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TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

SA is lagging behind the drone economy

While SA was one of the first to bring in drone legislation, we have fallen behind with only
83 registered operators and 1818 drone pilots.

By Dean Conde, UTM Lead, iOCO Digital opportunity to regain its leadership position.
The drone ecosystem is much larger than anyone would first imagine. Delivery drones
f all the technologies to have may be the most identifiable use case for UAVs, but for other use cases, such as mapping
emerged in recent decades, and monitoring, the real value lies in the data that’s been captured by the drone.
Oone has impacted a surprising Industries and businesses that are involved in data collection, analysis and preparation
number of industries: drones. While are therefore essential to the growth of the drone economy.
still in their infancy relative to other Similarly, it’s not just drone operators that are needed. There is a complex industry
emerging technologies, unmanned aerial that is emerging around UAVs, and applications such as unmanned traffic management
vehicles (UAV’s) are fast finding use in (UTM) systems are becoming essential to avoid mid-air collisions, injury to people and
construction, photography, agriculture, damage to property or other aircraft.
defence and many other industries. Our partnership with Altitude Angel, for example, allows businesses to access a rich
Drone industry revenue in the source of real-time airspace and environmental and regulatory data which is expertly
commercial sector is forecast to grow customised to the specific operation. This UTM solution makes it easy to define rules for
worldwide by a compound annual drones within your airspace and to interface with any existing ATM system to provide a
growth rate of 9.4 percent from 2021 holistic and complete view.
to 2026, reaching a value of 1.4 billion
U.S. dollars, according to DRONEII. The Growing ecosystems
biggest UAV markets today are in China Partnerships like these will help catapult South Africa back into the leadership position it
and Japan, with the US market growing should already be occupying. Leveraging the expertise of international organisations that
steadily. are innovating in the UAV space will allow us to gain immediate value and open the door
Unfortunately, even though South to our own innovations.
Africa was one of the first countries in For example, the UK government has given the go-ahead to for the world’s largest
the world to bring in drone legislation, and longest network of drone super-highways to be built by a consortium led by Altitude
we have fallen behind many other Angel. The drone super-highway will link cities and towns throughout the midlands to the
countries. Today the US has 237 394 southeast of the country, with the option to expand the corridor to any other locations in
remote pilots and 347 957 commercial the country.
drones registered. South Africa only has This project may well revolutionise the industry. Drones today cannot be flown
83 registered operators and 1818 drone without a human pilot, except in rare circumstances usually involving a flight ban to other
pilots. aircraft. Skyway will enable any drone manufacturer to connect a drone’s guidance and
communication systems into a virtual super-highway system which takes care of guiding
Regaining a leadership role drones safely through ‘corridors’, onward to their destinations, using only a software
This situation is set to change. The integration. Simply put, this system will ensure that any company can safely get airborne
applications for commercial drones and build a scalable drone solution.
are numerous and growing rapidly. As With growing and varied uses in the building inspection, construction, oil and gas,
more businesses invest in UAVs, and agriculture, surveillance and mapping industries, not to mention rescue operations, aerial
as they find new applications for those photography, thermal imaging and many more, UAVs – and their ecosystem – will become
investments, South Africa has the essential to gaining and maintaining a competitive business edge.

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