Page 25 - RC14-EDGE-Spring Issue-1Z

A quick Google search on Drones
or SUAVs will result in hundreds
of thousands of links to stories
about how this technology will
produce a multi-billion dollar

industry.

Football Field Sized Surveillance Drones – France “Commercial real estate users often prefer
A drone-satellite hybrid has been developed in managed service solutions that include
France that will carry out a range of functions,
including surveillance, border security monitoring, simple to fly missions, maintenance,
communications reinforcement and facilitating insurance, and financing options,”
navigation— all from a stationary position—with the commented AJ Jolivette of drone maker
help of two self-adjusting electric motors. About the Terosaur. “Then it becomes easy to use SUAVs
length of a football field and 25 yards in diameter, The for benefits such as augmenting security,
StratoBus has a blimp-shaped shell made of carbon checking remote equipment, surveying and
fiber. It will float to the lower stratosphere at an marketing properties, and much more.”
altitude of about 13 miles, with a mission length of up
to a year, with a total lifetime of five years. Because the estate space? Marketing, operations, and security are just a few of the
‘drone-tellite’ stays closer to earth, it will be able to take higher resolution departments that have begun to show interest in the technology.
images and maintain a stronger communications system. The first
prototype is expected in about five years.5 One company in southern California has begun to use the drones to
take photos and videos of views from residential units that have not yet
Using Drones for Farming – Oregon been built. “I can show you the canyon view from the fifth floor” would
HoneyComb Corp. of Oregon is using agricultural drone systems to help be an attractive statement to a prospective buyer.
farmers save time, money, fertilizer and water. The systems combine
mounted cameras and imaging technology with a tablet-based There have also been marketing applications centered on the use of
dashboard reporting system. As automated drones fly over acres of photos and video footage from inside the buildings. Imagine a five story
farmland, they record infrared and visual data to identify water levels, atrium shot at a mall—the drone swooping down to the first floor—then
crop health and other data points. The drones are inexpensive to operate
and the company is working with Oregon State University to test the continued on page 50
accuracy of the system’s measurement devices.6

Impacts on Real Estate Operations
While exciting, this new technology comes with a variety of potential
impediments. Liability due to accidents (public safety), privacy laws,
local, state and federal laws, execution expertise, noise pollution,
protection against drone attacks and other concerns must be reconciled
before this industry can truly take off, no pun intended! From an
industry perspective, the interesting question is: Where do Drones or
Small Unmanned Air Vehicles fit in the commercial and corporate real

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