For the first half of 2019, we are proud to now serve 5,000+ customers, who have flown 400,000 job sites in more than 180 countries worldwide. We made a big leap forward in the first quarter of 2019, with new flight modes, deeper analyses, and greater enterprise capabilities. We've also improved collaboration functionality, performed new integrations, and enhanced security. See our Spring Release for new capabilities you may have missed, including Live Map HD, Panoramas and Video Support, and Stockpile Inventory Management.
In our latest release, Summer 2019, we are excited to announce a suite of capabilities that make DroneDeploy a true end-to-end solution for your entire drone program. Drone operations management, manual on-site data capture, and greater workflow integrations are just a few of our highlights.
We're proud Summer 2019 will offer further insight into why DroneDeploy is the one integrated solution that helps capture all your data, ensure flights are safe and compliant, and gather rapid insights to make real-time decisions.
Drone Operations
Integrated Drone Operations Suite
Managing any large operation at scale used to be complex. Large scale drone operations required in-depth team trainings across multiple software tools and manual workflows. With pilots to train, drones to equip, and huge volumes of data to analyze and distribute, the challenge was daunting. Until now.
Today, we are releasing a suite of capabilities that make DroneDeploy the complete drone operations solution for any sized program.
With our new consolidated flight logs, you can capture all flight information and incidents automatically, for automated flight modes and our new manual flight capability. Custom preflight checklists ensure everyone is following standard operating procedures, while pilot and equipment management tools keep you in compliance with government and in-house regulations.
If you have a growing team of pilots flying on-site or in remote locations, you need to make sure they are following a set of standard operating procedures that encourage safe flight. Using custom pre-flight checklists you can maximize quality data capture and minimize the risk of drone crashes, property damage, or danger to individuals on each site.
The flight logs record all flight activity, and provide full visibility of your entire drone program, automatically - no unnecessary steps are required by pilots to record their work. Each detailed flight report highlights flight settings, speed and maximum altitude, including evidence of the flight path of the drone. Moreover, with the flight logs dashboard, you can filter by date, pilot and project, to track adoption and performance.
Having oversight over pilot and equipment certification is an essential part of making sure your drone program is in compliance with all government regulations. Easily view who needs to renew their certification, and whose certification has expired. Drone registration is tracked, allowing you to see any drone or battery that has been used by your team. Keeping all of this information in one platform, you now have clarity across all your pilots and drones - helping you stay ahead of any potential security or compliance issues.
Evaluating and applying for airspace authorization is also important for safe flight in controlled airspace. DroneDeploy’s deep integration with Airmap enables customers to see all airspace advisories for their planned flights, and apply for LAANC authorization when required.
Complete Data Capture
Fly anywhere, capture anything with Manual Flight
Over 80,000 autonomous missions are flown with DroneDeploy each month, automatically capturing maps, models, videos, panoramas, and photos. Automated missions make it easy for anyone in your organization to fly and capture aerial data, but we also recognize the demand for manual flight in order to capture those detailed, custom shots.
With this release, we are excited to give you access to Manual Flight! Fly and record custom media, like photos and videos, in manual mode. Now you can capture everything with DroneDeploy.
With Manual Flight, you have the flexibility to explore however you wish. After you create your Live Map, you can now unlock advanced workflows using Manual Flight for low altitude inspection. Manual Flight makes it simple to inspect structures, assets, crop stands, and more for issue detection and detailed record keeping.
Earthworks
Keep projects on schedule, report progress, and efficiently manage logistics
Earthmoving is one of the most uncertain and expensive parts of the construction process, and can often lead to delays and cost overruns. Before, it had been very difficult to estimate how much earth needed to be moved and how long it would take. Whether bidding on a project or tracking progress of earthmoving that is already underway, DroneDeploy’s Earthworks capabilities make it faster and easier than ever to accurately measure earthmoving needed to reach finished grade -- helping you win bids, keep projects on schedule, and keep owners updated on progress.
Instead of visually observing progress in the field or waiting weeks for your design team to compare survey data to grading plans, DroneDeploy’s cut/fill capabilities enable you to visualize and accurately quantify the amount of earth moved as soon as the drone map is complete -- whether at the job site or back at the office.
