The commercial applications of drone technology in the road and rail sectors

1. Clarity from above: transport
infrastructure
The commercial applications of drone technology in
the road and rail sectors

2. PwC
Global market of commercial
drone applications
2
1

3. PwC 3
The global addressable market of commercial drone applications
exceeds $127 bn
Infrastructure
Market value
$45.2 bn
Agriculture
Market value
$32.4 bn
Transport
Market value
$13.0 bn
Security
Market value
$10.5 bn
Media & Entertainment
Market value
$8.8 bn
Insurance
Market value
$6.8 bn
Telecommunication
Market value
$6.3 bn
Mining
Market value
$4.3 bn

4. PwC
Findings of the report
4
2

5. PwC
Clarity from above: transport infrastructure
5
1. Continuation of Clarity from above, the first PwC global report regarding
commercial applications of drone technology (May 2016)
2. The second in series our report focuses on roads and railways segment
presenting new opportunities in drone technologies and image analytics
3. Based on the practical PwC experience presents overview of applications,
benefits and challenges related to use of drone technologies

6. PwC 6
557 738
2014
2020
Asia & Oceania
48 66
2014
2020
Russia & former CIS
108 126
2014
2020
Europe
18 31
2014
2020
Africa
40 73
2014
2020
South America
129 150
2014
2020
North America
42 40
2014 2020
Middle East
This view reflects the current 2016 outlook for GDP and infrastructure spending based on Oxford Economics' latest forecasts. All data are stated in US$ billions, using
constant 2014 exchange rates.
Transportation infrastructurecapital investments by regions
[bn USD]
Global CAGR
for capital
expenditures in
transportation
infrastructure by
next 5 years
4,5%

7. PwC
Key messages of the report
7
We are witnessing a disruption, on a global scale, as drone technologies turn business
models upside down and reshape industry landscapes
Within the road and railway sectors it applies especially to such areas as: investment
monitoring, maintenance and asset management
Total addressable market value of drone powered solutions in roads and railways
segments is estimated at over $9 bn in investment monitoring and at over $4 bn in
infrastructure maintenance

8. PwC
Example of the solution for investment monitoring of road
construction
8
Cyclical drone inspections on site
1
Data processing and analysis
2
Data delivery
4
Time-lapse view of construction
process
3
Cyclical constructionsite data acquisition, processing and delivery Key benefits
Drone Powered Solutions team is able to
provide unparalleled data and analytics
required at each phase of the construction
process
Implementation of cyclical construction site
monitoring with drones enables precise
monitoring of the current state of the site and
gives a time-lapse overview of the work
performance
Drone Powered Solutions provides a new level
of supervision enabling thorough control of
contractors and in case of litigation provides
invaluable material

9. PwC 9
Example of drone powered solutions for maintenance management
of railway infrastructure
Drone inspection
1
Precise and timely response
5
Deficiency detection
2
Deviation reporting
4
Key benefitsCyclical constructionsite data acquisition, processing and delivery
A drone-powered data acquisition process
facilitates frequentand precise acquisition of
information on missing assets or infrastructure
that requires maintenance works
Drone inspections and the information they
provide allow to precisely track infrastructure
deterioration and therefore plan predictive
maintenance
As for capital projects monitoring, drones can
also be used in maintenance projects
supervision

10. PwC 10
Promising perspectives for the use of drone technologies for road
and railway infrastructure
Processing and analysing data on the fly, which significantly reduces efforts and costs of
inspections performed conventionally by people, for instance during road construction
Providing actual and reliable information in a way convenient to workers at the workplace
and enhancing situational awareness of stakeholders as for example over the maintenance
process of the transportation network
Improved collaboration with BIM software that enhances capabilities to manage the
construction site, such as railway track building, and provides an unprecedented level of
precision in terms of engineering knowledge about particular enterprises
Minimizing risk of injuries and casualties due to utilizing drones to perform most dangerous
tasks related to construction and maintenance of transportation infrastructure objects
Integration
with BIM
Improving
human safety
Machine
learning
Augmented
reality

11. PwC
Summary
11
3

12. Summary
12
Drones have three major types of applications for road and railway sectors:
enhancing investmentmonitoring, maintenance management and asset
inventory process
Drone enabled solutions are going to bring even more value for companies due
to their further integrationwith new technologies such as: machine learning,
BIM or augmented reality
PwC Poland has established a dedicated Centre of Excellence that uses drones
and data analytics technologiesin business consulting projects– first major
consulting company in the world to establish full service drone operations
Total addressable market value of drone powered solutions in roads and railways
segments is estimated at over $13 bn

13. Contact
Michał Mazur
Partner
Drone Powered Solutions
+48 502 184 684
michal.mazur@pl.pwc.com
Adam Wiśniewski
Director
Drone Powered Solutions
+48 501 049 409
adam.wisniewski@pl.pwc.com
Thank you Julian Smith
Global Transport & Logistics
Sector Leader
+62 21 52890966
smith.julian@id.pwc.com
Carlos Severino
Partner, Head of PwC Digital
Spain
+34 91 568 5226
carlos.severino@strategyand.
es.pwc.com