By Mark S. Kuhar
Drones are becoming a way of life for aggregates producers, construction-materials companies and construction contractors. One company that uses drones in many of its operations is Graniterock.
The company included the accompanying drone infographic in its latest newsletter. This is a good illustration of the versatility and broad usage of drones in today’s business environment.
Aerial intelligence solutions provider Kespry showcased the work of more than 170 aggregates customers at AGG1 in Houston, March 6-8. These organizations, including new Kespry aggregates customers CSA Materials, Stoneco of Michigan (a division of Oldcastle) and York Building Products, all use the Kespry industrial drone-based platform to manage stockpile inventories, plan mining operations and maximize revenue.
To date, Kespry aggregates customers have flown 10,400 worksite missions measuring 223,000 stockpiles across 1.4 million acres.
2017 was a significant year with many great successes for DroneView Technologies.
The markets that they serve are large and growing. “We work for civil engineers and surveyors as well as landfill, mining, aggregate, earth moving, construction, energy, and telecommunication companies collecting aerial images and providing photogrammetric processing for high precision topographic mapping, stockpile measurement and inspection services,” the company said.
The FAA continues to make great strides in making the airspace more accessible for drone operators while maintaining safety. “We expect to see increased access to instant flight authorizations in controlled airspaces in the coming year as the FAA continues to rollout their LAANC program [low altitude authorization and notification capability],” the company said. “Additional progress is also being made in updated rules for flights beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), night time flying and drone flights over people.”
But don’t try flying a drone while drunk in New Jersey. That state’s assembly is slated to vote on a bill approved by the state senate to ban inebriated or drugged droning, as well as to outlaw flying unmanned aircraft systems over prisons and in pursuit of wildlife.
More than three million drones were sold in the United States last year, up 28 percent from 2016, said Richard Kowalski, manager for the Consumer Technology Association.