Emerging construction firms such as Menlo Park-based Katerra have relied on DroneDeploy’s new SDK and APIs to make their workflows more efficient while delivering data faster. Katerra has created a custom solution for pilots to automate image uploads to both a cloud storage service and DroneDeploy’s map engine. By bringing automation to this time-intensive step, Katerra has been able to spend more time focusing on scaling their drone program.
As the leading software platform in the commercial-drone space, DroneDeploy continues to revolutionize the way data is gathered and managed across a range of industries, from agriculture and solar to mining and more. In 2017, we launched the DroneDeploy App Market in order to allow our partners to customize and extend DroneDeploy, and today, they have successfully built over 60 applications using our unique platform. However, the desire for a fully customizable and extensible DroneDeploy has resonated beyond just our developer community. We also recognize that every enterprise has different needs, and that a scalable drone platform that offers room for growth is a key requirement for today’s most innovative companies.
Accordingly, we are proud to introduce the DroneDeploy SDK, a powerful customization/automation tool designed to boost operational efficiency. Suitable for larger enterprise-level firms as well as start-ups in sectors like energy, agriculture, and construction, the SDK platform sports four modules — UI toolkit, Datastore, Functions and Triggers — that help automate even the most complex use cases.
The DroneDeploy SDK has saved us countless hours — automating our workflows has allowed us to expand our drone program into more job sites.
- Ray Pascua, UAV Specialist, KATERRA
Here’s a look at what’s inside SDK:
UI Kit: This toolkit allows clients to build a customized DroneDeploy interface to meet custom objectives and use cases, such as obtaining regional weather information from drone mapping in order to avoid turbulent weather conditions across the drone’s flight path.
Datastore: A fully customizable data table creation tool, Datastore acts like a spreadsheet, allowing users to house any kind of information they want within DroneDeploy, from customer records to inventory data, which can later be accessed on a fully secure basis and displayed in any number of configurations. Using Datastore, for instance, firms can quickly retrieve information around a crop field’s treatment, an asset’s serial number, or any other pertinent data.
Functions: Having advanced monitoring capability won’t matter if the data can’t be continually and accurately updated. Using the serverless architecture of the SDK Functions module, customers can run their server code directly from the app to securely sync current server data with the drone-deployed UI.
Triggers: With Triggers, clients will be able to create event-driven use cases, such as setting an alert threshold whenever stockpiles need to be replenished. Here, fully automated software notifications allow users to respond to events such as “processing complete” and “export complete” as needed. Once map data is ready to be exported, just set the configurations and automation takes over from there. Multi-action capabilities allow exported information to be directed to the company’s servers as well as to Procore or Autodesk, and users may send unique notifications to stakeholders as well.
Exploration/production company Anadarko Petroleum Corporation is planning to utilize DroneDeploy SDK to integrate DroneDeploy with its internal tools. As part of this effort, Anadarko will programmatically create flight plans using DroneDeploy’s APIs and, with SDK’s Triggers function, automate exports to its internal GIS tools to create a seamless workflow upon flight completion.
Programmatic access through APIs
Through the UI Kit or Functions tool, the SDK platform can work with existing DroneDeploy APIs to transport, transform and automate each use case. The DroneDeploy API gives users comprehensive programmatic access to DroneDeploy’s functions and data, while keeping security a top priority.
With DroneDeploy SDK, it is simple to automate your workflows and save valuable time. Having a consistent automated workflow is the key to improving productivity, and by doing so, our customers will be able to spend more time analyzing the valuable data collected through DroneDeploy. With these new tools, we hope to have made it easier to achieve this than ever before.
Try SDK today
Start automating your workflows with the DroneDeploy SDK — if you are already an Enterprise customer, contact [email protected] to request your API key.
Where to Learn More
- Learn more about the SDK with our developer documentation.
- Have more questions? Schedule a chat with our sales team.
