Energy Drone & Robotics Brief | Feb. 21, 2024

Getting the Full Picture—From the Sky and Beyond

If you’ve ever wished for multidirectional site awareness (or at least the ability to see through clouds), this one’s for you. Esri’s Chris Sheil took the stage at the 2024 Energy Drone & Robotics Summit to talk about remote sensing, drone technology, and AI-powered insights.

Turns out, site awareness isn’t just about “zooming in” on a problem. It’s about using drones, satellite imagery, and AI magic to analyze, predict, and optimize operations—whether it’s monitoring an energy port or making sure your critical infrastructure doesn’t go rogue.

How do you decide the right data source(s)?

Sheil explained that it depends. If you’re looking for a broad overview, satellites have your back. If you need high-resolution detail, drones are your best friend.

Esri is working to help enterprises combine all these data sources into a comprehensive imagery system that makes decision-making a team sport.

For example, Esri teamed up with industry partners to create a digital twin of the Port of Corpus Christi—a massive energy hub. Using drone imagery, AI-driven feature detection, and even SAR (synthetic aperture radar) imaging to cut through clouds, they built a comprehensive operational picture. The result? Smarter logistics, improved security, and a serious level-up in situational awareness.

Read the full recap of Sheil’s EDRS session

Cargo Drones Are Taking Off (Literally)

The future of logistics has wings.?

Keeping industrial operations running smoothly requires fast, reliable logistics—but what happens when remote sites, offshore platforms, or rugged terrain make traditional transport too slow or costly? Enter, cargo drones.

The cargo drone industry is growing at warp speed, projected to skyrocket from $936.2 million in 2023 to a jaw-dropping $116 billion by 2031. That’s a 37.15% annual growth rate.

From Equinor’s offshore drone deliveries to ?rsted’s wind turbine cargo drops, drones are proving they can transport everything from spare parts to care packages. In Indonesia, Terra Drone Corp and Blueflite are prepping to deploy high payload capacity cargo drones to streamline logistics operations.

Of course, it’s not all smooth flying. Regulatory hurdles, security risks, and a shortage of drone pilots (anyone want a career change?) are keeping the industry on its toes. But with companies like MightyFly developing drones that can carry 500-pound payloads and AI-driven automation improving UAV performance, the future of cargo transport is looking seriously exciting.

Check out our recent article and see how cargo drones are taking flight and reshaping supply chains.

Want to learn more about how cargo drones are ramping up for industrial and energy ops????

Join us on June 16-18 at the?Industrial Cargo Drone Forum, co-located with the?Energy Drone & Robotics Summit?in Houston.?

WHAT ELSE?

• In 2024, we witnessed drones patrolling the skies like tiny futuristic security guards, robots inspecting oil rigs and AI showing off its smarts to make them all look even cooler. In this article from Autonomy Global, revisit breakthroughs, success stories and trends in drone and robotics that reshaped how energy companies approach efficiency, safety and sustainability in our top five articles of the year.?
• Meta is reportedly forming a new team that will be devoted to developing artificial intelligence-powered humanoid robots. The team will be within the company’s Reality Labs hardware division, Bloomberg reported. It will be led by Marc Whitten, the former CEO of General Motors’ Cruise self-driving division, and will add about 100 engineers this year.
• If your robot needs to be highly dynamic or lift really heavy things, hydraulics are, at least for now, where it’s at. IIT’s HyQReal quadruped is one of those robots. If you need something that can carry a big payload, like a pair of massive arms, this is your robot. The arms that HyQReal is carrying are?IIT-INAIL arms, which weigh 10 kg each and have a payload of 5 kg per arm.?
• On a recent episode of the Dawn of Autonomy podcast, Michael Harvey of Leica Geosystems delved into its advanced reality capture devices and software. Innovations in geospatial tech and autonomy are enhancing safety, efficiency, and accuracy across construction, energy, and public safety. As automation expands, robots and drones are tackling increasingly complex surveying and mapping tasks.
• Unusual Machines has announced the signing of a binding agreement to acquire Aloft Technologies, Inc. The acquisition is almost all in stock, valued at USD 14.5M.?
• Tesla?robotics development rival Apptronik recently announced a $350 million Series A funding round, including participation from Google, to scale the production of artificial intelligence-powered humanoid robots.
• ADNOC, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has just recently unveiled a new and latest innovation which primarily aims at changing as well as advancing the refueling experience. A robotic arm has been designed by this company which can refuel vehicles precisely in a mere few seconds. The arm automatically opens the car’s petrol flap, twists and removes the cap and fills it very easily.

ABOUT US

The Energy Drone & Robotics Coalition is focused on innovating energy operations with dynamic UAV, Robotics, Data and Automation solutions.

The Energy Drone & Robotics Coalition (aka EDR Coalition or EDRC) is a forum dedicated to launching, growing and scaling enterprise unmanned systems operations in energy companies worldwide by bringing the leaders in the drone and robotics ecosystem together with the energy industrial complex asset owners and end users.

The EDRC brings innovators together to advance the industry through digital resource sharing (like the weekly Energy Drone & Robotics Newsroom, resources on the website, blogs, podcasts and webinars), as well as live, virtual and hybrid events (including the annual Global Gathering, as well as smaller meetups throughout the year).

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