Soaring Beyond Military Applications
Originally conceived for military applications, UAVs faced a transformative moment with technological spin-offs that propelled them beyond mere military use and hobbyist pursuits. The technological spin offs from space age and silicon age that started in 1950s played a pivotal role in resurgence of UAV industry. In absence of these spin offs, the UAVs would still have been a platform with military applications or used by hobbyist for flight fun and leisure experience. These spin offs enabled the UAV to lead a high-end disruption in Geographic Information System (GIS) industry and claim a major share of the market.
Riding the Wave of Adoption
Recent years have witnessed a surge in UAV adoption, expanding their usage across diverse industries worldwide. From securing sensitive military areas to captivating hobbyists globally, UAV technology has breached new commercial fields, ushering in an era of innovation. However, the journey is not without its challenges, including limitations in electric batteries, telecommunications networks, and big data handling capabilities. It will take some innovations before these challenges are surpassed and UAV becomes a mainstay.
Coexistence and Collaboration
While the UAV industry initially competed with the space industry for market share, both have evolved beyond competition. They have found new innovation frontiers, which they can lead separately, co-evolving and co-existing. The evolution portrays how new entrants create space for themselves in high end markets; while, existing firms cede some ground and seed new innovations frontiers, learning new ways to co-exist. This has happened with mainframes and personal computing industries, when IBM and Microsoft carved their own niches and learned to co-exist. Going beyond mere co-existence, the space industry is on the evolution course that will eventually support UAV industry to prosper.
Future Horizons: HAPS Technology
High Altitude Pseudo Satellite (HAPS), which is an evolving space technology, is soon going to be a sought-after technology that will not only aid in implementing 6G telecom technology, but also aid UAV industry with Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations, and big data handling capabilities.
Challenges and Opportunities
The present UAV industry evolution phase is testing the limits of legal system, structural readiness, and resolve of political and business community. The various business models that are evolving in the industry will nudge the government around the world to bring reforms necessary to address the current limiting factors in the industry.
