MMBL-Pathfinder Group to introduce commercial drone operations

Pathfinder Capital (Pvt.) Ltd, an associate company of MMBL-Pathfinder Group, having examined the vast array of drones in the market, has chosen Israel-based Airobotics Ltd, which has developed an ideal solution for commercial drone applications. 

MMBL-Pathfinder Group is a pioneer investor in the private civil aviation sector in Sri Lanka. The variety of services provided by Airobotics include perimeter security, HSSE monitoring, emergency response, 2D/3D mapping, survey and analytics, asset inspection, etc.  

Drones developed by Airobotics cover a range of business applications, including public safety, construction, real estate, utilities, ports and airports and industrial facilities, to name a few.

The management of Pathfinder Capital (Pvt.) Ltd will seek to go through the application process with the CAASL and work closely with local companies interested in utilising the state-of-the-art drone system offered by Airobotics Ltd.

The Airobotics infrastructure allows for fully-automated data collection through flights beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS). This ability to fly remotely enables operators in various industries to operate an aircraft with minimal training or background in aviation.  

In homeland security, police officers used the system to reduce response time, in industrial facilities to conduct their inspection work along power lines and railway lines for maintenance work and in agricultural farmland to observe the health of plantations and check on other aspects of commercial properties.

Drones are usually operated by pilots specially trained for the job. However, with the deployment of advanced technology, autonomous flight capability would render drone operators redundant. Airobotics became the first company in the world to receive authorisation for unmanned commercial drone operations, granted by the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel way back in 2017.  

Since then, Airobotics has received regulatory approval for additional countries and has been operating in the US, Singapore and Dubai, with multiple clients and rapidly expanding its global unmanned operations. Most recently, Airobotics has entered urban areas and has deployed its infrastructure to fly over millions of people in the UAE. 
With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across the world, many countries considered the option of using drones to move medical items required for fighting the pandemic. Sri Lanka Civil Aviation Authority also recognised the utility of drones for surveillance and delivery purposes, revised the regulations that controlled licensing and operation of drones and invited those interested in registering their drones that could help fight against the pandemic.

The drone market was expected to grow steadily in the consumer, commercial and military sectors. In a 2016 report, Goldman Sachs estimated that drone technologies would reach a total market size of US $ 100 billion between 2016 and 2020. The commercial business component of this growth forecast was projected to reach US $ 13 billion. Meanwhile, it was estimated that consumer drone shipments would reach US $ 29 million in 2021.