By Renee Knight
For many industries, deploying drones has become routine, and the impact they’ve had is undeniable. They’re making inspections safer, repeatable and easier across various industries from utilities to oil and gas. They’re capturing imagery in places once unreachable, allowing scientists to expand their research and surveyors to capture difficult terrain from a distance. They’re monitoring and spraying crops, delivering medicine, food and other goods, detecting costly pipeline emissions and providing valuable insights to first responders before they arrive on scene, to name a few use cases.
This emerging technology brings with it many possibilities, but it also has its limitations. As of today, operators can’t f ly BVLOS without a waiver from the FAA, a process that, while improving, is time-consuming. But until we reach a point where drones are routinely flying BVLOS, it will be difficult to scale and for the technology to reach its full potential.
"At the waiver level, broadening approvals beyond site-specific authorization is growing in popularity.” Reese Mozer, president, Ondas Holdings
Source: Inside Unmanned Systems