1. Automating inspections with on-site robots

The pandemic exposed the vulnerability of companies that rely heavily on on-site human resources. In response, companies such as Israel Chemicals Ltd. (ICL) Dead Sea began automating critical inspections more than ever in 2020, relying on robots to address this vulnerability. While for some, digitalization was a forced response to the pandemic, once in place, it was clear to see the benefits in terms of business continuity, efficiency and safety. 

So what does 2021 have in store and how will this tech look differently than it did in 2020? We expect to see even more solutions enabling automated inspections emerge on the market, with many companies turning to robotics to automate inspections at their facilities. We expect that companies that deployed a few robots or drones at select sites in 2020 will significantly ramp up in 2021. We expect to see companies embracing fleets of robots and multiple autonomous solutions, just like Delek US is doing. Of course, this means that tech companies will strive to accommodate these needs, delivering solutions that are more comprehensive and holistic. 

2. Remote operations: a tipping point

In 2021, we expect to see more and more companies planning long term projects to build remote operations centers and start integrating robots and sensors into their daily workflows. While 2020 saw many companies turn to remote operations, again to compensate for pandemic operations, as an industry we really only scratched the surface. A small handful of companies like Rio Tinto, Australian mining giant, have truly embraced remote operations, working for years to build large scale remote operations centers automating site management, monitoring, supply chain and more. 

We expect to see more companies beginning to build up their remote operations capabilities, understanding the compelling value and safety that remote ops has to offer. The ability to remotely monitor and control inspections in distant locations, and to do so for multiple sites from one control center with autonomous robotics, has direct impact on both top and bottom lines. From increasing safety and awareness through more environmentally friendly operations, and including faster disaster recovery – remote operations impacts both profitability and productivity.

3. More (autonomous) drones accompanied by breakthrough regulatory shifts

Drones have been a vital inspection tool for a few years now, and many industrial facilities rely on drones to perform risky or complex inspections. Autonomous drones take this a step further, allowing even safer, higher frequency inspections. However, some autonomous operations require special regulatory approvals to guarantee safety, and approval processes are known to be timely.   In 2020, we saw the beginnings of a massive, industry-wide regulatory shift towards more structured and streamlined approvals for autonomous drones at industrial sites. Across the industry, numerous regulatory approvals and beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) waivers were granted to operate autonomously during 2020. Percepto led the way with first of their kind BVLOS waivers for emergency response at Verizon and Florida Power and Light (FPL). These approvals for complex operations such as BVLOS, remote operations and flight over people increase the ROI (think no pilots on the ground, remote operations, etc.) and scalability of drone use for many industrial facilities. 

Furthermore, regulators like the FAA are shifting towards type certification of drones – a significant and dramatic change to the regulation space. With type certification, a reliable drone solution can undergo a series of thorough testing to prove to regulatory bodies that it can operate safely in specific, complex situations. This is a huge shift for the FAA, moving from approving operations on a case by case basis to a more holistic approach to approvals, ultimately translating to more autonomous drone operations at a larger scale.  (Percepto is proud to be one of the first companies currently undergoing such testing in the FAA’s type certificate process.)

In parallel to the increased regulatory approvals for autonomous drones expected in 2021, we also expect to see even more Drone-in-a-Box (DIB) players continue to emerge. These two trends – regulation shifts and emerging new players – are not unconnected. According to Frost & Sullivan, “The DIB solutions market is still in a relatively nascent stage of development but has shown a higher growth potential as regulatory agencies race to keep up with the pace of technological change and drone end users discover best practices to optimize aerial intelligence for decision-making in a wide range of industries.” As in any industry, new players not only signal market maturity, but also stiffer competition which gives way to more innovation. 

With easing regulatory approvals boosting the ROI on drone operations, and technology maturing and advancing at a rapid pace – if you haven’t invested in autonomous drones at your industrial site thus far, now is the time to do so. 

