GE Industrial Drones Hit the Global Market: Microdrones Partnership

World energy leader GE and global mapping solutions provider Microdrones have partnered to bring GE industrial drones to market.

The worldwide licensing partnership will allow Microdrones to “bring the GE industrial drone line to market globally, providing professionals access to powerful aerial surveying technology that will enable them to work more efficiently, accurately, safely and profitably,” says a Microdrones press release.

The partenrship represents GE’s first entry into the commercial drone market: but the company has been developing their drone solutions for years, announcing the formation of GE Aviation in 2017.  In 2019, the company announced that they would integrate Auterion’s opensource software into their growing line of commercial aircraft. Now, says the press release, “the GE industrial drone line adds an impressive new product to the existing Microdrones technology portfolio. The mdLiDAR1000LR system helps professionals collect data from a longer range, (especially helpful when working in steep or treacherous terrain) while covering more area per flight.”

The GE industrial drone line is manufactured at the Microdrones facility in Siegen, Germany; systems will be sold and supported across six continents. All products that are part of the GE industrial drone line are equipped with improvements in flight efficiency, as well as enhanced safety features.

According to Microdrones CEO Vivien Heriard Dubreuil, “With an industrial focus, the GE industrial drone line is modular, expandable, upgradeable and simple to use in the production of high-quality geospatial data. This is a win for both GE and Microdrones, and most importantly our mutual customers.”

GE Licensing Senior Managing Director Thomas Buccellato concluded: “The GE industrial drone line is a powerful extension and fit for the GE brand worldwide. We can provide field proven inspection, surveying and geomatics technology that complements our key industrial segments. This is just the beginning of something very promising as we work with Microdrones to scale this up and offer a very powerful and trusted drone surveying solution to our industrial customers worldwide.”

The GE Industrial drones start out with a market advantage: they were developed to meet the needs of one of the largest multinational companies in the world, and they are produced by a respected European solutions provider.  As the line of drones hit the market, they could provide new competition for market share.

As part of the deal, GE will invest in Microdrones parent company and take an observer position on the board.