Global Drone Autopilots Market Size By Type(computer assisted flight autopilot, full-automatic autopilot and manual flight autopilot), By Application(Multirotor UAVs, Fixed Wing UAVs, Parafoil UAVs and Others), By Geographic Scope And Forecast

Drone Autopilots Market Size And Forecast

Drone Autopilots Market size was valued at USD 789.96 Million in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 1237.8 Million by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 6.37% from 2026 to 2032.

Rising demand for drones in several industries including military and defense among others has propelled the drone manufacturers to bring technological advances in order to deliver high performance. This has ultimately augmented the demand for autopilot systems in drones. The Global Drone Autopilot Market report provides a holistic evaluation of the market. The report offers a comprehensive analysis of key segments, trends, drivers, restraints, competitive landscape, and factors that are playing a substantial role in the market.

What Is Drone Autopilot?

Drones Autopilots systems enables drone to operate autonomously with minimal human Interference. Autopilot drones exhibit several advantages over manual assisted drones including reduced time, low occurrence of error among others. Fully autonomous drones can carry out process plans, including take-offs and landing. Owing to large-scale applications for drone autopilot systems, the control systems used to operate them are often highly customizable. They are usually based on custom computers, off-the-shelf or tablets running Windows, Linux or Android operating systems.

Military and defense applications are the major consumers of drone autopilots as it has the ability to reduce casualties. Drone autopilots are used to provide attack capability for some high-risk missions. Also, they provide ground as well as aerial gunnery at a target, and can simulate an enemy missile or aircraft. Defense companies are investing heavily in the production of more advanced applications for small unmanned air vehicles that are more feasible, compact, and cost efficient.

Global Drone Autopilots Market Overview

Rising demand for drones in several industries including military and defense among others has propelled the drone manufacturers to bring technological advances in order to deliver high performance. This has ultimately augmented the demand for autopilot systems in drones. Furthermore, research and development activities related to advancement of drone technologies such as autopilot systems in recent years have observed a significant surge, supported by increasing investments for automation, which has generated several lucrative growth prospects for the industry.

Fully autopilot drones' systems are gaining popularity across the globe owing to low chances of error. Full autopilot involves the computer takes control of the aircraft for the entire operation, including take-off and landing. Full autopilot is effective in large, open areas, where a grid pattern survey of the area is useful. By minimizing the need for pilot intervention, the training requirements for operating drones drops significantly, making drone operation cheaper and easier than compared to its alternatives.

Autopilot systems utilized in drone enable drones to operate autonomously without need for manual remote control. Industry players are investing heavily in research and development as well as pilot testing prior to enabling commercial production, thus adding up to total manufacturing cost. Furthermore, regular maintenance and fault correction (if any) also constitutes a major part for companies involved manufacturing drone autopilot systems. Autopilot failures such as memory corruption, system overheating and system failures are some of the common issues observed which can prove to be a major restrain to the market growth.

Global Drone Autopilot Market: Segmentation Analysis

The Global Drone Autopilot Market is segmented on the basis of Type, Application, and Geography.

Drone Autopilot Market by Type

Computer-Assisted Flight Autopilot

Full-Automatic Autopilot

Manual Flight Autopilot

Based on Type, the market is bifurcated into computer-assisted flight autopilot, full-automatic autopilot and manual flight autopilot. Computer-assisted flight autopilot segment accounted for the largest market share in 2019 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.37% over the forecast period. Fully autonomous UAVs can easily execute flight plans, including VTOL or runway take-offs, inflight maneuvers, and others. The fully automatic autopilot incorporates an array of sensors including gyros, magnetometers, and accelerometers with a GPS, flight control CPUs to direct the flight. The government assistance and approval from aviation regulators have given opportunities for the key players to perform fully automated drone flights without a human pilot. For instance, in 2017, Airobotics became officially the first certified company to perform fully automated drone flights without a human pilot.

Drone Autopilot Market by Application

Multirotor UAVs

Fixed Wing UAVs

Parafoil UAVs

Others

On the basis of Application, the Global Drone Autopilot Market has been segmented into Multirotor UAVs, Fixed Wing UAVs, Parafoil UAVs and Others. Multirotor UAVssegment accounted for the largest market share in 2019 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.75% during the forecast period. Fixed Wing UAVssegment was the second-largest market in 2019. A Fixed-wing UAV also referred to as an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, an aircraft that operates without a human pilot onboard. Fixed-wing UAVs are controlled either remotely by a human operator or autonomously by onboard computers located in ground stations. Fixed-wing UAVs fly by using the lift formed by the aircraft's forward motion and the shape of its wings. However, smaller fixed-wing UAVs can be hand-launched by the operator simply throwing them into the air.

Drone Autopilot Market by Geography

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Rest of the world

On the basis of Geography, the Global Drone Autopilot Market is classified into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the world. North America accounted for the largest market share and Europe was the second largest in 2019. The United States petroleum refining industry is one of the world's largest and most densely clustered along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana. Traditional practices of inspecting and examining oil and gas assets are risky and time-intensive. Drones are transforming the process of inspections and maintenance. Drones can save lots of money for the oil & gas industry by enhancing on-site safety and lessening maintenance costs. The increase in offshore oil and gas activities and the presence of commercial drone networks in the region are some of the factors likely to drive the growth of the drone autopilots market in the coming years.

Key Players

The Global Drone Autopilot Market is highly fragmented with the presence of a large number of players in the Global Market. The major players in the market are Collins Aerospace, Embention, UAVOS Inc, UAV Navigation, MicroPilot, A-techSYN Ltd. Co. Ltd, Threod Systems. Robota, Adsys Controls Inc., and Lockheed Martin Corporation.

Our market analysis also entails a section solely dedicated for such major players wherein our analysts provide an insight to the financial statements of all the major players, along with its product benchmarking and SWOT analysis. The competitive landscape section also includes key development strategies, market share and market ranking analysis of the above-mentioned players globally.

Key Developments

• Micropilot announced a partnership with Trimble, a company involved in the high-precision GNSS solutions for system integrators and OEMs, to integrate high-precision Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology, as a part of its autopilot for guidance and control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).
• UAV Navigation announced the development of a specific flight control solution for VTOL platforms. It is estimated to drive the demand of autopilots for the growing platforms.