerial photography and industrial inspection.
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