Security and surveillance drones are having significant growth areas in the ever-expanding uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sector. While it’s a relatively contemporary addition to enterprise toolkits in many industries, drones to deliver aerial assessments of activities on the ground is a return to starting for the technology, which has seen some of its most ambitious expansion in defense applications.
The reasons are clear. Aerial vehicles can cover considerably more terrain than gradually, clumsier ground-based surveillance systems — which is why they’ve been a critical component of military and law enforcement applications for decades.
But drones, smaller, cheaper, and more efficient than human-crewed aircraft like helicopters, have quickly democratized key to aerial security and surveillance and spread up the skies to companies of all dimensions across sectors.
Choosing the Best Surveillance Drones
Various industry experts in the security and defense markets and representatives from top brands have the same opinion as ours. It is a challenge to accommodate a variety of use cases and needs. Therefore, it is not a comprehensive list, but it represents the best of the best from various uses.
- One of the most widespread developments in security drones is the so-called drone-in-a-box idea. A portable, weather-resistant base and recharging station operates as a drone garage of categories. Systems like this grow to be rapidly deployable and deliver automated takeoff and landing functionality, making them particularly suitable for sites where on-call 24/7 security is required.
- Fixed-wing drones can cover vast distances and typically have significantly longer flying times per charge than multi-rotor vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drones. As a result, the drones sacrifice the agility necessary for many inspections and close-quarters applications. Still, a fixed-wing drone can come in handy for wildlife management and fire mitigation. Therefore, we included the Avy Aera, which adds VTOL capabilities to a fixed-wing drone because it offers the best of both worlds.
- The sensor package is perhaps the most critical consideration for prospective enterprise drone customers. A simple visual spectrum camera may be acceptable for surveillance requirements, and something as simple as DJI Mavic 2 is suggested. But specialized use cases needed more sophisticated equipment.
- Thermal sensing helps identify body heat from humans and animals even when there’s dense ground cover or other vegetation, making it essential in wilderness applications or drones fly after dark. With its high-fidelity point clouds, Lidar is excellent for monitoring project progress or structural integrity infrastructure. Ultrasonic sensors also have been deployed on UAVs.
Best Surveillance Drones
The current lineup of security drones echoes the variety of use cases, from fixed-wing models that can quickly cover large areas to nimble quadcopters that scan confined perimeters and elaborate structures with various sensing and monitoring equipment.
Easy Aerial SAMS
- Physical Interface: A standard power outlet, standard LAN and WAN ports
- Communication: Encrypted radio communication
- Easy Guard: Mobile, rugged, and a self-sufficient base station that charges the Drone (35-45 minutes for a complete charging cycle) and provides comprehensive weather protection
- Payload Options: Multiple HD and thermal cameras, sensors, lights, comms, Lidar, and electronic payload options depending on the drone model
- Smart Aerial Monitoring Systems (SAMS & SAMS-T) are long-lasting, mobile, and fully autonomous drone-in-a-box solutions, making them our top pick. In addition, the system can be operated entirely remotely, which helps the tech stand out in a crowded field.
- The system is explicitly designed for perimeter security; the system consists of a lightweight falcon quadcopter with a fly time of approximately 50 minutes and a durable self-sustaining ground station. It charges the Falcon while keeping it secure from the elements and a proprietary fleet manager and communication system. Systems have been successfully marketed in the US, Thailand, Japan, Europe, Israel, and Central Africa.
- Pros:
- Modular
- Customizable
- Military-grade
- Cons:
- Specialty use (first responder, defense)
Skeyetech by Azur Drones
- Sensors: HD visible camera with high zoom abilities and a high-precision thermal camera
- Flight speed: 14 mps / 50 km/h
- Skeyetech by Azur Drones constructs an alluring promise: It needs no pilot training for security guards and no pre-existing flying skills. The Drone is deployable in shorter than 30 seconds; everything from takeoff and landing to path-planning is taken automatically. Security teams follow robotic missions or order live assignments via Azur’s integrated Video Management System, which provides real-time HD video to security HQ.
- One advantage of a completely autonomous operation is that it can be utilized for 24/7 deployments. Like numerous enterprise security drones, a base recharges and saves the Drone between missions. In addition, the Drone is also equipped with a pyrotechnic recovery system and an ultra-performing geo-caging system for aerial safety.
- Pros:
- Night vision optimized
- Autonomous 24/7 deployments
- Cons:
- Highly capable but pricey
Avy Aera 3 VTOL Drone
- Wind resistance: 25 knots and precipitation of 3 mm/hr
- Range: 100 kilometers beyond sight at rates up to 90 km/h
- Payload: Medical cargo with rigid cold-chain essentials or a high zoom RGB and thermal camera technique
- A winged drone can take off and land vertically, boosted by a sci-fi Thunderbird airliner. The Avy Aera 3 VTOL Drone isn’t a surveillance instrument, but situational awareness falls into its brief. The Drone has been employed for everything from wildlife protection to medical deliveries. Winged drones maintain a substantially longer range and are more energy efficient. But quadcopters are much more elegant than winged drones. So Avy combines the best of both worlds.
- The Aera VTOL is self-flying and planned to hold a payload. Key to the newest version’s improvements was the aerodynamic development, the composite structure of the airframe, and a boosted propulsion system, resulting in a more weather-resistant and efficient aircraft. In addition, in-house avionics have led to further integration, efficiency, and redundancy improvements. That could mean deliveries of medical pools, but it could also mean a sensor suite valid for several security and recon missions. Powered by Auterion, a drone administration infrastructure, it’s competent in third-party integrations, making it a fantastic base to build on.
- Pros:
- VTOL ease with the speed of a fixed-wing
- Weather resistance
- Increased range
- Cons:
- Specialty applications, especially medical
Microdrones MD4-3000
- Charger: Md4-3000 flight battery and charger for maximum flight steadiness
- Magless nav: Drone navigation is more powerful and less subject to magnetic field interference with no necessity for a magnetometer while in-flight
- Triblade copter: Augmented flight performance for high altitude assignments with three-blade prop integration.
- Microdrones have a unique payload proposition: Lidar. Three years to create, the company has incorporated its heavy lifting MD4-3000 drone with a SONY RX1R II camera and a Riegl miniVUX-1DL for rapidly producing colorized point clouds. Infrastructure inspection, Surveying and development, Precision agriculture, Environmental monitoring, and public safety are done more efficiently and virtually with the help of Microdrones solutions. If you desire to inspect large infrastructure projects, Microdrones deliver one of the most powerful toolkits.
- Pros:
- Surveying
- Robust navigation
- Cons:
- Not best for visible spectrum surveillance
- Data-focused
Kespry 2SDrone: DJI Phantom 4 RTK
- Coverage: 500 acres per map (200 hectares), 150 acres per flight (60 hectares)
- Flight time: Approx. 30 minutes (single battery)
- Kespry’s value proposition is a simple drone technology pile that makes inspection and inventory management a shot. The S2’s rated 30-minute flight time limits security applications, but the technology stack includes complete site modeling thru Lidar and thermal sensors and delivers robust analytics for industries like insurance. Add to that tablet-based path planning and components like automatic takeoff and landing, and this is genuinely a push-button solution for a variety of aerial inspection applications.
- Pros:
- Simplicity
- iPad based
- Support
- Cons:
- Subscription-based
Conclusion
A final concern is the level of autonomy desired. Many drones come with obstacle avoidance and automated features such as pilot-free takeoff and landing. In addition, some drone systems, like Kespry’s, do away with joysticks altogether and allow pilots to supervise flight plans and select routes entirely via tablet-based interfaces, which extends the reach of drones beyond approvingly skilled pilots.