Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal • June 8, 2015 www.wbjournal.com Drones begin to take flight in the business arena like an aerial shot, he said, which is an angle that had previously been limited to Hollywood films or high-budget videos. But, using a drone, a professional aerial shot can now be done for less than $2,000. "Those five seconds worth of clips make a film so much more impactful," he said. "You would never be able to get a shot like that if you didn't have a drone." For Lynch, a broker with Thrive Real Estate Specialists Shrewsbury, the Westborough property she was selling deserved a unique perspective, which Lynch found via the drone she used to shoot video of the property. "For particular properties, this is just a great way to convey the lay of the land," Lynch said. "I had an idea of what it looked like flat, but being able to see it from above just changed everything." As the types of unmanned aerial vehi- cles expand, so do the commercial appli- cations, said Helen Greiner, CEO and founder of drone producer CyPhyWorks, based in Danvers. Drones are making their way into dif- ferent industries, she said, with aerial views having applications in farming, oil and gas, mining, construction, real estate and security, she said. "There's (a) tremendous number of uses for drones in industry," she said. "All physical industries are looking because drones are powerful. You can get a look from a higher vantage point and go into dangerous situations." According to a report by the Teal Group, the military made up 89 percent of the unmanned aerial vehicle market in 2014. With the technology making its way down to police forces or being adopted for commercial purposes, the transformation is following a path much military technology takes, including that of ground robots. iRobot, based in Devens, has sold 5,500 ground robots to date. They range in size from a five-pound unit that rolls along the ground like a radio-controlled car on tank treads to a larger one that can lift more than 330 pounds with its mechanical arm. The applications of the company's robots now range from vacu- uming households to monitoring radia- tion levels and examining equipment in nuclear power plants from a safe dis- tance. The company still serves a wide array of military applications as well as law enforcement. "A brand new technology is initially met with some skepticism, but that skepticism evaporates once you find a role that robot can play," Frost said, using the example of checking caves for enemy troops. The military applications of the tech- nology have paid off with interest from police departments and first respond- ers. Drones could follow that same path, he said. Privacy concerns Military use of drones and the possi- bility of law enforcement applications have triggered privacy concerns that land-based robots have not encoun- tered. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) pushed a bill now before the Massachusetts House and Senate that would limit law enforcement use to emergency situations, require them to not carry weaponry and require a war- rant for use in all other situations. These restrictions aim to combat the potential of drones to monitor private citizens, especially as the price point for a drone continues to drop, said Kade Crockford, who heads the Technology for Liberty project for the ACLU of Massachusetts. "Folding technology like drones into the fourth amendment (of the U.S. Constitution) is a common-sense step we need to be taking in the 21st century if we want to ensure that the surveil- lance technology police are using … protects public safety as well as civil rights and civil liberties," she said. Even as the ACLU tries to create strict guidelines for law enforcement, Crockford said the organization would fight for individuals' rights to use drones, based on applying the first amendment right of free speech to pho- tography. Greiner, of CyPhyWorks, argues that the privacy conversations around drones are part of a larger issue about cameras. "The conversation we should be hav- ing is talking about pointing a camera where you shouldn't be. The talk about drones is a little bit of a red herring," she said. Chris Markman, who used a drone to film scenes over Worcester's Kelley Square for a video project, has been doing aerial photography for a year and a half. He pointed out that corporations have had access to aerial images for years without being challenged. "We are giving Google all these rights to have satellite images of our back- yards," he said. "This has already hap- pened but we haven't stopped to think about it until your neighbor can do it." $11B market by 2024? Privacy concerns and news of user mishaps will not be enough to knock the market for drones off their upward trajectory, according to those inter- viewed for this story. The Teal Group report also predicts nearly double growth for the worldwide for "unmanned aircraft vehicles" — or UAVs — from $6.4 billion to $11.5 bil- lion a year by 2024. Quickly advancing technology is making drones more ubiquitous. They have advanced from using the same controls that hobbyist-scale helicopter pilots have used for years to integrating more technology in both the drone itself — with better stabilization software and hardware, improving ease of flight while the controls are being integrated within smartphones, Markman said. The inte- gration is only getting easier, with less expensive models coming along fre- quently. What could affect whether drones continue to fly high is the delay in guidelines from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Currently, the only way a business can use a drone is through FAA authorization. The agency has granted about 450 so far. Having companies apply for exemp- tions rather than outline requirements for commercial fliers has led many drone operators such as Markman to avoid officially offering their services commercially. Operators will either donate their services or only charge for editing to avoid having to apply for an exemption, said Markman. "I would love for the FAA to come out and just say 'Here is what you have to do to get licensed,'" he said. "It's really con- fusing right now." n >> Continued from Page 1 0 2 4 6 8 10 $12 0 20 40 60 80 100% 0 3 6 9 12 15% 2014 2024 2014 2024 2014 2024 Market size Military use Civilian use $6.4B $11.5B 89% 86% 11% 14% The global market for drones, or unmanned aircraft vehicles, is expected to grow more than 75 percent from 2014 to 2024, with growing non-military use. Source: Teal Group, 2014 A drone manufactured by CyPhyWorks, of Danvers Growing market "For particular properties, this is just a great way to convey the lay of the land." Maribeth McCauley Lynch, Realtor, Thrive Real Estate Specialists

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