DroneDeploy announced January 28 it has been granted  U.S. Beyond Visual Line of Sight approval nationwide for critical infrastructure from the Federal Aviation Administration, establishing its platform as FAA-approved for critical infrastructure projects where a pilot on the ground cannot see a full view of the project site, such as with data centers, solar farms or pipelines. 

DroneDeploy said 84% of its customers’ top 50 projects are now focused on data center or other critical infrastructure construction and monitoring, totaling $35 billion in development. The company’s drone management software is engineered to meet the evolving needs of the world’s leading general contractors and hyper-scale data center developers. The FAA grants Beyond Visual Line of Sight waivers to companies that have established safe operation when using onboard cameras and other drone technologies that allow for operation with minimal human oversight or even fully autonomous operation.

“As the AI boom fuels massive investment in critical infrastructure, DroneDeploy provides targeted monitoring and data analysis to help ensure these projects are delivered on time and on budget,” said Mike Winn, CEO and co-founder of DroneDeploy said in a statement. “Our BVLOS capabilities allow us to put fully autonomous drones on job sites, to enable our customers to accelerate construction timelines, and enhance speed, safety and quality across large-scale data center developments. From site selection to mapping underground utilities, interior systems installation and through close-out, we cover every phase of development for these mission-critical facilities.”

DroneDeploy is currently deployed by over 80% of the top 50 U.S. general contractors and used by leading hyper-scale data center developers to provide detailed aerial monitoring and analysis. In 2022, it acquired StructionSite, gaining a suite of reality capture tools from ground-based robotic inspections for its platform.

“Our technology is designed to support the next generation of infrastructure development,” said James Pipe, Chief Product Officer at DroneDeploy. “Every day of delay on one of these projects costs millions of dollars, so our autonomous drone capabilities ensure total accountability to meeting the project schedule.”

The nationwide BVLOS approval was secured in partnership with ArgenTech Solutions. DroneDeploy’s autonomous drone technology also enables AI-powered analysis of ongoing construction.