Skydio drones are all about working smarter, not harder, through AI-powered autonomous flight. With the announcement of Skydio 3D Scan, we introduced a new way to think about enterprise drone flights. Now, instead of having to fly manual drones far away from the objects that need to be documented or inspected, Skydio drones use AI to adapt their flight pattern to any scene, and any given resolution requirement. With such a new way to fly the drone, comes an entirely new way to choose which drone to fly. Our Enterprise Drone Inspection EBook , which we are releasing over the course of nine volumes over the coming months, is designed to help program managers navigate this expansive new set of options.
Today, we are releasing Volume 3 of the eBook, which is titled: “High-precision Transportation Management: How to get decision-quality data from your drone program.” In this volume, we dive deep into bridge inspections through 3D model and photo comparisons performed with the support of Skydio’s Image Quality team, led by former GoPro Image Quality Test Engineer, Russell Bondi.
Bridge inspections are complex and dangerous operations that can cause extensive societal disruption. Whether shutting the bridge down for high-polluting snooper trucks, or requiring inspectors to rappel from bridges on ropes, traditional methods are inefficient and hazardous. Drones can help inspectors generate bridge inspection datasets with minimal societal intrusion, to better inform whether targeted repairs are necessary. However, not all drones are created equal. Last generation manual drones cannot be flown up close to bridge structures without introducing high crash risk, so manufacturers have raced to add larger, and more expensive, camera payloads. Skydio autonomous drones can accomplish better inspections with smaller cameras simply by being able to fly closer to the subject, reducing the requirement to carry such precious camera payloads.
With an expanding set of options, it is no longer good enough to simply buy the drone with the biggest camera. To unlock these next-generation operations, drone program managers need to know they will be able to generate the data they need to make and communicate decisions. We sincerely hope that these materials, with their in-depth dataset comparisons, will make your upcoming drone decisions easier as you build and scale your fleets. Choose confidently and safe flying!
