Feature Update: AeroGCS Enterprise Maintenance Mode
Drones have become essential in modern agriculture. From precise spraying of fertilizers and pesticides to high-resolution crop monitoring and land surveying, drones are revolutionizing farming operations. But their efficiency and reliability are only as good as their maintenance.
Operational issues, hardware failures, or accidents can disrupt farm schedules, cause financial losses, and impact the quality of operations. Without proper maintenance tracking, even small faults can escalate into bigger problems. Traditionally, drone operators relied on manual logs, spreadsheets, or verbal updates to track maintenance. This method is inefficient, error-prone, and lacks centralized visibility, making it difficult to ensure accountability or track long-term performance trends.
To address this, AeroGCS Enterprise introduces Maintenance Mode a structured, digital way to track drone maintenance, ensuring uptime, accountability, and operational efficiency.
Our Ecosystem: AeroGCS Green & Enterprise
- AeroGCS Green: The mission control software for agriculture drones. It allows operators to plan and execute missions with precision, whether it’s spraying crops, monitoring crop health, or conducting land surveys.
- AeroGCS Enterprise: The backend platform that collects and manages all drone data, including flight logs, mission history, and now, maintenance tracking.
Together, these platforms provide a unified solution for drone OEMs and operators. Operators can manage their fleet efficiently, while OEMs gain insights into component reliability, service patterns, and predictive maintenance needs.
Challenges Before Maintenance Mode
1. Unstructured maintenance logs: Operators had no standard way to log drone faults or repairs. Each incident was documented differently, if at all.
2. Difficulty tracing issues: Without component-level records, recurring faults were hard to track, and warranty claims were cumbersome.
3. Manual record-keeping errors: Paper logs or spreadsheets often contained incomplete or inaccurate information, causing confusion and delays.
4. No visibility during maintenance: Operators and OEMs could not easily see which drones were under repair, which were operational, or which required replacement components.
The consequences were clear: downtime increased, operational efficiency decreased, and critical maintenance insights were lost.
Introducing Maintenance Mode in AeroGCS Enterprise
Maintenance Mode is designed to solve these challenges. Key features include:
- Flagging drones under maintenance: Operators can mark drones as maintenance mode, providing real-time visibility to the fleet.
- Detailed logging: Record maintenance reasons, timestamps, and affected components to build a complete service history.
- Component-level tracking: Log battery replacements, sensor issues, motor repairs, and more for detailed analysis.
- Improved fleet management: Quickly identify active vs. inactive drones, improving uptime planning and repair scheduling.
This feature transforms drone maintenance from a reactive, error-prone process into a proactive, data-driven workflow.
How to Enable Maintenance Mode
Activating Maintenance Mode in AeroGCS Enterprise:
- Log in to AeroGCS Enterprise.
- Navigate to the Drones section.
- Select the drone to update.
- Click the Maintenance Toggle in the top-right corner.
- Fill in the pop-up:
- Timestamp of maintenance start
- Issue description
- Status (Repair, Replacement, or Both)
- Click Put in Maintenance.
A confirmation message will display: “Drone maintenance mode updated successfully.”
This process ensures that maintenance records are centralized, accurate, and easy to access.
Verifying Maintenance Status
Once activated:
- Drones in maintenance are displayed with a distinct icon in the fleet list.
- Operators can instantly differentiate between operational and under-maintenance drones.
- OEMs and administrators gain a real-time overview of fleet availability and operational readiness.
This visibility reduces operational uncertainty and helps prioritize mission planning effectively.
Post-Maintenance Updates
After maintenance or repair:
- Return to the drone’s detail page and toggle off Maintenance Mode.
- Update the record with:
- Final diagnosis
- Actions taken (repair, replacement, calibration)
- Notes for future reference
- Save the changes to complete the maintenance cycle.
Maintaining a complete post-repair history helps with predictive maintenance, warranty management, and tracking component reliability over time.
Component-Level Tracking
Maintenance Mode enables component-specific logging for:
- Core systems: GPS, Battery, Motor, Sensor, Propeller
- Structural components: Chassis, RC, FC, Power Module, Nozzle, Dimensions
Benefits of component-level tracking:
- Identify recurring issues or faulty components.
- Simplify inventory management and part replacement.
- Support warranty claims and OEM accountability.
- Enable data-driven predictive maintenance strategies, reducing future downtime.
Activity Tracking During Maintenance
Even during maintenance, all drone activities including test flights and calibration runs are logged. This provides:
- Full visibility of drone status, even if not fully operational.
- Detailed compliance records for audits and regulatory reporting.
- A complete log for analysing maintenance efficiency and fleet readiness.
Benefits to Stakeholders
For OEMs:
- Maintain detailed service history.
- Simplify warranty and component management.
- Plan predictive maintenance using historical data.
For Operators:
- Quick and easy status updates.
- Centralized repair and service records.
- Faster troubleshooting and reduced downtime.
For Admins:
- Real-time fleet availability monitoring.
- Transparent and auditable operational records.
- Enhanced efficiency across drone operations.
Why Maintenance Mode Matters
Maintenance Mode transforms drone operations from reactive maintenance to a proactive, structured, and accountable workflow. Its easy-to-use interface, detailed logging, and component-level insights:
- Improve drone uptime and reliability
- Reduce operational risk
- Support data-driven decision-making
- Enhance collaboration between operators, OEMs, and admins
For agricultural drone operations, where every flight and mission matters, Maintenance Mode ensures drones are always mission-ready, safe, and reliable.
With AeroGCS Enterprise, managing drones is no longer just about flying they’re about lifecycle management, accountability, and optimized performance.