4. Higher frequency inspections

2021 and beyond will see a true revolution in the frequency and quality of industrial inspection and monitoring. Heavy industrial companies have always relied on inspection and monitoring to guarantee business continuity, minimize risk and eliminate unnecessary downtime. But traditional methods relied mainly on manual and resource-intensive inspection regimes – leaving crucial equipment and infrastructure monitored only occasionally. What’s more, traditional inspection and monitoring lack consistency, objectivity, and the ability to identify data-driven trends over time.

The key to optimizing inspections and monitoring is higher-frequency inspection enabled via autonomous robotics. It allows industrial site stakeholders to move from quarterly or even yearly inspections to weekly or even daily inspections – leaving nothing to chance. Correlating data from higher-frequency inspections leads to true data-driven decisions, and with laxing regulation allowing for more autonomous drone flight, and increasing autonomous robotics players on the market, daily inspections by autonomous robots are no longer a futuristic concept. 

We expect to see more fully-automated facility monitoring in 2021, with daily inspections by autonomous robots quickly moving towards becoming the new industry best practice.  

5. Visual data democratization

Data democratization first arrived in the IT world a few years ago, and in 2021 is coming to the visual data world. Visual data democratization is the ability for visual data to be accessible to the average end user. Currently, visual data is owned by the few people directly involved in collecting and analyzing the data. One the most acute bottlenecks in data-driven analysis and industrial site management today is the access to both visual data and the insights derived from it. Data democratization aims to change that, allowing any non-specialist end user to easily request visual data and receive insights. 

Our takeaway here is this: there is a paradigm shift in inspection automation placing the focus on the user, and you should look for a solution that empowers your employees to do their job well. Solutions are addressing issues directly relevant to the end user such as what does the user need and what’s the easiest way to understand the insights and trends gleaned. 

The bottom line

 Between autonomous robots, remote operations and data democratization, industrial inspections are undergoing massive changes. These changes not only impact facilities’ bottom line, but also employee safety, environmental impact, and emergency response. Facilities relying on outdated methods of inspection will be left behind in 2021, especially if the fast paced changes we saw in 2020 are any hint for what’s to come this year.  

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Owing to this demand, we took a closer look at the rapidly-growing industrial autonomous drone segment, identified the market leaders, and earlier this year recognized one company, Percepto, with our award in the autonomous drone industry.

Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. And it brought the changing attitudes to and applications of autonomous drone technology to the forefront. The pandemic resulted in a massive decrease in travel and widespread orders for people to remain quarantined at home and/or practice “social distancing”. While the nature of actions taken to limit the spread of the virus has severely impacted economic sectors like travel, hospitality, and entertainment, the repercussions have been felt in nearly all industries.

It has become increasingly clear that the growing range of applications which can be conducted by drones – already a trend pre-pandemic – has been turbocharged by COVID-19. Ensuring “contactless” and remote yet continuous operations in multiple industries, forward-thinking operators have quickly ramped up rollouts and adapted usage patterns of autonomous drones to the “new normal”.

Several market factors were driving the uptake of autonomous drone systems even before demand driven by the pandemic response came into play. Frost & Sullivan research has highlighted several major trends that will continue to fuel the commercial drone market growth. Those trends include automation and artificial intelligence (AI) – two technologies which are linked because computer vision, a subset of AI, enables key autonomous drone navigation features including precise landing and autonomous navigation in case of GPS loss. More importantly, computer vision and AI enable people detection and tracking, fire detection, anomaly detection and other applications that make the autonomous drone far more than just  “a flying camera”, and enhance the ROI of drone usage for a variety of tasks.

As more and more beyond visual line of site (BVLOS) operations occur, demand for pilotless drones will increase. There will be more “man-on-the-loop” as opposed to “man-in-the-loop” operations as drones will be monitored rather than flown. In addition to AI enabling advanced functionalities and autonomous flight, machine learning will be increasingly relied upon to process data at the edge –enabling real-time notifications and alerts that assist organizations in responding more quickly and effectively to anomalies and crises.

