Supply chains plagued by inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and talent issues are getting a boost from AI-powered drones. AI drones in today’s enterprises offer new data collection capabilities, autonomous capabilities, and improved logistics operations.
Unlike early unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that were manually flown by humans on the ground, new AI drones can navigate and fly autonomously, detect and recognize objects, use advanced algorithms to maintain stability, interact with other technologies, and automatically deliver packages and cargo.
Supply chain drone applications typically have someone behind the scenes monitoring the activities. “Our pilots are like air traffic controllers,” explains Beth Flippo, CEO and founder of Dexa (formerly Drone Express), an autonomous drone delivery company specializing in last-mile logistics for local retail and food. “They can sit behind a screen, load a mission for the drone to do, and if there is a problem with the drone, they can issue commands like ‘land,’ ‘go to safe zone,’ or ‘launch parachute.’”
Otherwise, Dexa’s delivery drones are fully autonomous. “These are literally pilotless vehicles, and eventually you won’t even need a pilot to load a mission,” Flippo said. AI drones would then “become true air traffic controllers,” she says. “They’ll just look at airplanes the same way they look at air traffic today.”
Autonomous AI drones serve as inspectors
Autonomous AI drones are being used to remotely inspect bridges and power lines to prevent disruptions along the supply chain. “In autonomous inspections, the AI becomes the operator,” said Alden Jones, vice president of product management at drone maker Skydio. “Drones understand their surroundings, plan safe routes, and collect data from consistent angles with minimal operator input.”
The data collected is processed by AI software to “detect early signs of failure, such as corrosion or cracks, and turn raw images into actionable insights,” Jones explained. “Combined, these steps enable a shift from reactive inspection to condition-based maintenance, allowing issues to be identified early and addressed before they lead to failure.”
AI drones conduct automated bridge inspections for the Ohio Department of Transportation. Before using Skydio autonomous drones, a bridge inspector in Ohio needed an $800,000 aerial platform to perform high-risk tasks involving humans. AI drone bridge inspections are now being conducted across the state in ultimately more than 40 deployments, improving the quality and speed of inspection data while reducing risk and cost.
AI drone inspections are on the rise globally, many aimed at reducing risk and saving time for individuals.
AI detects power line faults with approximately 90% accuracy.
alex brownSkyports Drone Service CEO
For example, it takes staff from China’s Yunnan Power Grid 20 days to climb each tower in a mountainous region and inspect 60 miles of critical power lines. UAV manufacturer Jouav’s autonomous drones can now use AI analytics to perform detailed inspections and identify problems without human intervention on site.
Inspecting bridges, power lines, and hard-to-reach areas are easy targets for AI drones. “Currently, we primarily use AI in our power line inspection products, and AI detects power line faults with approximately 90% accuracy,” said Alex Brown, CEO of Skyports Drone Services. “Humans are still involved, but they are much more efficient. Our surveillance business is also increasingly leveraging AI, such as automatically recognizing objects that drones are looking at.”
One of the main functions of AI in drones, in addition to visual data collection and analysis, is the management of the drone itself. “A lot of it comes down to sensing onboard the drone to avoid hitting things, and intelligent operation and navigation to help it know the world it’s in and what it’s sensing,” said Scott Stoffman, vice president and regulatory advisor for the International Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems. “AI is providing some intelligence, such as analyzing what the drone is seeing and how to prevent the drone from hitting things.”
AI drones speed up parts delivery to factories and ensure just-in-time manufacturing.
AI drones deliver goods big and small
Enterprise drone applications are increasingly used to transport cargo and goods. AI drones can move goods in a variety of industries, from suppliers to delivery services.
Winsupply, a 70-year-old construction distribution company, wanted to automate the transportation of goods to its corporate customers. “We pull the product out of our distribution center, and we have what’s called a will-call counter,” said Ryan Whitney, Winsupply’s director of enterprise data. “UPS comes and picks it up. The staff at the WillCall counter packs, say, a PVC box and schedules 40 elbow pipes. You pick up 10 of them. [fittings]Put them in a box and hand them over to the Drone Express team. By attaching it to a drone, flying it to the site, and dropping it on-site, contractors will save “huge amounts of time and energy.”
Drone payload weight continues to increase from relatively small commercial supplies to extremely heavy cargo and work equipment.
Air’s all-electric AI drone can automatically transport 550 pounds over 100 miles. “It’s all automatic,” says Rani Plaut, CEO and co-founder of Air. Air drones use AI to find their location, automatically fly to a designated destination, and wait for human approval to land. “There are operators behind the scenes monitoring it,” Prout said. If the drone does not receive approval to land, onboard AI technology will choose the best location to land.
Sandy Banerjee, president and chief operating officer of drone developer Arcanus, said the company is considering using drones that can lift 650 pounds. “Imagine replacing heavy-lift ground transportation with UAVs. UAVs can lift, for example, HVAC units to the roof of a building, or lift and hoist them with a crane to move goods along a predetermined route to a location where they can be moved,” Banerjee explained.
There are two main use cases for drones. One of them is shipping to hard-to-reach addresses.
chris paxtonStrategic Insights and Innovation Manager, Royal Mail
Royal Mail, the UK’s national postal service, is legally required to deliver parcels of all types and sizes to 32 million addresses five days a week for parcels and six days a week for letters, said Chris Paxton, Strategic Insights and Innovation Manager at Royal Mail. “There are two main use cases for drones,” he said. “One of them is delivery to hard-to-reach addresses.”
Delivery was required to a remote location such as the Orkney Islands, and the package was transported by ferry daily, but due to bad weather it was not delivered. Royal Mail and Skyports Drone Service will begin trials of Orkney Eyeport in 2023, using drones to transport parcels weighing up to 13 pounds. Drones delivered packages between operational postal centers rather than directly to consumers.
“What we’ve done with our drone trials is look at how we can use drones to connect these operational sites,” Paxton said. “We use drones to fly things from one job site to the postman or postman who ultimately makes the delivery.”
In the UK, Royal Mail requires permission from the Civil Aviation Authority to conduct drone flights between postal centres. “It’s much easier than having a company like Amazon prove to the CAA that it can deliver to everyone. [individual customer] “Every address is going to have a different risk profile,” Paxton said. There may be toddlers running around, dogs running around, trees overhanging one property and no trees on another. ”
In the United States, drones are regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration, which allows certain drones to fly beyond visual line of sight. FAA Part 135 is a domestic airline license for unmanned flights. “This is the only way to fly cargo in national airspace for compensation,” Dexa’s Flippo said. “If you don’t have 135, you can’t make money on deliveries…It’s kind of the holy grail. There are only four other companies in the U.S. that have it, and that’s Amazon, Google, Wing, Zipline, and us.”
Whether it’s remote inspection or package delivery, AI drones can save significant time and improve operational efficiency, and their capabilities are only getting better.
chuck martin new york times A bestselling author, futurist, speaker, and columnist, he has been a thought leader in emerging digital technologies for over 30 years.
