The Best of Summer Drone & Robotics Roundup
From The Drone Girl
This summer has been an exciting and action-packed one for drones and robots in the energy industry. Let’s take a moment to consider the flood of investment and innovation pouring into the drone industry, reshaping the future of our sector at an incredible pace.
Robots on Duty
The 2024 Energy Drone & Robotics Summit featured a session by Chris Haines of HUVRdata and Aaron Schlett of ExxonMobil called, "Remote Robotic Refractory Inspections with ExxonMobil." The session offered a detailed look into how ExxonMobil is leveraging advanced robotics and digital solutions to tackle one of the most challenging aspects of industrial inspections—refractory inspections in confined spaces.
Here’s a recap of the session.
Drone Dollars
The drone industry has experienced a rollercoaster of investment in recent years. After a meteoric rise in funding between 2019 and 2021, the industry faced a significant downturn in 2022 and 2023. While the overall funding amount has decreased, there are nuances to this trend that offer both challenges and opportunities for drone companies.
The stark reality is that drone company funding has been cut in half from 2022 to 2023. This drop can be attributed to several factors:
Economic Climate: Global economic factors like inflation and rising interest rates have made investors more cautious.
Regulatory Hurdles: Slow progress in drone regulations has created uncertainty and deterred some investors.
Maturity of the Market: Many drone companies are moving beyond the startup stage, and securing later-stage venture capital has become more challenging.
NYPA's Drone Revolution Revealed
Standout speaker Brent Klavon, Chief Strategy Officer at ANRA Technologies, took the stage at the 2024 EDR Summit to discuss “How a Utility Implemented a Successful Drone Program”.
In the session, Klavon covered how the New York Power Authority (NYPA), the largest state-owned utility company in the United States, uses drones and autonomous systems to enhance operations and ensure regulatory compliance.
NYPA's use of drones and robotics is bolstered by Mission Manager X, a software application deployed with the help of ANRA to help NYPA manage its extensive fleet of drones and autonomous systems. Mission Manager X provides NYPA with a robust platform to organize, maintain, and train pilots for their drone operations. The integration with their CRS system, Maximo, allows for seamless data management, fleet management, and resource allocation. This comprehensive approach ensures that NYPA's drone program is not only efficient but also scalable and adaptable to future regulatory changes.
That’s a wrap-up of the top Energy Drone & Robotics stories from this summer so far. Do you have a topic we should cover? Send it to editor@stonefortgroup.com.