Percepto is a company that exemplifies the capabilities, trends and technologies listed in the previous paragraph. They provide a best-in-class drone-in-a-box solution. The company’s proprietary Sparrow drones are designed with advanced analytics, AI, automation software, computer vision, and ML to optimize functionality. Its ruggedized and weather-proof Percepto Base and PerceptoCore software round out a system that provides 24/7 pilotless drones for a wide range of enterprise applications. Percepto’s solution is so impressive the firm recently earned our 2020 Enabling Technology Leadership Award for the Autonomous Drones Market. While there are other drone-in-a-box solutions, there are only a few companies that have mature, deployed systems and none have deployed as many as Percepto.

The market for fully-autonomous drones is still nascent. As global drone regulations begin to shift in favor of these systems, autonomous drone companies with solid, deployable solutions stand to benefit. In general, there’s growing demand for drone autonomy which can be evidenced by the recent release of the Skydio 2 as well as DJI’s Matrice 300, which can automate routine inspections. However, the true growth potential in the autonomous drone market is for drones that are part of a broader solution – one that automates not just the flight itself but also the planning of a flight, the data analysis and the insight dissemination. These systems can involve a network of semi- and/or fully-autonomous drones that launch automatically, on a schedule or on cue (via AI or other sensors), and can be monitored from a remote location and at whatever scale is required. This will maximize return on investment. There are many competitors in this space, but Percepto’s autonomous drone-in-a-box solution rises to the top due to the proven performance of its deployed products and the company’s endless drive to customize its solution to address various use cases and operational needs.

Response to the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the expansion of some current drone use cases as well as the discovery of new use cases. In general, this has led to a growing appreciation for the benefits that small drones can provide. There is no way to determine how long this pandemic will last, or if the virus will mutate and persist, which makes it difficult to estimate the impact COVID-19 will ultimately have on the growing UAS market. However, because they possess the ability, by design and process, to limit human contact while conducting operations like delivering critical items, conducting critical infrastructure inspections, and monitoring high value assets, drones and drone services will only see increasing demand. Especially autonomous drones like those that Percepto provides.

This article originally appeared on Frost & Sullivan

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We recently ran a webinar that brought together Mike Blades, Vice President Aerospace, Defense, & Security at Frost & Sullivan and Ariel Avitan, our own Co-Founder and CCO. What we learned was both validating and encouraging.

Titled “Helping Industrial Sites Mitigate Covid-19 Impact,” the webinar drew well over 200 participants for the live session, from across the globe. These decision-makers came from a wide variety of industries – especially oil and gas, utilities, and mining – and joined us to hear a unique perspective on how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed attitudes to and implementations of autonomous drone technology. Participants also showed up to hear Mike Blades share why Frost & Sullivan recently recognized Percepto with a Best Practices Award, and get his unique take on the autonomous drone market and autonomous technology in light of the Coronavirus crisis.

One of the highlights of the webinar was the second poll we conducted, which revealed that a staggering 85% of participants who responded had either already adopted autonomous technology or were “looking into it.”

These numbers are very much in-line with what we’ve all likely seen recently. Looking around as shelter-in-place and work-from-home became the norm, everyone has begun to see a different attitude to autonomous drone deliveries, for example. The same thing with ground-based deliveries for groceries, where companies like Nuro began running trials. We’re also seeing more and more logistics automation, with Amazon leading the way to widespread rollouts. And there’s even autonomous waste management technology that could protect garbage collectors from exposure to potentially infectious waste.

Industry Attitudes Towards Autonomous Technology are Changing, Too

Yet what struck me most during this webinar – and what we’ve been seeing over the course of recent months – are the changing attitudes of heavy industrial sites towards autonomous technology. Our clients and prospects – from manufacturing and energy to critical infrastructure, and everything in-between – have been actively rolling out new autonomous solutions, or looking to do so shortly, while those already utilizing autonomous technology are seeking to expand usage of existing solutions to maintain business continuity when personnel have been unable to get to work on site. 

