satellite observations and observations from the Earth's
surface. AMS states that UAV systems' deployment
will increase the accuracy and timeliness of
meteorological parameters measurements, which will
result in better prediction of weather developments and
abnormalities (see, e.g. (AMS, 2013)
2
).
P. Murphy, in his book (Murphy, 2017), ranked
drones and the UAV system among the leading
technologies to move the company to the stage of an
automated company. Interestingly, he identified
transport and means of transport as one of the main
areas for drones (see our future work).
A similar conclusion reached Automotive
Logistics magazine's research, which identified
considerable scope for UAV systems' involvement in
B2B, B2C logistics, and logistics within production
plants and integrated supply chains (see, e.g.
(Williams, 2017)
3
).
Nowadays, global trends concern UAV services.
The next part of related work considers cloud and
SaaS, which is not part of our research but the next
step for our customers. So far, the deployed solution
is running on our servers. Nevertheless, in the future,
we have to consider also this option when the
customer decides.
Cloud-based solutions have significantly
increased the availability of sophisticated and
powerful software solutions for research and
economic entities of all sizes. Chue Hong et al., in
their work (Chue Hong, 2018)
4
, offer a guide for
decision using cloud computing in research. They
warn before too great optimism. One has to check
several questions and dangerous scenarios before
such a decision. Of course, there are also some
benefits possible. (Lakshmi Devasena, 2014) is an
empirical impact study that emphasises the
consequences of adopting Cloud Technology in
business organisations (micro, Small Medium
Businesses (SMBs), and Small Medium Enterprises
(SMEs)) and how it affects business development.
Finally, (Konersmann, 2020)
5
recognise immense
possibilities cloud computing can offer R&D in Life
sciences and health care organisations in the global
pandemic crisis.
We are at a stage where industrial production is
beginning to open up to the use of SaaS-based
software solutions. After the SaaS model's initial
2
https://www.ametsoc.org/index.cfm/cwwce/boards/board
-on-enterprise-strategic-topics/offshore-wind-energy-
annual-partnership-topic-committee/apt-final-report/
3
https://www.automotivelogistics.media/ups-tests-residen
tial-drone-delivery/17665.article
4
https://www.software.ac.uk/best-practice-using-cloud-
research
change, in which industrial institutions moved
administrative and support information systems to the
cloud, the phase of transition to the SaaS model of
critical production systems begins. Based on research
by Statista, the use of SaaS software in production is
expected to increase by almost 100% by 2020 see
(Statista, 2020)
6
for 2008 to 2020 data.
There is a more similar material, but we do not
consider it to be mentioned here given the scope. Now
we mention two research papers relevant to our doing.
In the paper (Fotouhi, 2019), the authors study the
rapid growth of consumer unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs), creating promising new business
opportunities for cellular operators. UAVs can be
connected to cellular networks as new types of user
equipment, therefore generating significant revenues
for the operators that can guarantee their stringent
service requirements. We are also motivated by this,
as 5G gives enough throughput and makes AI
computations possible on ground computers.
A substantial part of our development is to create
autonomous flying services. In the paper (Jahan,
2019), they consider autonomous systems integrated
into our lives as home assistants, delivery drones, and
driverless cars. The implementation of the level of
automation in these systems from being manually
controlled to fully autonomous would depend upon
the autonomy approach chosen to design these
systems. This is exactly our position. Motivated by
the author's review of the historical evolution of
autonomy, its approaches, and the current trends in
related fields, we incorporate these ideas in our work.
Another option we have to consider for our goals
and objectives is the decision between build and buy.
(Fowler and Dyer, 2020) propose a model for
recommending build-versus-buy decisions when
developing embedded systems. They compare
designing a custom unit with integrating a
commercial unit into the final product (exactly as we
did on our first deployment with commercial
photogrammetry). It accounts for the expertise of the
development team, tool resources available to the
team, partitioning of the tasks, and quality of
commercial units, vendor support, premiums, and
product life cycles. This is now a challenge for our
R&D department. Especially interesting for our flight
department is the paper (Martin, 2018)
7
mentioning a
5
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/digital-
transformation/cloud-enabled-research-and-
development-innovation.html
6
https://www.statista.com/statistics/510333/worldwide-
public-cloud-software-as-a-service
7
https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.5911237
71201857