Buildcast

Here is a list of topics covered in my interview with Ian Smith of Drone Deploy

Check out his podcast Commercial Drones.FM

• Background/Bio
  • Ian Smith is currently employed by Drone Deploy in San Francisco since 2015. He began getting involved with flight and RC aircraft at age 8 before becoming a helicopter pilot instructor.  In 2013, he learned about someone making money with a drone on NPR, which was illegal at the time due to the lack of FAA regulations. From there he spent 1.5 years with Delair-Tech, before returning to Drone Deploy.
  • Ian's Twitter
  • Ian's Facebook
• Topics
  • Delair-Tech built first beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone recognized by an aviation authority.
  • Drone Deploy built first 4GLTE connected UAV at scale for customers in real-time; app called co-pilot. The images were sent and processed in the cloud in realtime.
  • Right now, best way to analyze inspection data today is to have experienced inspector review collected images, but we are getting to the point where algorithms can do this.
  • The first algorithm inspection analysis were linear power line infrastructure.
  • Fixed wing drones are typically better for covering large land areas (surveying, linear infrastructure, farms).
  • Issues with inspections regarding current regulations include no BVLOS, no night-time flying, no flights over people without prior authorization. 
  • Realwear
  • Daquri
  • Epson
  • Prodrone
  • "At the end of the day, the drone is a robot, whether it's on the ground or flies.”