Drones

AgEagle CEO on the most important challenges going through the drone business

New BVLOS rules, autonomous flights on a large scale are among the biggest challenges facing the industry, says new AgEagle CEO and industry veteran Brandon Torres Declet in this exclusive DRONELIFE interview.

By Jim Magill

Members from all segments of the drone industry should work with regulators to help establish rules to kick off the next phase of commercial drone operations, said AgEagle’s newly appointed CEO.

Brandon Torres Declet, who was appointed to his current position May 24, said industry officials would have to give their views to the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration on pending rules that would allow commercial drone operators to fly out of sight on a large scale Visual operations (BVLOS).

“Much of what we’ve heard over the past few years has come from press coverage of these types of surgeries, but we rarely hear about these surgeries that are daily, weekly or monthly,” said Torres Declet. “And that’s where we have to go in the end.”

Torres Declet, who was appointed to the FAA’s Drone Advisory Committee (DAC) last January, has extensive experience developing the commercial drone industry in the private sector and has helped draft drone regulations through various positions he held public sector. He said the biggest trend he saw in the development of the drone industry is the development of technologies that allow drones to perform complex tasks safely without a human directly controlling them.

“I believe that for the foreseeable future, humans will always be up to date and available when needed,” he said. “But the technology is so advanced that you can just push a button, and most drones commercially available today fly this route, collect the data you need, and return home safely.”

The major obstacle to conducting autonomous drone operations on a large scale is “not so much a question of technology; it’s a matter of regulation, ”said Torres Declet.

“To get beyond VLOS regulations faster, we need to do a better job as an industry by really providing the proof of safety for it and making sure we share this data with the FAA,” he said.

Torres Declet advocated a relaxation of the FAA’s current strict drone operating rules, Torres Declet said that interests coincide between different segments of the drone industry, from hardware manufacturers to software developers.

“The hardware manufacturers, whether Skydio or DJI, want to sell more drones,” he said.

“It’s the same for software vendors, whether it’s AirMap, Measure or AgEagle,” said Torres Declet. “We want more customers to have licenses for our software so they can manage these fleets to fly these planes.”

Another trend that will affect the future direction of the drone industry is the development of the technology required to take advantage of the vast amounts of data collected by drones in the future.

“Much of the data collected and unused has tremendous value, either in individual industries or in different applications,” said Torres Declet. He said data collected with drones, properly stored and made available for future use, could be used to help industries better manage their vast assets over time.

The operator of a wind farm could, for example, compare data from the inspection of a wind turbine in 2021 with that from an inspection of the same turbine in two years. “You can see how this asset ages and where the necessary repairs need to be made. This information can be valuable not only to that individual wind turbine, but also to owners of large wind turbine operations, ”he said.

Another likely significant industry trend will be for drone companies to seek vertical integration across many UAV industry segments. “One of the biggest challenges facing the drone industry is how do we present a complete solution to customers?” Said Torres Declet. “We know you have a lot of choice in the market, but do you really want to have a dozen different vendors for your drone program, or is it easier to just come up with one?”

AgEagle provides a good example of a company that has outgrown its original narrow market focus to provide a single point of contact for customers for all of their drone needs, said Torres Declet.

Founded in 2010 as a manufacturer of drones for agricultural applications, the company has expanded its focus over time through a series of acquisitions “to something that goes beyond the agricultural sector to an end-to-end solution with drones, software and Sensors for a number of different applications, ”he said.

Torres Declet itself came from one of those acquired companies, Measure, an award-winning air news company that founded Torres Declet in 2014 and which AgEagle bought in April.

Prior to founding Measure, Torres Declet built and led the Defense and Homeland Security Government Relations practice at McAllister & Quinn, a Washington, DC-based consulting firm. His civil service career includes senior positions with the New York Police Department, the Senate Intelligence and Justice Committee, and the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee.

He also served as counsel on Capitol Hill to US Senator Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Jane Harman, coordinating drone policy for the Department of Defense and Homeland Security. Torres Declet was also a member of the UAS Registration Task Force Aviation Rulemaking Committee and wrote a Section 333 exception.

As an industry leader, Torres Declet said he would prefer the FAA to quickly enact more liberal regulations for BVLOS flights and industrial-scale autonomous drone operations, but his experience in the public sector leads him to recognize that the government bureaucracy is moving at its own pace is probably the best from a public safety perspective.

“After working in government, I know there is a speed of government and economy.”

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