Finland recently published the country’s first drone strategy, the goal of which is to become the best country in the world to develop drones and the business based on them. Eija Honkavaara, a pioneer in drone research at the Finnish Geospatial Institute of the National Land Survey of Finland, sees that Finland has all the prerequisites for success, as long as the path from research results into business is in order.
Drones have been repeatedly featured in war news, but in reality they have an increasing number of uses also in the civilian world.
Research Professor Eija Honkavaara has been developing drone technology for almost two decades. In her research, she has focused especially on remote sensing methods, sensors and artificial intelligence in drones. In practice, she has trained drones, for example, for identifying forest damage and detecting wildfires.
Honkavaara says that Finland is known as a drone country abroad.
“Belgium has deployed a nationwide 5G drone network for official duties. The network consists of dozens of autonomous Drone-in-a-Box units that are operated remotely from control centres. The drones are on standby 24/7 and can be used, for example, for traffic monitoring, flood mapping and forest fire control. The technology used in Belgium is entirely developed in Finland and implemented by Nokia”, says Honkavaara.
Honkavaara participated in commenting on the drone strategy, and she sees that Finland is in a good position to grow its drone-based business. The country’s strengths are its expertise in cutting-edge technology and the unique environmental conditions under which devices can be tested. Still, there are some challenges.
“The current research funding is fragmented and the path from research to business innovation is long. Strategic research funding would be needed to carry out long-term multidisciplinary research. We do have ideas and know-how”, says Honkavaara.
One example of a breakthrough domestic drone innovation is the Eastern Finnish hydrogen-powered Kelluu airships, which can be used to produce accurate environmental information from large areas without emissions. Kelluu’s airships have been used, for example, in the mapping of damage done by the spruce bark beetle.
“Finland has every opportunity to produce more of these great technologies that benefit the society. The business potential of drone technology is huge, and it is already opening up new markets and accelerating the development of innovative solutions in different sectors”, says Honkavaara.
In the autumn of 2025, drone research and innovation will be on display in Espoo, when the international UAV-g (Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles in Geomatics) event will be held for the first time in Finland.
Further information
Research Professor Eija Honkavaara, +358 29 531 4716, firstname.lastname@nls.fi
Eija Honkavaara is an internationally renowned researcher who has led the photogrammetry research at the Finnish Geospatial Institute since 2004. She is a pioneer in drone hyperspectral imaging, which can be used to accurately analyse the properties of various substances based on remote sensing. In addition to her day job, Honkavaara has a position of trust in ISPRS, an international remote sensing organisation, and in EuroSDR, a research network in the spatial data sector.
Watch the video about training drones to fight forest fires (in Finnish)