LiDAR Drones Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023-2028)

The LiDAR drones market is expected to register a CAGR of 6.5% over the forecast period. Over the next few years, the global market for LiDAR drones is expected to grow a lot. This is because drones are being used more and more in many different industries, such as aerospace and defense, agriculture, and forestry, among others.

Key Highlights

• The US military is investing significantly in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to ensure that there are no foreign threats. In recent years, drones have become an important part of government agencies because they are so useful in places where a person can't go or can't do the job well.
• Additionally, technological advancements in the drone market and the rising need for surveillance are anticipated to further drive market growth. For example, LiDAR laser UAV cameras and sensors have gotten better, which has led to a lot of growth in drone LiDAR.
• New developments have also led to better laser scanning technology and UAV scanning applications, such as high-altitude airborne LiDAR, which help the infrastructure industry make better use of the spectrum.
• Due to their expanding use in a variety of applications for precise data collection, LiDAR drones are becoming more and more popular on a global scale. Several nations have strict legislation governing the use of drones, despite the fact that several have lenient regulations on the subject. As a result, approval from several government agencies is needed in order to fly them. Additionally, drone operators must pay astronomical registration fees and get permission before each flight. Some nations have placed restrictions on the use of drones, including Algeria, Barbados, Brunei, Côte d'Ivoire, Cube, Iran, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Morocco, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Syria, and Uzbekistan. Such regulations serve as barriers to the expansion of the LiDAR drone business.
• In these unprecedented times of COVID-19, where businesses were adopting cost-cutting strategies to combat the COVID-19 economy, 88% of the respondents to a DroneDeploy survey stated that they were planning to increase investment in drones. The company surveyed professionals in key industries that include agriculture, construction, and energy. The survey results were found to be consistent with the company’s last year's survey, suggesting that even when companies are cutting general and administrative costs amid the pandemic, enterprises are still wanting to invest in drone technology. Only 4% of respondents planned to cut their drone budget.

LiDAR Drones Market Trends

Construction is Expected to Witness Significant Growth

• New workflows, procedures, and applications have been developed as a result of the usage of LiDAR drones in the construction industry for planning, surveying, and mapping applications to reduce associated risks. With these drones' 3D maps of the land, which can see through thick vegetation, construction companies can make good plans.
• Terra Drone Indonesia (a group company of Terra Drone Corporation) successfully completed aerial LiDAR survey and mapping pilot projects for two major construction companies in Indonesia. Terra Drone Indonesia used drones with LiDAR technology to do survey-grade topographic mapping for two dam-building projects in the country.
• In Bogor, the LiDAR drone technology was showcased to Wijaya Karya (Persero), a construction engineering company working on the dam project in Megamendung. Covering an area of about 20 hectares in a single day, Terra Drone Indonesia captured high-resolution data and images to generate an accurate topographic map and 3D model of the construction site. The images and data can now support decision-making in project-control activities like planning or measuring the work progress.
• In Purworejo, the survey was done for PT PP (Persero) Tbk, one of the major players in the national construction business in Indonesia. Terra Drone Indonesia did aerial LiDAR topographic mapping for the dam construction project in a densely forested area over the course of 4 days. This was done to get data and pictures that would help the construction go smoothly.

The growing construction industry will propel the market under consideration even further. For instance, the FMI Corporation estimates that the value of new buildings built in the United States in 2021 was close to 1.6 trillion dollars, and that figure will likely exceed 2 trillion dollars by 2025. Over the past few years, construction investment has been gradually increasing. Along with non-residential construction, it is anticipated that residential building construction spending will continue to expand in 2021.

North America is Expected to Dominate the LiDAR Drone Market

• The United States is anticipated to be one of the most important markets for LiDAR drones, primarily due to the increasing investments in innovative technologies in the defense sector. Also, the country has the biggest military budget in the world and spends a lot of money on high-tech defense tools and equipment.
• Moreover, an emerging trend toward collecting data at higher points by flying lower and slower has also been widely adopted in the industry. Multiple scientists stated that by adopting this method, the system could measure ground with 520 or up to 40 points per square meter. This method is used a lot in the United States for topographic surveys because it is thought to give an accurate and precise map of the objects.
• Additionally, the presence of significant U.S. producers, including Velodyne Lidar, Inc., Phoenix LiDAR Systems, and LiDARUSA, is promoting market expansion in North America. According to several research studies, there are many specialists and professional users in the U.S., which helps the market expand significantly. In the US, people are making and improving LIDAR-based technology in amazing ways to help mapping businesses do better.
• This trend has positively impacted the adoption of aerial technology by mining and forest agencies like TriMetals Mining and the US Forest Service for finding new mineral sources across forests, which is expected to make LiDAR drones common in the mining industry.
• In June 2022, Banctec, Inc., a provider of goods and services, reports that a state police agency had placed an order with its subsidiary, Drone USA, for the procurement of two extremely sophisticated drones and related equipment. These drones are made for mapping and can see in the dark. They can fly for up to an hour, have Lidar and cameras that can zoom at night.

LiDAR Drones Market Competitor Analysis

The key players in the LiDAR drones market are Velodyne LiDAR, Phoenix Aerial Systems, Faro Technology, Leica Geosystems AG, Trimble Navigation Limited, Riegl Laser Measurement Systems GmbH, Sick AG, Optech, Inc., SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd., and others. The market is neither consolidated nor fragmented. There is no market player leading the market. The industry has been distributed among various key players but might become competitive during the forecast period due to increasing adoption by various end-user verticals.

In July 2022, the VUX-120 from RIEGL, intended for less than 1 cm precision and the capacity to effectively cover complicated and vertical targets with ease, will be integrated into YellowScan's brand-new product range called Voyager. The VUX-120 Lidar engine can find up to 15 target echoes. It has a range of up to 760 meters, a field of view of 100 degrees, and a very fast data acquisition rate of up to 1.8 MHz.

In August 2022, LiDAR was added to the list of available universal payload options by Censys Technologies Corporation. By combining the top software and hardware options available in the field of airborne intelligence, Censys, a pioneer in the commercial beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) unmanned aerial systems (UAS) market, offers a one-of-a-kind remote sensing package to revolutionize the way aerial information is gathered for infrastructure, agriculture, public safety, and more. It is now adding LiDAR to its Sentaero line of fixed-wing vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft that can fly beyond the line of sight (BVLOS).

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