It’s exactly as Frost & Sullivan put it: “…following the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses are rethinking their business continuity strategies and response to emergencies, with autonomous solutions emerging as a new best practice.”

Frost & Sullivan Recognizes Percepto as Global Industry Leader

Autonomous drones are now viewed as strategic assets – part of enterprise business continuity planning. This is why, for example, a number of our large industrial clients that were forced to suspend operations owing to the pandemic stepped up their usage of autonomous drones – maintaining a high level of facility security with far less manpower. It’s also why a large wholesale chain began using their Percepto drones to more tightly secure stockpiled inventory in the face of surging demand and amid concerns about civil unrest.

Business continuity of course goes beyond COVID-19. For example, in preparation for the upcoming hurricane season in the U.S., Florida Power & Light chose us to help more effectively and more efficiently monitor their power production infrastructure.

In light of the current pandemic, regulatory attitudes are changing, too. Mike Blades weighed in on this in the webinar, noting that regulators are already warming to the idea of more autonomous drones in their airspace, resulting in a more streamlined “process for obtaining BVLOS waivers…especially in light of Covid-19.” More on this in our recent long-format blog post entitled In the Shadow of the Pandemic, the Path to BVLoS Approval Takes on New Importance.

The Bottom Line

The webinar concluded that autonomous technology was well on its way to the mainstream before the Coronavirus crisis. What’s more – as Avitan and Blades explained and our survey confirmed – Covid-19 has only accelerated this ongoing process.

Webinar: how autonomous drones mitgate covid-19 impact at industrial sites 

The post Survey Confirms: Covid-19 Crisis is Driving Autonomous Technology appeared first on Percepto.

As we touched on in a previous post, for both companies that remain active and those that have temporarily shut down in light of the Coronavirus crisis, autonomous technology is playing a significant and growing role in maintaining business continuity.

Business continuity refers to how organizations can maintain or resume business functions quickly in the face of major disruptions – like, you guessed it, a pandemic. These plans, which companies spend years developing and tweaking, generally contain specific procedures and instructions that organizations need to follow as regards to infrastructure, maintenance, security, business partners, human resources, and more.

Until now, most organizations had created business continuity plans – and shelved them. Now, all of a sudden, we’re seeing the majority of SMEs, SMBs and enterprises actually implement such plans. The theory looks much different in practice, and I’m sure that companies will yet be significantly revising their plans when life returns to whatever the new normal looks like.

At Percepto, we’re seeing more and more of our customers and prospective customers turning to autonomous drones and other remote autonomous and robotic solutions to ensure business continuity. In fact, some of our customers have actually defined their autonomous drone systems as critical assets that must be kept operational under their business continuity plans.

Here’s how we’re seeing companies use autonomous drones to facilitate business continuity in the face of the Coronavirus crisis.

Security

We have a number of large industrial clients that have been forced to suspend operations owing to the pandemic. Yet at the same time, these companies own large facilities containing valuable assets that need to be actively secured – operational or not.

These companies are using autonomous drones to maintain the same high level of facility security as previously, with far less manpower. This is important not only from a worker safety point of view, but also (regrettably) owing to the massive layoffs many companies are experiencing.

Elsewhere, a large wholesale chain is using their Percepto drones to more tightly secure stockpiled inventory in the face of surging demand, and amid concerns about civil unrest.

Read Our Autonomous Drones for Industrial Sites Deep Dive

Maintenance

Large industrial and critical infrastructure facilities require massive ongoing maintenance. Whether this maintenance is intended to keep facilities operational (in the case of critical infrastructure) or ensure that they can quickly spin back up after the crisis (in the case of non-essential industry) – ongoing maintenance remains mission-critical.