“With DroneDeploy’s Earthworks capabilities, I have the confidence I am providing my engineers accurate information in surveying, tracking progress, and verifying contractor work. I am able to use a map and model to help visualize the site, which makes planning more efficient and accurate. This new way of surveying has saved us hours of time each time we go out and capture data.” - Greg Oetker, Inspector, Jones Carter
Initially, with the introduction of drone technology, surveying costs and man-hours had been cut down from weeks to days, saving customers thousands of dollars. Now with DroneDeploy, this whole process can be completed in just a few hours!
Understanding how much earth has moved, and being able to compare against surface design, can now be performed through a single platform with DroneDeploy. The new earthworks features will help you from estimation through completion of excavation:
- Automate your flight with DroneDeploy to survey your site to create a map of site reality
- Then, compare design surface to the current map to estimate how much earth needs to be moved, helping to define work with your subcontractors
- During the progress of earthmoving, easily conduct daily flights to compare day over day to see how much earth has moved over time, helping you verify subcontractor work and more accurately estimate timeline and progress
- Once work is complete, compare current map (final flight of site) with design to verify subcontractor work
Not just for construction, these new earthmoving capabilities will help mining and aggregates companies plan mines, monitor excavations and -- combined with DroneDeploy’s Stockpile Report -- manage inventory on-site to optimize production and reduce write-offs.
3D Measurements and Annotations
You can now view, edit, and create annotations in 3D, which includes marker, line, area, and volume measurements. Easily compare stockpile volumes and elevations in 3D to help you make more accurate measurements of your stockpiles and understand changes in inventory or earth that has been moved.
Detect Hot Spots with Radiometric Thermal Analysis
Whether you are looking for malfunctioning electrical equipment, water leaks or escaping heat, radiometric thermal imagery can help you spot problems faster so that you can fix them before they become more dangerous and costly. Now, once you capture and process radiometric thermal imagery in DroneDeploy, you can adjust your radiometric thermal visualization and inspect the temperature at a point to find not just relative hot and cold spots but also to identify areas that are outside of expected operating conditions. Not sure what’s causing the hot or cold spot? It’s easy to compare the thermal map side by side with your visual spectrum map to make sense of the data.
Workflow Integrations
Save Time with Automation
Exchanging data between the tools your teams are using can be a lot of work and getting information to the right location can feel like a full-time job. That’s why DroneDeploy is introducing Auto Exports.
With Auto Exports, you can configure your exports once for a project and have the peace of mind knowing that your latest processed maps will automatically generate the right assets with the right parameters, for example, EPSG codes. Ready to be downloaded from DroneDeploy when needed.
Take the automation one step further by integrating with familiar applications like Bluebeam, PlanGrid, and OneDrive to synchronize your latest maps to the right folder destinations automatically.
Eliminate manual work and increase productivity with Auto Exports so that you can get back to more important work.
Let your customer success manager know if you want to get early access to the Beta for Bluebeam, Plangrid, and OneDrive - or visit our App Market to start using our integrations to Procore and Autodesk.
New Drone Support
We’re also happy to announce we’ve added support for two more drones: Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual and Matrice 200/210 Series V2.
The Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual is equipped with both FLIR thermal and RGB. A single flight with DroneDeploy will generate both a thermal and orthomosaic map. You can also leverage DroneDeploys Thermal Live Map with this drone (available for Enterprise accounts).
The Matrice 200 Series V2 drone upgrades DJI’s enterprise drone platform with better connectivity and sensor systems. DroneDeploy is committed to premium support of DJI’s top tier drones.
DroneDeploy Academy
The DroneDeploy Academy is a comprehensive free training program focused on learning the basics of drone operations and how drones can benefit your business. You will quickly become a drone expert by learning the fundamentals of how to capture aerial imagery. DroneDeploy Academy members will fully understand how to analyze maps and models and apply them to everyday business problems. Read the full blog to learn more, or join the DroneDeploy Academy today!
Summer Product Release Webinar
Join us on July 24th to hear from the DroneDeploy team on the latest release. We will go into more detail on how you can leverage these new capabilities to advance your drone program and better analyze your data. We will be hosting the webinar through the DroneDeploy Academy, so make sure to register for the Academy to not just gain access to this webinar, but also all of the training and best practices from DroneDeploy Register Today!
