Commercial Drone Market Competitive Intelligence - Computer Vision Companies, 2018

Drones Will Need Proven Computer Vision Technologies for Autonomous Flight, Navigation, and Object Recognition/Classification

Drones will increasingly rely on computer vision (CV) technologies that allow machines to see and process data like the human eye, to enable capabilities like autonomous navigation and real-time object identification, classification, and evaluation.

This research study focuses on 17 companies competing to develop CV-focused technologies to enable advanced drone operations and processing of images. The effort requires the development of advanced algorithms and training models by humans to enable machines to make decisions on their own. Companies within the commercial drone ecosystem that provide CV-focused hardware (drones), CV-focused software, or both to customers are highlighted and evaluated within. Firms that only use CV as a small portion of their drone applications are not brought to the forefront in this research service. This study does not cover every company in the industry utilizing CV in conjunction with commercial drones or software to enable commercial drones. Analysts have made every attempt to include relevant companies that are most likely to compete in the market for building CV-enabled drones or the software to allow existing drones to utilize AI for autonomous operation, data collection, data processing, or any combination of those capabilities. Each competitor is profiled separately and each profile contains information about where the company is located, when it was established, important partnerships it has established, a description of the company’s products, and other pertinent business details.

From the information gathered for developing profiles, each company is evaluated under the following categories:

• Product: How well does the product function and/or how robust is the design? Where is the product, or products, in the development cycle?
• Management: What is the kind of experience that the management teams have in directing start-ups and in the technology areas required for AI?
• Business Plan: Does the business plan revolve around hardware/software sales or subscriptions and can the plan be scaled? Are there any significant partnerships that can create synergies to give the company a competitive advantage?
• Funding: How much investment capital has the company raised to date? Is the company part of a larger company that can support its growth? Once evaluated, the companies are ranked and ordered in a heat map to show which are the most likely to be the most successful. In addition, growth opportunities within the market are discussed, along with useful recommendations. Explanations of market challenges and trends are also included. The study wraps up with a set of insightful conclusions.