By way of example, some of the world’s largest mining concerns halted production last week – notably Peru and Chile’s copper mines, which account together for some 12% of global copper production. These companies have a highly distributed and massive geographic presence, with multiple remote sites packed with complex refining infrastructure that needs ongoing monitoring and at least a minimal level of maintenance. Even in normal times, effective preventative maintenance is a challenge. And when manpower is nearly nonexistent owing to governmental restrictions?

We’re seeing the same trend in critical infrastructure – water, power, ports, oil & gas, and numerous other sectors. Workers are unable to get to work owing to travel restrictions or illness – yet electricity, water, goods and oil need to keep flowing, especially with large portions of the population stuck at home. Our autonomous drones are facilitating ongoing maintenance and operations for such large scale, critical infrastructure sites.

reducing the impact of COVID-19 with autonomous drones

The Bottom Line

Business continuity is not just a matter of profit these days. In many sectors – both critical infrastructure and commercial – it’s a matter of life and death. We’re seeing an uptick in usage of autonomous drones, both in volume and variety of missions, to facilitate business continuity. And as this wave of COVID-19 subsides, and companies prepare for a possible second wave or future, similar crisis – autonomous drones will be part of more and more contingency plans.

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For most industrial site operators and security team members, it’s easy to see the value of having a live “eye in the sky” on-site to assist in rapidly gaining situational awareness in times of crisis. Many drone-in-the-box systems are deployed primarily with a focus on scenarios like replacing risky, costly inspections in complex environments. Since teams see enormous value from these autonomous drone systems just by reacting to real-time findings, sometimes historical data isn’t given proper consideration. Since there are times when historical data’s value might not be seen until months, or even years, after deployment, it has become the long tail for drone-in-a-box systems.

Despite the time it takes to see its value, this historical data is often the highest ROI-providing component of a drone-in-a-box system because the GPS-based, time-stamped, secure data showcases an exact history of what is and what has been happening on an industrial site. This precise compilation of data becomes evidence that is often critical in resolving complex auditing, insurance, and vendor disputes that can cost companies hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. Moreover, when applying machine learning, historical data can be used to find anomalies that serve as early markers for failures, and prevent costly maintenance and even business disruption.

What is historical data and how does Percepto’s solution provide it to users?

In the context of Percepto’s solution, historical data is any aerial photo, video or sensor data captured regularly at set points in time by our autonomous drone solution, which is then saved to Percepto’s secure cloud management system.

This data can be easily scrolled through from date to date for comparison and viewed by administrators and system users on-demand. Our platform allows users to check an exact day to look at site progress or anomalies, dating all the way back to the first flight ever conducted by the system. Over time, this data provides a historical reference of a site’s history – what has changed, if personnel are following protocol, if vendors made deliveries on time, and even the state of assets for insurance documentation.

The true power of historical data is unlocked by application of Machine Learning to the data acquired by the drone system over time. Anomalies can be detected autonomously through the power of Machine Learning algorithms, which doesn’t just detect risks rapidly and effectively, but also saves teams enormous amounts of time–there is no need to go back and review hours upon hours of captured video and data feeds.

For companies focused on digitization, or those whose auditing and office teams are often faced with complex claims from insurance providers, vendors or internal reviews, this data is incredibly useful. Exact, dated, location-specific visual context is a fantastic record that is useful for everything from an internal review or audit to helping resolve a court dispute and beyond. With Percepto’s autonomous drone solution, this data capture happens automatically – regardless of site conditions – thanks to our weatherproof hardware that allows flight in rain or snow and our automatic flight planning software that schedules flights on specific or randomized rhythms.

The value of historical data is evident in our clients’ results. Whether looked at by a team upon autonomous detection of an anomaly followed by an automatic dissemination of a related report to inform decision-making, or used a year later in an audit review to understand site conditions, this data has helped our clients save millions of dollars in claims processes and added efficiencies.

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Below the radar of the public eye, drone technology is radically changing the way insurance companies mitigate risk and process claims.

