Pit & Quarry, October 2017

MAPPING RESERVES INVENTORY ANALYSIS 7 Takeaways InterDrone bout 4000 attendees and 65 exhibiting companies participated in InterDrone 2017 a A three day UAV conference and expo held in September in Las Vegas The show was a first for Pit Quarry which has kept close tabs on the drone evolution throughout 2017 InterDrone brought a number of representatives from aggregate producing companies to Las Vegas to explore the viability of drone technologies for their businesses These producers sought to familiarize themselves with the vendors in this space and learn the latest on the drones research and development front At Interdrone an educational track focused on mining and aggregate provided our industrys producers with opportunities to hear from experts in the UAV industry These experts shared best practices for flying drones collecting data staying in compliance with Federal Aviation Administration regulations and more Pit Quarry departed InterDrone with a number of things to chew on Here are seven for aggregate producers to consider There are a slew of potential vendor partners to choose from If youre an aggregate producer who has yet to explore the use of a drone for your operation and you attended InterDrone for the first time you certainly went to the right place At the same time sifting through so from many vendors dedicated to the same craft can be a little overwhelming So where is a newbie to start My advice would be to get a trusted reference says Lewis Graham the president and chief technical officer of GeoCue Group Inc Its so easy to get into this business because you can get a drone at Best Buy Its easy in this business to get bad data The fact that two trade shows Inter Drone and Commercial UAV Expo which takes place in October in Las Vegas are dedicated to the UAV industry speaks to the sheer volume of vendors who have targeted the U S market Also anyone who walked InterDrone and spoke with at least a handful of vendors quickly realized a number of companies in this space have international roots In addition not every vendor is focused on specifically serving the aggregate industry While some vendors currently serve tens or hundreds of aggregate sites at this juncture others may only serve Insights and observations for aggregate producers from the UAV show BY KEVIN YANIK one or two if that Based on conversations had some vendors are still developing a sense of where their opportunities lie Their opportunities could be in the commercial market or in the consumer arena or both but the sense is that a number of vendors are still feeling out opportunities and how they can fit into the rather crowded field Keep in mind of course that the UAV industry is very much in its infancy A handful of vendors will likely be validated as top providers to the aggregate industry in the years to come while others focus their attention on opportunities elsewhere Some of these vendors could also potentially fade completely from the U S market The drone industry continues to develop at an extremely rapid pace Adam Rice business development director at Kespry points to 2014 as the year commercial drones truly hit the market And a lot has changed in the market since that time he says Weve seen mission planning apps being built were seeing accuracy improvements and the introduction of PPK post processed kinematics Rice says Were seeing technology thats safer laser sensors on drones to create a more autonomous experience and vertical integration Were seeing drone companies focus on specific industries Theyre starting to develop solutions for industries pitandquarry com October 2017 PIT QUARRY 53 PHOTO BY KEVIN YANIK Attendance at InterDrone 2017 was up over the previous year a show organizer says 2 1