Construction and Mining Drone Market 2026 Forecast

IMARC segments the construction drone market by type (fixed-wing and rotary-wing), application (surveying land, infrastructure inspection, security and surveillance, and others) and end user. Rotary-wing drones led by type in 2025 at around 68.3% of the market, and surveying land led by application at around 57.5%.

Regionally, North America held over 42.7% of the market in 2025, and the United States accounted for 82.70% of the North American share, according to the same report.

Our assessment: the IMARC figures size construction only. The cited mining survey findings on drones concern investment intentions and give no monetary mining-drone market estimate, so the two sources should not be added together into one construction and mining total.

In the United States, commercial small-drone operations fall under FAA Part 107. In February 2025 The Robot Report noted that, until the proposed Part 108 rule for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations is released, Part 107 operators may apply for a BVLOS waiver case by case.

DroneDeploy announced a nationwide BVLOS approval for critical infrastructure inspection in late January 2025, secured with ArgenTech Solutions. The approval covers DroneDeploy-operated flights, such as data requested through its Data-on-Demand service; The Robot Report said it did not then apply to all DroneDeploy customers.

Our assessment: as described in that February 2025 report, drone operations that extend beyond visual line of sight relied on case-by-case waivers of this kind while Part 108 remained a proposal; the sources on this page do not establish whether that has since changed.

In a survey by Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), reported by DroneLife on 24 August 2026, 97.1% of ABC member companies that flew drones used DJI products as their primary operational drone, and 2.9% used Autel Robotics. That figure covers ABC members who responded, not the whole US contractor base.

Procore Technologies, a provider of construction management software, signed a merger agreement for DroneDeploy on 27 July 2026 and completed the acquisition on 9 September 2026 for approximately USD 845 million in cash, according to its SEC filings. Procore's announcement said DroneDeploy is used on over 3 million jobsites across more than 180 countries.

Skydio and Trimble announced a collaboration on 7 November 2023 for an automated, API-based integration intended to transfer drone imagery and metadata from Skydio Cloud to Trimble Industry Cloud; the announcement described the collaboration as in a developmental stage.

Our assessment: drone data is moving into construction software platforms. The Procore deal and the announced Skydio and Trimble integration both aim to connect drone capture to wider project workflows.

Kespry's drone-based aerial intelligence platform was acquired in October 2021 by Firmatek, a company specialising in stockpile measurement and 3D mapping, according to Dealroom. The acquisition covered the mining, aggregates and construction assets.

The 2025 mine-site survey of 162 operating mines found drones and software continuing to rank high in expected investment over the following two years, with high shares of non-major miners expecting to invest in them.

Our assessment: in mining, stockpile measurement is the clearest commercial use in the sources here, and the survey points to non-major operators as a group with high expected investment in drones.