Future of Drone Automation: Drone in a Box

Automated drone solutions like drone in a box promise to provide safer, cheaper and more flexible operations, from infrastructure inspection to site security.  They support a move towards ‘data on demand’, enabling decisions and operating models not previously viable. 

Connected Places Catapult partnered with Herotech8 and IDIPLOYER to explore and showcase drone in a box technologies. This case study outlines the benefits of automated drone solutions, particularly ‘drone in a box’ systems, that enable automated flight management, data management and system maintenance.  We’ll take a look at their journey to maturity, and see how organisations are already using them to drive productivity and safety.   

Whether or not you already use drones, assets and infrastructure managers in the UK will benefit from reading about why and how drone automation can improve existing operations. 

Alongside the case study, Connected Places Catapult worked with Herotech8 and IDIPLOYER on two demonstration videos.

Key takeaways 

• Drone in a box systems take-off and land, charge, and manage captured data automatically.  They enable remote, automated and scalable operations.
• These solutions can be used for security, site management and asset inspection across many sectors: from construction, to transport infrastructure, to power infrastructure, to prisons. 
• They drive benefits primarily by enabling efficient off-site oversight for drone operations.  This reduces operating costs, increases staff safety and alleviates excess travel. 
• Drone automation technologies are yet to be fully exploited, but organisations such as EDF, MSD, UK prison operators and solar farm operators are trialling and scaling these solutions across the UK and Europe. 
• In future, automation will enable more service- and output-centric drone operation paradigms such as “drones as a service” and “data as a service”.  
• Organisations who explore this technology now stand to gain the quickest from it.  Get in touch with Connected Places Catapult, Herotech8 or IDIPLOYER to find out more.