The very first thing Exponent did was get permission from the general aviation authority, who had no objection to doing this as long as they didn’t use the drones over any public areas, and limit the height of the drone to a maximum of 10 meters in altitude. The drones fly twice a day at specific times when there is no human movement in the yard whatsoever.

How it works

Exponent moves the steel when it arrives from the port to the client’s yard for a quality control check, and the bundle of the RFID tag is placed on each corresponding unit. From here on out, the drone can then go over the yard, counting and recording the exact locations of every steel bundle, every tag, making it easily located the next time it is needed.

Khan explained: “We flew the drone over 10,000 square meters as a test where we tagged 1,000 bundles, and we were able to count all of them in just 5 minutes, while providing accurate locations for more than 98% of the steel. In this particular case, a process that would take more than 10 people more than 2 hours to complete was replaced by a drone that did it in 5 minutes for the same level of accuracy.”

Khan later added: “Setting this up was quite a bit of a challenge, and we were very surprised at how fast and accurate the results were. We aren’t just doing a PR stunt; we are adding value for businesses to run more efficiently.”

Exponent’s drones are going live on October 15th, they were granted their client’s yard, and their drone will tag the very first steel shipment on October 20th. They have been working on this project since May 2014.

Customer outreach

Exponent is now accepting applications from other steel traders who would like to implement their system in their particular yards and environment. It would be really interesting to see drones changing the way people do business in the UAE. Khan thinks it can be applied sensibly in a holistic, integrated process. “We are solution providers, and drones are merely an important part of the solution.”

Energy costs have been steadily increasing in the UAE over the last 7 years, which has been raising a financial issue, as well as an environmental problem. Exponent thought about using thermographic scanners for residences and buildings to identify sources and areas where energy is not properly utilized — This isn’t new, but walking around the building to scan it takes a lot of time, and only allows a ground level view, largely sacrificing accuracy, and getting a large view isn’t always possible since buildings nearby can block your signal, and there are limited vantage points, like for example you can’t see the roof at all.

Exponent are planning to use drones mounted with a forward looking infrared camera, since it would give Exponent the ability of mapping out entire buildings and advising landlords and tenants on how to better manage and optimize energy usage. The drone does it much faster and doesn’t miss a detail — it can hover over any altitude, getting a detailed scan floor by floor , and window by window on sources of energy leakage. Facility managers can then use this information to take the actions necessary and result in huge savings in energy costs.

This would do wonders in facilities and hotels! For example, most air conditioners switch off once the basic temperature is reached, but stay turned on if it doesn’t reach it. So the drone might find particular windows that are leaking BTUs or thermal images, tenants would then spot where the leaks are coming from and do the necessary modifications to fix them.

Khan concluded “This project is in the making, and we hope to make it commercially available by the end of October. The solution works, but we are still getting governmental regulation to allow the operations to happen, and we have 3 other drone solutions for the UAE market that are in play.” Rumor has it that one of them is a business to consumer application.