From agriculture to construction, unmanned aerial vehicles are transforming the way we work. Drones provide a range of benefits such as improved efficiency, safety, and cost savings. It may seem daunting and first, but learning how to start a drone program can be a straightforward process after some research. This resource covers the steps for how to start a drone program and outlines some best practices.
Vision Aerial has been manufacturing drones since 2009. Our expert team is available to help individuals and organizations like the US Forest Service or large energy companies set up their drone programs. We also have experience with best practices for managing fleets.
Step 1: Identify the Problem and Define Your Goals
Before you start investing in drones, it’s essential to define your goals for the program. This step will help you determine the type of drone you need, the skills you need to acquire, and the kind of data you want to capture. Some common goals for a drone program include:
Enhance Safety
Drones can access areas that are difficult or dangerous for humans. For example, drones can inspect infrastructure such as bridges, wind turbines, and oil rigs without putting human workers at risk.
Improve Efficiency
Drones can carry out tasks such as mapping, surveying, and monitoring more quickly and accurately than humans. This can result in significant time and cost savings.
Increase Productivity
Drones can help companies monitor and manage their assets more efficiently. For example, drones can be used to survey farmland and identify areas that need irrigation or pest control.
Enhance Data Collection
Drones can capture high-resolution imagery, thermal data, and other sensor data. This data can be used for various applications such as precision agriculture, mining, and infrastructure inspection.
Defining your goals is a critical first step because it helps you understand the type of drone you need and the skills you need to acquire. For example, if you want to use drones for infrastructure inspection, you’ll need a drone that can carry out close-up inspections and a pilot with experience in this area.
| Example Problem Statements | Example Goals |
|---|---|
| It takes 4 days to inspect all the assets in Location A for leaks. This causes an engineering backlog every month, because the primary engineer needs to ride along on the inspections. | Reduce the amount of time performing inspections by 20% by the end of the year. Reduce the amount of time our engineers are in the field inspecting equipment by 50% so they can focus on the backlog of tasks. |
| It is difficult to review inspection data because it comes in differently each month. There are times we have to go out and re-perform the inspection because the correct information wasn’t gathered previously. | Create a methodical inspection protocol so that all inspection data is consistent by the end of Q2.Identify software to assist in organizing inspection data and generating consistent reports by the end of Q3.Acquire drone equipment, create flight plans, and perform the first test inspection by the end of Q4. |
| It is dangerous and time-consuming for the team to inspect faulty wind turbines. Furthermore, they are not always able to get a good view of the issues from all angles. | Improve safety and see if the insurance company will lower the workers comp rates because a drone program will remove the need to climb towers within the next 3 months. Reduce inspection costs by 45% by removing the need for helicopter inspections. |
Step 2: How to Start a Drone Program… Generate Internal Support
Now that you’ve identified the problem and have defined some specific goals, you will need to build internal support for the drone program. This means convincing key stakeholders at the organization that a drone program is the right solution.
Each organization has different processes, stakeholders, and corporate culture. Identify the process for presenting and getting approval for new projects. Understand what motivates the stakeholders involved in approvals. Do they want to improve a culture of safety? Start there. Are they interested in freeing up key resources? Focus on how a drone program can act as a force multiplier.
Timing is also an important consideration. You may need to leverage the knowledge of specific individuals prior to seeing approval for your program. You might need to determine the budget before reaching out to key stakeholders. It’s possible that you may need to run the idea up the flagpole before trying to gather more specific information. Test the waters and understand how your organization runs. This step may need to come farther down in the process.
Step 3: Identify Key Members of Your Team
Building a team is another critical aspect of starting a successful drone program. While it’s possible to operate a drone program with just one or two people, building a team can help ensure that all aspects of the program are covered and that tasks are performed efficiently.
Each organization will have a different structure and resources available for a drone program. The scale of the program may also vary widely from company to company. You’ll need to determine what kind of team is needed to support the overarching goals.
Before building a team, it’s important to define roles and responsibilities. This ensures that everyone knows what their job is and what is expected of them. Some common roles in a drone program include:
- Program or Project Manager – This person would be responsible for working with various organizational teams to initiate, plan, execute, monitor, and close various projects related to the overall drone program. They would likely assist in putting the team together, gathering requirements, selecting equipment, managing budgets, and other aspects of program coordination.
- Drone Pilot – This individual will have an FAA Part 107 license and their primary task will be to program and fly the drone on its missions. They will need to know all the laws and regulations related to operating the drone legally and safely. They are also referred to as the Remove Pilot in Command.
- Visual Observer – The FAA recommends using an individual to assist in scanning the airspect for potential collision hazards and maintaining visual awareness of the aircraft’s position.
- Data Analyst – There are a broad variety of titles for this position. The primary purpose of this individual is to import the data collected by the drone into the selected software system, perform post processing as required, review the results, and make recommendations based on any findings.
- IT Support – You may need to leverage your IT team to help procure equipment or software. Additionally, they may need to be involved in resolving issues with initial setup, internet bandwidth, or data security requirements.
Will you be able to leverage existing employees, or will you need to hire to start the program? Would you be able to contract a fly-for-hire team to perform ongoing inspections? These are important items to consider when reaching the budget stage.
Vision Aerial has years of industry experience.
