UAV LiDAR Market 2026 Forecast

360iResearch covers six applications: agriculture, environmental monitoring, forestry, infrastructure inspection, mining and topographic mapping. It also splits the market by end-use industry, aircraft type (fixed-wing, hybrid and rotary-wing) and component (GNSS and IMU units, laser scanners and software).

Both publishers point to agriculture as a growth area. 360iResearch lists multispectral imaging combined with LiDAR for precision agriculture as a market driver, and The Business Research Company lists wider use in precision agriculture among its main trends. Forestry and environmental monitoring use the same point clouds for vegetation assessment and change analysis.

Compact solid-state sensors are extending LiDAR to smaller drones, which 360iResearch expects to fly longer as a result.

Section 164 of the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act (Public Law 118-159) took effect on June 30, 2026. It bars DoD from operating, buying or renewing contracts for LiDAR from "covered LiDAR companies" when any one of three conditions holds: the equipment is made in China, Iran, North Korea or Russia, or by a company based there; its operating software was developed there or by such a company; or its network connectivity or data storage is located there or run by such a company. Systems that incorporate or interface with that LiDAR are covered too.

The law names one company: Hesai Technology, with its subsidiaries and affiliates. It also covers LiDAR producers or providers on the Commerce Department's Consolidated Screening List or DoD's 1260H list, those based in one of the four countries, and those the Secretary of Defense finds to be under unmitigated foreign ownership, control or influence from one of them. Intelligence, electronic warfare and information warfare work is exempt, and the Secretary can grant case-by-case waivers in the national interest. Commercial operators are not directly covered.

Congress may go further. H.R. 4802, introduced in the House on July 29, 2025 and referred to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, would bar the Secretary of Transportation from contracts or grants with entities that use or buy LiDAR from certain foreign entities, reusing the Section 164 definitions.

Hesai (NASDAQ: HSAI), a Shanghai-based LiDAR maker, was on the list of "Chinese military companies" that DoD published on January 31, 2024 under Section 1260H of the FY2021 NDAA. The US District Court for the District of Columbia upheld the listing on July 11, 2025. Hesai appealed on July 13, saying the designation "lacks both factual and legal bases" and that its products are "solely for civilian and commercial use." On August 18, 2026 the D.C. Circuit ruled that DoD had violated Hesai's due process rights by listing it again without a meaningful chance to contest it, Bloomberg Law reported. Section 164 names Hesai on its own terms, so that ruling does not by itself change the DoD purchasing restriction.

Vendors are already selling on compliance. YellowScan, a French integrator, unveiled its Venturer system at Geo Week 2026 in Denver (February 16-18), marketing it as NDAA-compliant, with all data processing done locally, for government and data-sovereign missions.

360iResearch says AI is automating point-cloud classification, ground filtering, object detection, change analysis, vegetation assessment and feature extraction, and lists real-time onboard processing as a way to speed up survey work.

Positioning quality separates survey-grade systems from cheaper ones. YellowScan's Venturer, for example, uses a Trimble Applanix APX-RTX IMU.

360iResearch also lists lightweight fibre optic gyroscopes for steadier sensors and cloud platforms for sharing dense LiDAR data. The Drone Intelligence drone GIS mapping market page covers the software layer that processes LiDAR data at scale.

The vendor lists split into sensor makers and system integrators. Both publishers name sensor makers such as RIEGL, Leica Geosystems and Velodyne Lidar, and integrators such as YellowScan and Phoenix LiDAR Systems, which combine a scanner with an IMU, GNSS and software into a complete payload. Trimble, on both lists, supplies Applanix positioning units to integrators.

Chinese suppliers are on the same lists. Both publishers name DJI, 360iResearch names Hesai, and The Business Research Company names Beijing SureStar. As Chinese LiDAR producers, all three fall inside Section 164, so DoD cannot buy their LiDAR without an exemption or waiver. Commercial buyers are not restricted, which leaves the US market on two tracks: DoD work, where compliance is required, and commercial work, where vendors such as YellowScan sell it as a feature.

Our assessment: Procore's purchase of DroneDeploy for about USD 845 million in September 2026, covered on the Drone Intelligence construction and mining drone market page, shows buyers will pay heavily for software that uses drone survey data. It is one deal, not proof of a wider shift, but it is the signal to watch for integrators deciding where to invest.