The insurance industry has quietly turned into one of the earliest widespread adopters of drone-based technology. In an ever-tougher insurance climate – wherein both regulatory, competitive and environmental pressures are on the rise – drones are offering insurers a cost-effective way to mitigate risk pre-loss, along with better process claims and fraud protection post-loss.

Pre-Loss Risk Mitigation

At the pre-loss phase, drones are helping insurers better understand risks to sites and assets.

For example, drones are being used to conduct pre-coverage property surveys that can cost-effectively assess the actual risks to property from threats that are hard to identify from the ground. Whether for individual property surveys or wider-scale government-sanctioned regional surveys (for example, areas prone to natural disasters), drones enable more precise risk management and more competitive and tailored pricing.

More granularly, autonomous drones with infrared cameras and other sensors can automatically detect ongoing maintenance issues such as water and air leaks at industrial and other sites. This helps site owners keep insurance premiums in check by enabling more effective, more frequent preventative maintenance.

Fraud Protection

Some 10% of property insurance losses result from fraud, adding up to a staggering $34 billion each year in the US alone. Drones can be used to mitigate these losses by quickly inspecting claims sites immediately after First Notice of Loss to check claim accuracy, extent and validity or to retrieve previous inspections to confirm best practice has been kept.

Drones are also used to counter personal/medical insurance fraud. For example, a New York private investigator hired by insurers used a drone to capture images of a man claiming to be disabled engaged in heavy physical activity.

Claims Processing

Leveraging drones, insurers can transition from time- and resource-intensive manual property inspections, to faster and more efficient aerial-based data collection. This streamlines claims preparation for customers, and reduces settlement time dramatically – literally from days to hours. Moreover, drones enable insurers to optimize the deployment of field adjusters and other specialized, high-skill resources.

By way of example, following Hurricane Florence in 2018, drones were in high demand owing to their ability to quickly collect crucial claims data, even from places inaccessible by ground transportation. Demand was so intense that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted a temporary waiver to US insurer State Farm, allowing that company to operate drones on longer range flights and above people – something it would not have been allowed to do under then-current regulations.

The Bottom Line

Just as CCTV has become a standard (and indispensable) pre- and post-loss insurance tool, so too are drones. Routine aerial data collection – easily achieved with autonomous drones – is taking its rightful place for claims investigation, fraud prevention, and risk mitigation. Forward-thinking insurers are starting to encourage companies and individuals to adopt drone-based data collection solutions – incentivizing with discounted insurance and expanded coverage.

As autonomous drone technology advances and regulations permit drone operations beyond line-of-sight, insurance companies will be able conduct even faster, easier and more productive claim investigations – examining root causes, evaluating infrastructure ahead of insurance, and more. And organizations such as heavy industrial companies will find it easier, less cumbersome and much faster to prepare and prove claims…

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Like many cutting-edge technologies in the Industry 4.0 movement, drone-in-a-box solutions are being explored and evaluated for their benefits to site operations. Drones have played a large role in the overall evolution of Industry 4.0, offering smarter, more efficient and cost-reducing ways for companies to embrace the next industrial revolution.

Creates New Jobs

Instead, the introduction of drone-in-a-box technology encourages employees to evolve a new skill set, including analyzing drone data sent, using this data to inform forward-facing strategies about business operations and working within cloud-management systems to coordinate drone fleets.

According to the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), drones and related technologies are projected to contribute $82 billion to the U.S. economy by 2025 and spur the creation of 100,000 new jobs.

Despite the ongoing fear of human outdatedness during periods of intense technological development, drones don’t eliminate jobs. They add value by being safer, more informed and better equipped to supervise sites and systems. They do this by supporting communication through the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) alongside teams and automation elements. In fact, the first wave of IIoT adoption is expected to see a30% increase in productivity due to Industry 4.0 advancements.

Provides Aerial Insights Without Additional Cost Burdens

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