Speak to an expert (406) 333-1795
Step 4: Determine Equipment & Services Needed
The problem you are trying to solve and your goals will assist you in determining what kind of equipment you’ll need for your drone program. If the scale of the program is small and you plan to leverage a fly-for-hire service, you may just need a computer, software license, and analyst to review the data your contractors send to you. If you have multiple projects over large areas and plan to gather and process all the data yourself, you will need more equipment.
A basic outline of equipment is provided below with some high-level points to consider. This is by no means a complete list:
Drone (UAS)
- What are the applications you plan to perform with it?
- How much acreage or distance does it need to cover?
- What kind of sensors will it need to carry?
- Do you need an FPV pilot camera?
- Is size and transportability a factor? Where will you perform your missions? How frequently will you be using the UAS?
- Is there any software the mission plans need to be compatible with?
- What kind of mission plans will you need for your applications? (Survey, waypoint, ad hoc, pancake, spiral, vertical face, etc…)
- What kind of environment or weather will you be operating in? Dust, wind, high altitude, rain, fog, snow, smoke?
- Is training provided? What kind of training is needed?
- Will your drone need to be adaptable for future technology and sensors that may become available?
Sensors / Payloads
- What are your target applications? What kind of data will you need to collect for those applications?
- How will you use the sensors?
- What kind of data do you need to collect?
- What is the final resolution you will need?
- Is training provided? What kind of training is needed?
Software / Data Processing
- What are your target applications and what kind of data is needed for those applications? What programs are available that suit those needs?
- What kind of outputs will you need? Do those need to be imported into another program? If yes, are there specific file types or specs that need to be met?
- How many individuals will need to access the software? What will their roles be? Will everyone need to access the data or just final reports? The number of seats may affect subscription costs.
- Will you need a special computer to run the software? What are the hardware requirements? If processing is cloud based, will you need a certain level of Internet bandwidth?
- Is training provided? What kind of training will your team need?
Additional Items
- Do you need survey-grade accuracy or is relative accuracy good enough? Will you need RTK or PPK?
- Do you need any special kind of cyber security or data protection? Are you inspecting critical infrastructure or working on secure, government projects?
- Do you need dual operator controls?
- Will a second team member watch a live stream of video or images captured by the drone?
- Is training provided? What additional kinds of training does your team need? Will the team know what their roles are and how to perform the workflow from end-to-end?
Vision Aerial can help you determine what equipment you will need to successfully support your drone program.
Call (406) 333-1795
Step 5: Define a Budget
Once you’ve identified the team and equipment, a vitally important step is understanding the costs associated with initial startup and annual operations. The executives will want to see the rationale behind the program as well as the potential ROI. While it might not be possible to determine a fine-tuned budget in the early stages, a sense of scale will be an important deciding factor for the finance department.
Use the team and equipment requirements to research salaries and other associated costs. Determine which costs are one-time, up-front costs and which items will be recurring monthly or annual fees. Purchase the equipment and assemble your team after management reviews and approves your budget.
Step 6: Provide Training
Another aspect to research in how to start a drone program is training. Training will be crucially important in ensuring that your drone program is successful. The roles of your team members and the equipment selected will determine what training needs to be provided. Training may come from outside vendors, the equipment providers, or you may choose to define your own training curriculum.
Here is a partial list to consider:
- Part 107 training for gaining a Part 107 license.
- How to fly the drone and perform critical flight operations.
- How to use the sensors and gather the data that is needed.
- How to use post processing software to get the outputs needed.
- How to generate reports and other final outputs from the data gathered.
- How to understand the reports and what the data means.
Vision Aerial can provide individualized training to support your drone program.
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Step 7: Grow and Monitor the Program
Once the initial elements of the program are assembled, it’s important to develop a basic structure of processes. Then review those processes on a regular basis and improve upon them over time.
Standard Operating Procedures
Developing standard operating procedures (SOPs) is essential to ensure safe and efficient drone operations. SOPs provide a clear set of guidelines that help pilots operate the drone consistently and safely. Some essential components of an SOP include:
Data Management Practices
Collecting data is a crucial part of a drone program, but it’s equally important to establish data management practices. Data management practices help ensure that the data collected is accurate, reliable, and accessible.
Foster a Culture of Safety
Building a culture of safety is essential for any drone program. Safety should be a top priority for all team members. Everyone should be aware of the risks associated with operating a drone. Consider regular safety training. Encourage open communication. Perform regular safety audits to ensure everyone is aware of the risks and that safety is a top priority.
Develop a Maintenance Program
Drones require regular maintenance to ensure they operate safely and efficiently. Create a maintenance schedule to ensure that the drone is in good condition. Identify issues early and address them promptly. Some essential maintenance tasks include battery replacement, propeller inspection and maintenance, and software updates.
Review Your Process on a Regular Basis
Once your program is off the ground and everyone is trained and performing missions, it’s important to conduct regular reviews. Is the program achieving its initial goals? Is it solving the problems you set out to resolve in the first place?
Conducting mission debriefs, post-mortems, or Lessons Learned sessions regularly will help the team continue to refine the program. If mistakes occur, work together to identify solutions. That way the team can continue to grow stronger.
Summing Up How to Start a Drone Program
Although researching how to start a drone program is somewhat intimidating, it is a fairly straightforward process. To ensure your program is successful, define your goals, acquire the right equipment, get trained and certified, develop SOPs, establish data management practices, comply with regulations, and create a maintenance schedule. By following these steps, organizations can harness the power of drones to improve efficiency, safety, and cost savings in various industries.