**Evaluate this session. **
While popular media highlights the controversy around unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) in public airspace, the drive to establish commercial uses for drone technology has captured the public's imagination and is proceeding at a rapid pace. Transmission and distribution (T&D) operators and utilities across the globe are beginning to look toward UAVs to reduce costs, improve safety and increase reliability and response times across their systems. These new utility solutions include both drone and robotics technologies for transmission and distribution (DRTD).