Measuring the Adoption of Drones: A Case Study of the United States Agricultural Aircraft Sector

Abstract

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), commonly referred to as drones, are an emerging technology that has changed the way many industries conduct business. Precision agriculture is one industry that has consistently been predicted to be a major locus of innovation for UAS. However, this has not been the case globally. The agricultural aircraft sector in the United States is used as a case study here to consider different metrics to evaluate UAS adoption, including a proposed metric, the normalized UAS adoption index. In aggregate, UAS operators only make up 5% of the number of agricultural aircraft operators. However, the annual number of new UAS operators exceeded that of manned aircraft operators in 2022. When used on a state-by-state basis, the normalized UAS adoption index shows that there are regional differences in UAS adoption with western and eastern states having higher UAS adoption rates while central states have significantly lower UAS adoption rates. This has implications for UAS operators, manufacturers, and regulators as this industry continues to develop at a rapid pace.