As important as it is to keep up with the drone news, it’s also a good practice to look back and understand how we got here, how the drone industry is evolving, as well as how drones help overcome different challenges in various industries. This is what Mark Brassette is focused on for his new podcast, the Industrial Drones Podcast.

Similar to Ian Smith’s Commercial Drones FM podcast, Mark Brassette started his podcast to help Operators, Maintainers, Engineers, and Technicians at Industrial Facilities “learn what's out there, what's possible, what's not quite realistic, and how to introduce drones” into their line of work. 

Mark’s background includes an education in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University as well as over 20 years of work in chemical plants and paper mills in several capacities. He started getting involved in the UAS/drone world about four years ago when he saw a need arise at his workplace. In 2016, he was elected as a Director on the Board for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of AUVSI.

In November 2017, Jeremiah Karpowicz had the chance to participate in the podcast and they discussed a number of difference topics.

 

 

To start with, Mark mentioned Jeremiah’s written interview with him in 2016, where you can read about Mark’s opinion on UAVs, the approach he’s able to take in his work as the Technical Services Manager at Solvay, and how he addressed - and still does - the challenge of spreading the benefits of drone usage both internally and externally.

The conversation soon leads to the critical function of drones today which concerns their ability to gather data. Jeremiah discusses why certain people struggle with the fact that there isn’t a “drone easy-button” that allows someone to immediately adopt and utilize the technology, and how collecting data isn’t as simple as it seems. However, Mark and Jeremiah talk about the “complete drone solutions” companies are developing to help users save time.

Although the main use of drones may be to collect data, some of the solutions already available which do more than that, such as the Apellix Painting Drone.

Later, Jeremiah explains that the Commercial UAV Expo event addresses “the specifics of how this technology is actually making a difference, how people are using it, and why kind of impact it is making on their bottom line”, and how the Commercial UAV News website is an extension of that. Two examples are San Diego Gas & Electric’s public awareness campaigns and the use of Flyability’s Elios drone for underground surveys and inspections.

They also get into one of the biggest announcements last year for the Commercial UAV Expo that centered on the purchase of Drone World Expo. Jeremiah explains how getting the two events together makes sense, and Mark comments on why and how beneficial it is for someone to attend one of these events in person. Attending an event allows you to meet and learn from other professionals in the industry, get informed about new technologies, understand how to implement them in different situations and even what approach needs to be taken to going.

Marks asks a few questions about the differences between Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas and the Europe version of the event, which leads to Jeremiah discussing the differences in regulations, and how the regulatory framework is different in Europe, and Part 107 helped to clear things out in the US.

To end the podcast, Jeremiah talks about his predictions for 2018, other use cases opportunities, such as the Boston Marathon, and a little bit more about the regulatory environment.

“The most important part of this podcast is you, the listener”, says Mark on his website. If you think you have something worth sharing with Mark, and you want to discuss it, contact him via e-mail.