Intel’s Anil Nanduri on 3 Keys to Accelerating Growth in the Drone Industry

Intel‘s Anil Nanduri spoke at the European Drone Summit in Frankfurt, Germany this week – and DRONELIFE spoke with him after the presentation to get his views on the key to accelerating growth in the industry.

Leading the drone business in one of the most influential companies in the world gives Nanduri unique insights into the growth of the industry.  Intel is established as a technology partner in large enterprises all over the globe,  and their conversations with partners and clients reveal what’s really critical for greater adoption of drone technology.

Data Management

Nanduri says that drone industry is realizing that the issue isn’t the drone – it’s the data.  And that data is vast: Nanduri says that over time it must be measured not in terabytes or petabytes but in exabytes. (For the curious, that’s a quintillion bytes). This creates a data management challenge: and solving it is critical to allow large enterprises to realize the benefit of drone technology.  Nanduri sees a 5 step flow for delivering usable insights to customers: starting with data collection; working through processing, contextualization, and application of AI and analytics; and ending with reporting and sharing the data effectively.  “We want to be able to integrate into the client’s workflow, ” Nanduri tells DRONELIFE.  “The business unit who benefits from the process is the key.”

Automation

The second key to widespread adoption, says Nanduri, is automation. “Automation accelerates deployment.”  Intel envisions the entire process – from data collection to delivery – automated to a one-click process. “That includes everything,” he says.  “Permits, con-ops, capture, and analysis should be one step.”  Intel is developing a platform that starts with the Intel Mission Control Flight Planning software and includes Intel’s drone solutions for data capture, the Intel Insight cloud platform for storage and processing, and data analysis and reporting.   The easier it is, the more companies will use drone technology.

Regulations

Nanduri says global drone regulations are a critical component to industry growth.  “First, understand that we view regulations as a key to success,” he says.  “We all want regulations…regulations allow applications to scale.

“Standardization is the key,” he explains. “Think about cell phones: you can travel anywhere in the world with your phone and it works.”  The same is true for drone regulations.  Greater standardization and clarity will allow global enterprises to fully adopt drone programs.  “Right now, the regions leap frog each other – the U.S. learns from Europe and Europe learns from the U.S.  It’s just a question of time.”

While the keys to greater enterprise adoption are still in flux – a one-click process and global regulations aren’t yet a reality – Nanduri says that the industry needs to balance development with an eye towards those goals.  “We need to both invest in the future while we monetize the current applications,” he says.