The best drone for commercial purposes like construction, surveying, inspections or fire fighting

The latest post in our Ask The Drone Girl series is about buying the right drone for commercial purposes. Got a question for Drone Girl? Contact her here.

We are getting into the commercial side of UAS (oil and gas, insurance, construction, wind power, engineering, surveying and possibly fire fighting). What drone would you recommend? I thought maybe the DJI Matrice 210.

This is an incredibly broad question that I could write hundreds of pages about. To answer your point specifically, I will say that the Matrice 210 is a great drone, designed for commercial purposes.

Initially launched in 2017, you can typically find the drone sold as used for less than $4,000, making it ideal for small businesses on a budget.

Among the top benefits of the DJI Matrice 210:

• It can carry 2 kg of payload (4.4 pounds)
• It can fly for 38 minutes
• It can operate as far as 7 km from the pilot.
• It has a power system for automatically heating batteries when flying in sub-zero temperatures AND is water resistant.
• It has been used in a variety of use-cases, from wind turbine inspections, to firefighting to search and rescue machines.

However, a word of caution before you make the massive investment in a drone like the Matrice 210: Nail down your business model before you nail down what drone you want to use. So with that, here’s what you need to know about choosing the best drone for commercial purposes.

Hone in on a specific sector or use case

Rather than market yourself as an all-in-one drone business, some of the most successful drone service businesses focus on just one niche. Dyan Gibbens’ company, Trumbull Unmanned, focuses on using drones to supply critical data to the energy sector, primarily supporting oil and gas and environmental efforts. Taylor Mitcham’s company, SkyNinja, focuses on the construction industry.

“Rather than have a huge list of services and a crazy demo reel, show you’re an expert in one specific field,” said Drone Depot’s Alex Wright.

Dial down your niche based on where you have expertise, or where your client base is located. Mitcham was a Project Engineer for a major EPFC construction firm before getting into the drone industry, so she had existing expertise to put her ahead of the pack when it comes to clients looking for a drone pilot to do construction-related work.

From there, decide what type of drone and corresponding specs you will need. If you’re running oil and gas pipeline inspections, you will need a long range.

Use that application to dictate your needs

According to a 2022 report from German-based analytics group Drone Industry Insights, the top industries for drone technology in 2022 were:

1. Energy (14% of all drone applications)
2. Construction (12% of all drone applications)
3. Agriculture (11% of all drone applications)

Of course, different applications call for different drones. Many entities can get away with using relatively simple and cheap, off-the-shelf drones that are marketed toward both commercial use cases and consumers.

For example, many fire departments are using drones to save time and money with gear as simple and cheap as the the DJI Inspire or Phantom drones, which could end up saving you a ton of money. But other fire departments demand more advanced gear. For example, some firefighters mount thermal cameras on drones to detect hotspots in buildings and determine the safest place to enter based on heat and flames, while other fire departments use drones for indoor inspections in the aftermath of the fire.

If you need to carry out mapping projects, you can do that as simply as with drone mapping software like Skycatch, Pix4D or Drone Deploy, and flown with something as simple as a DJI Phantom.

Using LiDAR has also become more common in drones as tech as become cheaper and more accessible. That includes products like the DJI Zenmuse L2, which was released in October 2023 as a LiDAR system designed for precise and accurate 3D data collection, and proved to be a significant upgrade from the previous Zenmuse L1, which was DJI’s first ever LiDAR payload.

Using drones for commercial purposes is a smart business move

No matter which angle you take though, you’re likely making a smart business move. The overall drone market, which includes both commercial and recreational, is set to grow to $54.6 billion by 2030, according to the Drone Market Report 2023 from Drone Industry Insights, breaking down to a compound average growth rate (CAGR) of 7.1%.

But it’s certainly not due to the consumer/hobby side of drones, which is arguably shrinking. DII’s forecasts actually show the commercial side growing faster than 7.1%, with a projected CAGR of 7.7%, while the consumer side is actually set to slightly slow, given a CAGR of -0.3%.

Good luck, and happy flying!